Hum Core | Spring 2012 | Unit 2

Societies in Conflict

Humans, the Natural World and the Shifting Boundaries Between Them

Lecture 7. Traces in the Landscape

Learning Objectives

Emphasis on historical thinking skills

Specific learning objectives listed in week 4 study questions

Introduction to the geographical and cultural landscape of South Africa

Historians’ emphasis on time-place specificity and contingency

3 goals for today’s lecture

Establish a working definition of history

Outline major strands in South African history

Introduce the principal historical actors (agents of change) relevant for our story

Chronology and History Compared

First reading assignment for this unit: a chronology—a list of dates and events

Does this list make sense to you?
When you opened the reader and turned to the assigned page, did you

Read the list?

Skim the list?

Skip it and turn to the next reading?

What is the most important date on this list?

How would you know?

History: making meaning from the past

Situating South Africa: the place itself as historical evidence

Geography

Climate

Flora and Fauna

Peopling Southern Africa—and examining the records they left behind

Problematizing “Bushmen”

Complicating colonial categories

The inescapable lens of Apartheid

Early Colonial Encounters

Portuguese exploration

VOC refreshment station

Asian/Indian Ocean slaves

European immigration

When does South African history start?

History at local, national, and global scales