Soapstone birds in soapstone nests: ethnohistorical interpretation of the Zimbabwe birds based on sixteenth- to nineteenth-century Portuguese documents

Gai Roufe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In recent years, southern African archaeological and historical studies have been experiencing a fruitful process of re-engagement, following decades in which the two disciplines appeared to be moving further and further apart. This paper aims to contribute to and reignite one of the fiercest and most fascinating debates conducted between historians and archaeologists of southern Africa in the last four decades concerning the meaning and functions of Great Zimbabwe. In the spirit of recent interdisciplinary endeavours, it proposes a new hypothesis about the cultural meaning and functions of the most notable artefacts found at Great Zimbabwe, the soapstone birds, by consulting a sizable but under-used corpus of written historical sources, namely published and archival Portuguese documents concerning the political and religious systems of the Mocaranga from the beginning of the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)178-196
Number of pages19
JournalAzania
Volume51
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Apr 2016

Keywords

  • Great Zimbabwe
  • Mocaranga
  • Monomotapa
  • soapstone birds

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Archaeology
  • Archaeology

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