476 



NATURE 



[September 7, 1905 



Speaking generally, the direction of etiinic migration in 

 South Africa has been southerly in the south-east : the sea 

 blocked an eastern expansion and the Drakensberg a 

 western ; only the Matabele went westward of this range 

 to the north. In the central district the Bahurutse or 

 Bechuana parent stock dispersed in various directions ; most 

 of the movements were towards the north, but the Mantati 

 and Basuto went south-east. In the west the Cape 

 Hottentots always retreated from the colonists towards 

 the north ; the Bastards and other tribes followed the same 

 direction, the causes, as Barthel points out, being obvious : 

 to the east is the Kalahari, on the west is the sea, from 

 the south came the pressure of the Boers. Finally, right 

 across South Africa we have, from west to east, the 

 Koranna, Griqua, and Boer wanderings in the south ; and 

 in the north, from east to west, the wanderings of the 

 Hottentots, Ovaherero, and of the Boer emigrants from 

 the Transvaal. 



South Africa has thus been a whirlpool of moving 

 humanity. In this brief summary I have been able to 

 indicate only the main streams of movement : there have 

 been innumerable cross-currents which add complexity to 

 this bewildering history, and much patient work is 

 necessary before all these complications can be unravelled 

 and their meaning explained. 



When one takes a bird's-eye view of the ethnology of 

 South Africa, certain main sociological facts loom out 

 amongst all the wealth of varied detail. 



The earliest inhabitants of whom we have any definite 

 information were the dwarf Bushmen, who undoubtedly re- 

 present a primitive variety of mankind. In a land abound- 

 ing with game they devoted themselves entirely to the 

 chase, supplementing their diet with fruit and roots. 

 This mode of life necessitates nomadic habits, the absence 

 of property entails the impossibility of gaining wealth, 

 and thereby relieving part of the population from the daily 

 need of procuring food ; this absence of leisure precludes 

 the elaboration of the arts of life. A common effect of 

 the nomadic hunting life is the breaking-up of the com- 

 munity into small groups ; the boys can soon catch their 

 own game, hence individualism triumphs and parental 

 authority is apt to be limited. Social control is likely 

 to be feeble unless the religious sentiment is developed, 

 and certainly social organisation will be very weak. In 

 an open country abounding with game the case is some- 

 what different, and there is reason to believe that in early 

 days the Bushmen were divided into a number of large 

 tribes, occupying tolerably well-defined tracts of country, 

 each being under the jurisdiction of a paramount chief. 

 The tribes were subdivided into groups under captains. 

 They showed great attachment and loyalty to their chiefs, 

 and exhibited a passionate love for their country. For 

 hundreds of years these poor people have been harried 

 and their hunting grounds taken away from them, and 

 hence we must not judge the race by the m.^^rable 

 anarchic remnant that still persists in waste place. 

 Nomad hunters do not progress far in civilisation by their 

 own efforts, nor are they readily amenable to er.forced 

 processes of civilisation. Invariably they are pushed on 

 one side or exterminated by peoples higher in the social 

 scale. 



When the written history of South Africa begins we find 

 the Bushmen already being encroached upon by tbe Hotten- 

 tots, who themselves sprang from a very early cross of 

 Bantu with Bushmen. Culturally, as well as physically, 

 they may be regarded as a blend of these two stocks. 

 They combined the cattle-rearing habits of the Bantu with 

 the aversion from tillage of the soil characteristic of the 

 hunter ; they became nomadic herders, who were stronger 

 than the Bushmen, but who themselves could not with- 

 stand the Bantu when they came in contact with them, 

 and they too were driven to less favourable lands and 

 became enslaved by the invaders. All gradations of mix- 

 ture took place until lusty uncontaminated Bantu folk 

 forced their way into the most desirable districts. Still 

 less could the Hottentots prevail against the colonists ; 

 their improvidence was increased by alcohol, and their 

 indifference to the possession of land, due to their inherent 

 love of wandering, completed their ruin. 



The Bantu were cattle-rearers who practised agriculture. 

 NO. 1 87 I, VOL. 72] 



The former industry probably was transmitted from their 

 Hamitic forefathers, who were herdsmen on the grassy 

 uplands of north-eastern Africa, while the latter aptitude 

 was probably due in part to their Negro ancestry. This 

 duality of occupation led to variability in mode of life. 

 In some places the land invited the population towards 

 husbandry, in others the physical conditions were more 

 suited to a pastoral life, and thus we find the settled 

 Baronga on the one hand and the wandering Ovaherero 

 on the other. The Bantu peoples easily adopt changes of 

 custom ; under the leadership of a warlike chief they 

 become warlike and cruel, a common characteristic of 

 pastoral peoples, while it is recorded that many of the 

 Matabele, taken prisoners by the Barotse, settled down 

 peacefully to agriculture. The history of the prolific Bantu 

 peoples on the whole indicates that they were as loosely 

 attached to the soil as were the Ancient Germans, and 

 like the latter, at the slightest provocation, they would 

 abandon their country and seek another home. This 

 readiness to migrate is the direct effect of a pastoral life, 

 and along with this legacy of unrest their Hamitic 

 ancestors transmitted a social organisation which lent 

 itself to discipline. These were the materials, so to 

 speak, ready to hand when organisers should appear. Nor 

 have such been lacking, for such names as Dingiswayo, 

 Chaka, Dingan, Moselekatze, Lobengula, Moshesh, 

 Sebituane, Cetewayo, and others are writ large in the 

 annals of South Africa ; and the statesman Khama is an 

 example of what civilisation can do to direct this executive 

 ability into proper channels. 



Archaeology. 



The archseology of South Africa is now attracting con- 

 siderable local interest, and we may confidently expect that 

 new discoveries will soon enable us to gain some insight 

 into the dense obscurity of the past. It cannot be too 

 strongly insisted upon that the methods of the archseologist 

 should be primarily those of the geologist. Accurate 

 mapping of deposits or localisation of finds is absolutely 

 necessary. The workmanship of an implement is of little 

 evidential value : the material of which it is made may 

 be refractory, the skill of the maker may be imperfect, 

 or he may be satisfied with producing an implement just 

 sufficient for his immediate need ; and there is always a 

 chance that any implement may be simply a reject. The 

 early generalisation of implements in England into two 

 groups, PaUeolithic and Neolithic, expressed a fact of 

 prime importance, but now the classification has extended. 

 It is obvious that the shapely palajoliths of the older 

 gravels could not have been the first attempts at imple- 

 ment-making by our forefathers, and the presumed hiatus 

 between the two epochs has been bridged over by evidence 

 from sites on the European mainland. Our knowledge 

 is increasing apace and an orderly sequence is emerging, 

 but there are many interesting variations, and even 

 apparent setbacks, in the evolution of industrial or artistic 

 skill. In a word, sequence and technique must not be 

 confounded, and our first business should be to establish 

 the former on a firm basis ; but, as I have just remarked, 

 this can be accomplished only by adhering rigidly to the 

 stratigraphical methods of the geologist. It would prob- 

 ably be to the interest of South African archaeology if the 

 terms " Eolithic," "Palaeolithic," and "Neolithic" were 

 dropped, at all events for the present, and it might prove 

 advantageous if provisional terms were employed, which 

 could later on be either ratified or abandoned, as the 

 consensus of local archaiological opinion should decide. 



In certain lands of the Old World, north of the Equator, 

 there was a progressive evolution from the Stone Ages, 

 through a copper and a bronze age, to that of iron ; "but 

 the stone-workers of South Africa appear to have been 

 introduced to iron-smelting without having passed through 

 the earlier metal phases, since the occurrence of copper 

 implements is too limited to warrant the belief that it 

 represents a definite phase of culture. The similarity of 

 the processes employed in working iron by the different 

 tribes of Africa, south of the equator, indicates that the 

 culture was introduced from without, a conclusion which 

 is supported by the universal use of the double bellows — 

 a similar instrument is in use in India and in the East 

 Indian Archipelago. Some ethnologists hold that Africa 



