Xhosa Cattle Killing (5b)

Summary

My study of the Xhosa cattle-killing in South Africa brings out the essential theoretical orientation of our disciplines, and represents a synthesis of my work in three fields at Carleton College—history, anthropology, and religion.

The importance of this brief historical event lies in the conflict at all levels between a small pastoral society and the British empire—a world power in the throes of early industrialization.  Rather than carry out what would be a static, functional analysis of two societies—one industrial, one non-industrial—with no relationship to one another, I have chosen to examine, in its full historical context and ethnographic detail, the integration and conflict between two societies competing for the same resources.  As opposed to many Western sociological and historical works on South Africa, which examine the black population as minorities in white society, my perspective restores the cultural dimension to Xhosa life and thought as they reacted to the most profound crisis on the South African sub-continent.

The Xhosa-British conflict in the nineteenth century is an excellent example of conflict at all levels of society, from demography, technology, and economics to beliefs and values.  Even though I have chosen to examine the Xhosa religious reaction, an intellectual response to rapid social, economic, and demographic change, I find it necessary to consider in detail the material factors that gave rise to the intellectual dilemma.  The historical and ethnographic “narrative”—created along the lines of “thick description,” leads into a theoretical conclusion in which I discuss the implications of “material” and “ideal” perspectives in the social sciences, and argue for the integration of history and anthropology.