Later Stone Age Burial Variability in the Cape: A Social Interpretation

Abstract

Burial complexes from mid- to late Holocene Later Stone Age occupations atKlasiesRiverMouth Cave Sand Welgeluk Shelterare described and analysed. The data indicate thatthe expected relationship between increasing age, status and grave good 'wealth'does not always hold and some inversion of this expectation is visible in that the very young and juveniles received more ritual elaboration of burials than olderpeople. In addition, the greater degree of ritual elaboration in the Klasies burials is interpreted as an explicit social display during a period of stress brought about through higher population densities and the consequent strain this placed upon inter-group relationships. The less elaborate Welgeluk burials reflect lower population densities within the more maiginal eastern Cape environment. The social institution of hxaro provides the ethnographic basis for these interpretations.

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