Browsing by Subject "Botswana"
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Item The beads of Bosutswe, Botswana(2010-05) DuBroc, Beau Richard; Denbow, James R. (James Raymond), 1946-; Rodriguez-Alegria, Enrique R.The hilltop archaeological site, Bosutswe in Botswana had a nearly a thousand years of continuous occupation. Nearly every single strata in both precincts produced shell beads of various materials and origin. By using travelogue sources as well as more recent enthnographical sources, I focus on the possible uses and importance of beads to the people of Bosutswe and the wider southern African region. Using the excavated beads as evidence, I show how certain varieties of beads made their way to the site by way of trade routes with distant riverine areas. Also, I compare my findings with arguments claiming that different groups preferred different sizes beads; therefore, one can determine a site’s ethnic makeup by this measurement alone.Item Explicitly linking field- and satellite- derived measurements for improved vegetation quantification and disturbance detection(2014-12) Christiansen, Thomas Brandt; Crews, Kelley A.; Miller, Jennifer A; Young, Kenneth RArid and semi-arid ecosystems have been recognized as critical in supporting over one-third of the world's populations, notably those more dependent on the natural resource base for their livelihoods. These systems, and especially savannas within them, are highly vulnerable to predicted fluctuations in climatic change, disturbances, and management regimes. This research posits these areas in a social-ecological system (SES) framework that encompasses human, governance, and recourse units. A challenge in both SES and CHANS (coupled human and natural systems) research is how to explicitly and empirically link the social and the ecological, and further how to extrapolate from sets of case studies to the greater region, supra-system, or SES / CHANS theory and practice. This work leverages Landsat and IKONOS imagery as well as field-based vegetation sampling (structure and species) through the use of IDL (interactive data language) visualizations, both pixel- and object-based classifications, and CART (classification and regression tree) analysis. The longer term goal of this work is to produce a protocol and classification scheme modified from the 1976 Anderson scheme to include both structure and disturbance explicitly in processing, mapping, monitoring, and management. In creating SVCs (Structural Vegetation Categories) built from field data there is strong potential for extracting 3-D data from 2-D imagery once the protocol produces robust results with high enough accuracies. As hypothesized, the object-based classifications produced higher overall accuracy (70.83%), though the pixel-based classification performed better in the detection of woodlands (90.91%). Given the spatial scales of the imagery as compared to the size of the field plots and transect spacing, it is important to remember that when extrapolating to other areas a critical part of spatial scale is extent (not just grain). That is, the inherent clumping of trees versus shrubs may be driving the better performance of pixel-based for woodlands but not so for shrublands. Sensitivity to placement of plots and especially plot sizes across future sites will help explore this question and move SES research into a realm whereby remote sensing and vegetation sampling can provide improved empirical linkages among the subsystems and their feedbacks.Item Regional dynamics and local dialectics in Iron Age Botswana : case studies from the hinterland in the Bosutswe Region(2013-08) Klehm, Carla Elizabeth; Denbow, James R. (James Raymond), 1946-Since the 1980's, few have included sub-Saharan African in worldwide comparative discussion of complex societies. This exclusion is at the expense of challenging embedded notions of the development of complexity. The trading polity Bosutswe (700-1700 AD) at the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and its surrounding region provide a perfect example of why this is important. In the Bosutswe region, complexity was not be driven by external factors, elites, or the core, but arose from local actors and out of localized contexts. During its occupation, Bosutswe became increasingly involved with long-distance trade in the Indian Ocean exchange network, linking trade from the African coast to the interior. At Bosutswe, glass beads associated with long-distance trade and local ostrich eggshell beads attest to a strong local economy supported by cattle herding, subsistence farming, and iron and bronze manufacture. This trade with Bosutswe peaked from 1200-1450 AD, when social stratification at Bosutswe became spatially and materially evident. This dissertation focuses on Bosutswe's trajectory through the point of view of two nearby settlements, Khubu la Dintša (1220-1420 AD) and Mmadipudi Hill (~550-1200 AD), to reconstruct the local economy and landscape. Expanding the concept of the polity to one situated in a landscape of human and environmental interchange provides a key comparative insight to other studies of complex societies and variable trajectories of societal development. The Bosutswe landscape and by extension Iron Age southern Africa can be conceptualized as a patchwork of landmark hilltop polity centers on a scrub desert landscape of agropastoral activity surrounded by smaller hilltop and ground sites. The local dynamic may have involved strategies by Bosutswe to mitigate environmental characteristics of low rainfall, opportunistic hunting and herding opportunities for the surrounding communities, and alliances between these communities for security in a politically unstable era. Everyday life would have involved issues about land use, as over time herders and farmers exhausted pastures, soil fertility, and firewood. Treating these early polities as landscapes of human, animal, and environmental relationships will help revise the way early complex societies are conceptualized: not as individual sites, but as local landscapes of power.Item Tourism development, rural livelihoods, and conservation in the Okavango Delta, Botswana(2009-05-15) Mbaiwa, Joseph ElizeriThis study analyzed changes in livelihoods before and after tourism development at Khwai, Mababe and Sankoyo villages in the Okavango Delta. Specifically, it analyzed how people interacted with species like giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) and thatching grass (Cymbopogon excavatus) before and after tourism development. This analysis was expected to measure the effectiveness of tourism development as a tool to improve livelihoods and conservation. The concept of social capital, sustainable livelihoods framework and the Community- Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) paradigm informed the study. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered through field-based research, using tools of participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and key informant interviews. Results indicate that local customs and institutions at Khwai, Mababe and Sankoyo ensured the conservation of resources in pre-colonial Botswana. However, British colonial rule (1885-1966) affected traditional institutions of resource use hence the beginning of resource decline. The British colonial rule and the first 15-20 years after Botswana?s independence from British rule saw an increase in resource degradation. Results also indicate that since CBNRM began in the 1990s, tourism development has positive and negative effects on rural livelihoods. On the positive side, tourism development in some ways is achieving its goals of improved livelihoods and conservation. Residents? attitudes towards tourism development and conservation have also become positive compared to a decade ago when these communities were not involved in tourism development. On the negative side, tourism is emerging as the single livelihood option causing either a decline or abandonment of traditional options like hunting and gathering and agricultural production. Reliance on tourism alone as a livelihood option is risky in the event of a global social, economic and political instability especially in countries where most tourists that visit the Okavango originate or in Botswana itself. There is need, therefore, for communities to diversify into domestic tourism and small-scale enterprises. On the overall, tourism development through CBNRM indicates that it is a viable tool to achieve improved livelihoods and conservation in the Okavango Delta.