Societies in Conflict

Humans, the Natural World, and the Shifting Boundaries Between Them

Learning objectives for the unit

By the end of week 6, students should be able substantiate or refute the following claims by using specific empirical evidence drawn from the assigned reading.

• There are multiple ways for human societies to understand “nature.”
• The differentiation between humans and the natural world—and understandings of nature—are culturally constructed and historically specific.
• Western science is one among many ways of approaching/understanding nature, and not a universal truth.
• Contested ideas about nature—including appropriate uses of natural resources and definitions of human-nature connections—were a significant terrain of colonial interactions.

Students should also be able to describe how historians ask questions and gather evidence to construct answers.

Questions for Week 5: Colonial Visions of Nature

• Why did both Khoisan and settlers make claims to many of the same locations?
• Why were these sites of material importance to Khoisan? Why were they of cultural importance to Khoisan?
• Based on your reading of Lochner’s loan farm permit for Brakfontein, what factors were important in European claims to land?
• Who was the intended audience for
• Peter Kolb’s The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope?
• Anders Sparrman’s A Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope?
• Wilhelm Bleek’s “Scientific Reasons for the Study of the Bushman Language”?
• Kolb clearly conveys his opinions to his readers. What aspects of Khoikhoi culture does he admire? What elements does he criticize? Why would he go into such great detail about the ways in which Khoikhoi take care of their domesticated animals?
• Is there a difference in Kolb’s descriptions of Khoikhoi practices and those of colonists?
• How does Sparrman’s description of Khoisan differ from Kolb’s? What are the implications of Sparrman’s decision to focus on a different set of human interactions with the natural world?
• Why does Bleek think the study of Khoisan language is important?
• Relevant recent news stories: origins of language in Africa, NY Times; language change as historical evidence (and biology v. culture debate), LA Times
• What are the implications of whether European observers chose to focus on ethnography, or biology, or language, in their efforts to understand and portray Africa to European audiences?
• Why in the context of eighteenth-century colonial interactions was it difficult for settlers and Khoisan to see the commonalities in their understandings of nature? Why were the differences in their understanding of nature significant?