@article{Mazel_2021, title={People making history: the last ten thousand years of hunter-gatherer communities in the Thukela Basin}, volume={1}, url={https://www.sahumanities.org/index.php/sah/article/view/198}, abstractNote={<p>The primary aim of this paper is to document and explain the 10000 BP - AD 1800 history of the Thukela Basin hunter-gatherers. The primary information for this study comes from my excavation, between 1981 and 1984, of eight rock shelters in the upper Thukela catchment.</p> <p>My aims and theoretical orientation have altered substantially since the project’s inception. They have changed from being concerned primarily with ecological phenomena to the reconstruction of a regional social history. As part of this redefinition I have developed a critique of South African Later Stone Age (LSA) studies from the early 1960s, arguing that the predominant ecological approaches of this period are inadequate in dealing with past human societies.</p> <p>My reason for adopting a socially orientated historical approach concern the social relevance of archaeology, and the need to generate the best possible insight into past societies. I submit that historical materialism offers a very valuable framework for social historical analysis. The theoretical and methodological propositions germane to this study are presented.</p> <p>I then concentrate specifically on Thukela Basin hunter-gatherer history. The periods dating to before and after 2000 BP are dealt with separately because of the arrival of farmers in the Thukela Basin  AD500</p>}, journal={Southern African Humanities}, author={Mazel, A. D.}, year={2021}, month={Feb.}, pages={1–168} }