Memory, landscape and heritage at Ngquza Hill : an anthropological study

• Main Author: Muller, Liana
• Other Authors: Van Vuuren, C. J.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Mnemotechnics; Memory; Landscape; Mpondo; Ngquza; 304.20968758; Pondoland (South Africa) > History; Pondoland (South Africa) > Politics and government; Human ecology > South Africa > Pondoland; Social ecology > South Africa > Pondoland; Ethnology > Fieldwork > South Africa > Pondoland; Anthropology > South Africa > Pondoland > Methodology; Oral history > South Africa > Pondoland; Cultural property > South Africa > Pondoland; Mnemonics; Memory > Social aspects; Social psychology > South Africa > Pondoland > Methodology; Pondo (African people) > Social life and customs > South Africa > Pondoland; Pondo (African people) > History > South Africa > Pondoland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10500/2702

The main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between landscape, memory and heritage. It aims to establish that landscape is not only an inseparable part of the intangible process of memory, but also the formation and perpetuation of cultural and individual identity. The composition of heritage, including the sociocultural and biophysical, is therefore a complex result of varying interactions between memory and landscape, as perceived by the living custodians. The intangible values of meaning, memory, lived experience and attachment, in relation to people's connection to locality and landscape, are traced back to the tangible fabric of place. Through means of qualitative and quantitative anthropological fieldwork methods and an extensive literature review, the sociocultural profile of the Mpondo is briefly documented. The subsequent case study explored a site in the Eastern Cape on Ngquza Hill, where the oral traditions and memories connected to the site are mapped. These elements were accessed through employing the theories of mnemotechnics. === Anthropology and Archaeology === M.A. (Anthropology)