Presidential Address — Canine Connections: Dogs and People in Precolonial Southern Africa
By:
Prof. Peter Mitchell
Date:
Tue, 08/04/2025 - 18:00
Venue:
SA Astronomical Observatory auditorium
Branch:
Western Cape
Canine Connections: Dogs and People in Precolonial Southern Africa
Date: Tuesday, 8 April 2025
Time: 18:00 for 18:30, following the National and Western Cape Branch Annual General Meetings
Venue: South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) Auditorium, Observatory
Cost: Free for members, R40 for nonmembers, R25 for student nonmembers
Speaker: Prof. Peter Mitchell, President of the South African Archaeological Society
ABSTRACT
Dogs were the first domesticated animal and they have found multiple roles in human societies across the world. However, most discussion of this remains focused in the Global North. This talk briefly reviews current knowledge of their origins and of the timing of their arrival in southern Africa, noting the constraints that disease may have had on the spread through the tropics of a northern hemisphere-descended species. Making extensive use of historical and anthropological sources, it then explores some of the ways in which dogs have lived with people in our region since the mid-first millennium AD. Topics considered include their contributions as hunters and protectors of livestock, but also people’s attitudes towards dogs in the social, mythological, and ritual spheres. It also highlights some of the challenges and potentials of developing an archaeology of southern African dogs, including their identification in the archaeological record, tracing canine biographies, and exploring canine diets. It concludes by posing questions for future research, among them the possible ecological impacts of dogs once introduced and their role in the European colonisation of southern Africa.
BIO
Prof. Peter Mitchell studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge (1980–1983) and then moved to Oxford, where his doctorate on the significance and wider context of the Robberg Industry at Sehonghong, Lesotho, was supervised by Ray Inskeep. He visited Lesotho for the first time in 1985, returning in 1988 to excavate at Tloutle, only a few kilometres from the NUL campus, and then along the Phuthiatsana River as a British Academy post-doctoral research fellow. A temporary lectureship (1990) and a post-doctoral research fellowship (1992–1993) at the University of Cape Town allowed him to conduct further fieldwork, notably at Sehonghong, followed by two further seasons at the nearby site of Likoaeng later in the 1990s. Peter returned to Britain in 1993, teaching first at the University of Wales and, since 1995, at the University of Oxford, where he is Professor of African Archaeology and Tutor and Fellow in Archaeology at St Hugh’s College. He combines these positions with being a Research Associate of the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) at the University of the Witwatersrand. Peter has continued to maintain an active interest in Lesotho’s archaeology, supervising several doctoral, masters, and honours theses relating to it and acting as senior heritage consultant during the building of the Metolong Dam (2008–2012). He was President of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) from 2004 to 2006, served for two decades on the Governing Council of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, and has been co-editor of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa since 2009. Peter’s books include African Connections: Archaeological Perspectives on Africa and the Wider World (AltaMira Press, 2005), The First Africans (CUP, 2008, co-authored with Larry Barham), and Horse Nations: The Worldwide Impact of the Horse on Indigenous Societies Post-1492 (OUP, 2015). The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology (OUP, 2013, co-edited with Paul Lane) and African Islands: A Comparative Archaeology (Routledge, 2022) were both awarded the SAfA Book Prize. A second edition of The Archaeology of Southern Africa was published by Cambridge University Press in June 2024. Peter is the President of the SA ArchSoc for the period 2024 to 2026.
BIO
Prof. Peter Mitchell studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge (1980–1983) and then moved to Oxford, where his doctorate on the significance and wider context of the Robberg Industry at Sehonghong, Lesotho, was supervised by Ray Inskeep. He visited Lesotho for the first time in 1985, returning in 1988 to excavate at Tloutle, only a few kilometres from the NUL campus, and then along the Phuthiatsana River as a British Academy post-doctoral research fellow. A temporary lectureship (1990) and a post-doctoral research fellowship (1992–1993) at the University of Cape Town allowed him to conduct further fieldwork, notably at Sehonghong, followed by two further seasons at the nearby site of Likoaeng later in the 1990s. Peter returned to Britain in 1993, teaching first at the University of Wales and, since 1995, at the University of Oxford, where he is Professor of African Archaeology and Tutor and Fellow in Archaeology at St Hugh’s College. He combines these positions with being a Research Associate of the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) at the University of the Witwatersrand. Peter has continued to maintain an active interest in Lesotho’s archaeology, supervising several doctoral, masters, and honours theses relating to it and acting as senior heritage consultant during the building of the Metolong Dam (2008–2012). He was President of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) from 2004 to 2006, served for two decades on the Governing Council of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, and has been co-editor of Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa since 2009. Peter’s books include African Connections: Archaeological Perspectives on Africa and the Wider World (AltaMira Press, 2005), The First Africans (CUP, 2008, co-authored with Larry Barham), and Horse Nations: The Worldwide Impact of the Horse on Indigenous Societies Post-1492 (OUP, 2015). The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology (OUP, 2013, co-edited with Paul Lane) and African Islands: A Comparative Archaeology (Routledge, 2022) were both awarded the SAfA Book Prize. A second edition of The Archaeology of Southern Africa was published by Cambridge University Press in June 2024. Peter is the President of the SA ArchSoc for the period 2024 to 2026.