Imperceptible realities: an ethnoarchaeological perspective on the acquisition, ownership and management of cattle by women in southeastern Zimbabwe

Abstract

ABSTRACTCattle have always featured prominently in archaeological and historical studies of the Farming Communities of southern Africa. Research concerns have included their role in subsistence economies as well as their social and political importance. Cattle represented wealth and status that were usable as a springboard to political power by individuals with the ability to accumulate more herds than others. At the heart of all this discourse has been the tendency to associate and link cattle with men. This has led to the development of archaeological interpretive models where an intricate relationship is drawn between men, power and cattle. In many of these models, little consideration has been given as to how cattle herds may have been acquired, their ownership or the politics of their disposal. Based on recent ethnoarchaeological inquiries in eastern Zimbabwe, this paper questions the assumed dominance of men in the cattle world of the archaeological past. It is argued that women were active participants in the acquisition of cattle and in their ownership, all the way through to their disposal. While this may not be immediately visible in the archaeological record, there is a need for archaeologists also to associate women with cattle in the past.