Abstract
This chapter explores the consequences of thinking archaeologically about outlaws and disorder for Africa and the wider world. King argues that the need to understand how objects and landscapes underpin historical narratives should lead archaeologists to new methodologies for working with archives, and to consider where oral histories of political change intersect with architectural change. The chapter also describes how looking for rule-breakers in the past can help nuance understandings of African political complexity. King further illustrates how more detailed studies of transhumance can illuminate new perspectives on landscape use in southern Africa. The chapter closes by observing where histories of disorder can impact access to benefits from development projects, and discussing the ramifications of this for the field of heritage studies.
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Notes
- 1.
I was fortunate to have been invited to attend a workshop on this topic during the revision period for this book, which greatly clarified my thinking on the subject of the home and domesticity. I thank all participants for their insightful comments on the matter, Marianne Hem Erikson for organising, and Kevin Kay, who articulates this particular idea especially well in his forthcoming doctoral thesis (University of Cambridge).
- 2.
Final Narrative Report, Project LSO-01118 ‘Inventorying of intangible cultural heritage elements in Thaba-Bosiu, Lesotho’, received 9 February 2018. Available at https://ich.unesco.org/en/assistances/inventorying-of-intangible-cultural-heritage-elements-in-thaba-bosiu-in-lesotho-01118, accessed 9 October 2018.
- 3.
Lesotho National Archives, Tourism Sports & Culture 7/4–5, ‘Remarks, by M. Damane on the feasibility study of Thaba Bosiu Project’, 4 September 1991; ‘National seminar on the preservation and presentation of Thaba-Bosiu and the Lesotho Cultural Heritage’ encl. in United Nations Development Programme Office of the Resident Representative to L.T. Tuoane, 25 March 1991.
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King, R. (2019). Conclusion. In: Outlaws, Anxiety, and Disorder in Southern Africa. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18412-4_8
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