Podcast/Interview with Marie-Lais Emond on the stone circles on Melville Kopjies, Johannesburg
Robert Thornton,
Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand
This is a podcast/radio interview that I did with Marie-Lais
Emond, for a programme called “A place called Melville” on the South African
community radio station Radio Today, 1485 AM.
I talk
about my developing interpretation of these sites as ‘sacred sites’ and ritual
places, that are probably more or less identical to the stone-demarcated ritual
and sacred spaces that are used by the African Indigenous/Independent Churches
(AICs ) as they are sometimes known, or African syncretic Christain sects. These groups meet all over Johannesburg in
parkland wetlands, and ‘wilderness’ areas, dressed in white, blue, & green
ritual clothing.
The
interpretation I am offering here is similar to the transformation that David
Lewis-Williams created in the field of rock art by seeing it as ritual spaces
connected with what he calls ‘shamanic’ healing rituals of the San. I am interpreting the archaeological
landscape—what amounts to rock ‘landscape art’—in a similar way.
It is nice
to reach a more popular audience, and I am grateful to the interviewer,
Marie-Lais Emond, and her team for giving me the opportunity to speak in this
forum.
If you
happen to read this, please feel free to comment: Robert.thornton@wits.ac.za
The program can be found as follows:
A Place
called Melville – 27 January 2014 Guests Robert Thornton
From the Website (above):
The stone circle on the Melville
Koppies has the mystery and misinterpretations cleared up by anthropologist
Robert Thornton.
…
Presented by Alastair Graham and
Marie-Lais Emond
Photo: Walking in the ruins of a lost world in Melville
Koppies
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