Magister Artium - MA (Anthropology/Sociology)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10566/9286

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Browsing by Author "Ellis, William"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Exploring 'assemblages': A multispecies ethnography of the relationship between plants and people in the gardens and mountains of Klawer in the Matzikama municipal region, South Africa.
    (University of the Western Cape, 2016) Nathen, Tihana; Ellis, William
    The theme of this thesis is to illustrate a perspective of learning with plants and not simply about them. I posit a move towards a kind of 'plantthropology' (Myers, 2016). In Anthropology from the 1960's onwards there has been an increased interest towards multispecies ethnographies also referred to as the ontological turn. This perspective has also gained momentum in other disciplines such as Geography, Environmental Studies, Botany and Philosophy. As a result, inspired by the work of Bruno Latour on the Actor-network theory, I began this thesis by following the trail of medicinal plants through home gardens. My intention was, which is evident throughout this thesis, to explore multispecies relations from the perspective of the plants. The objective to learn with plants and the method of following the trail of medicinal plants led me to a variety of plant spaces such a gardens, onto porches, taxi ranks (where medicinal plants are traded), local nurseries and mountains.
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    Sensory flows of spice: a multisensory ethnography exploring how spice influences home cooks’ sense of belonging in Cape Town
    (Universty of the Western Cape, 2023) Deers, Rhoda; Ellis, William
    The history of Cape Town is entangled with the spice trade, slavery, colonialism and orientalism. The Cape cuisine narratives often romanticize fixed cultural cuisines, as seen with the "Cape Malay" cuisine, which is only acknowledged for its connection to a spicy Asian origin story and celebrated for its traditional, authentic, and well-balanced aromatic dishes. These exotic narratives of “Cape Malay” kitchens reflect the past segregation programs of colonialism and apartheid, as the home of Cape Malay remains fixed within the rows of colourful houses at the foot of Table Mountain in Bo-kaap previously known as the Malay quarters. This embellishment of a spicy orientalist narrative of Cape history continues to silence the realities of complex overlapping identities that are held in “coloured” bodies in post-apartheid South Africa. It is these fixed cuisine narratives that begin to unravel when spice is used as a narrator for the Cape. I draw on the works of Edward Said’s contrapuntal reading and offer a reading-back of Cape Cuisine to search for the complexities of social lives and lived experiences.
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    “The future face of education”: An ethnographic account of digitalisation and its impact on South Africa’s public schooling system
    (University of the Western Cape, 2023) Vermaak, Wendy Loreen; Ellis, William
    In recent decades, the insertion of digitalised schooling practices has been propagated as South Africa’s best solution to successfully address its crisis of education. As such, the digitalisation of the classroom, which is a dominant position held in education policy reform, is believed to be the ‘great equaliser’ of an educational landscape that is marred by an inheritance and persistence of an unequal level of access to resources as well as disparities faced in the quality education provided‒a circumstance that is highly detrimental to the country’s underprivileged communities. However, as these technical systems become embedded within socio-economic and political structures, with powerful actors staking their own vested interests in the expansionist project of digital media in schools across the globe, an important critique emerges in the reimagining of South Africa’s education system: what does this future schooling system look like and who, exactly, is it meant for?
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    Xhosa male circumcision at the crossroads: responses by government, traditional authorities and communities to circumcision related injuries and deaths in Eastern Cape Province
    (University of the Western Cape, 2008) Nqeketo, Ayanda; Kepe, Thembela; Ellis, William; Faculty of Arts
    The aim of this thesis is to conduct an ethnographic analysis of the traditional male circumcision intervention by government, through the Application of Health Standards in Traditional Circumcision Act, No 6 of 2001, of the Eastern Cape. More specifically, the thesis seeks to understand how different stakeholders respond to this intervention and what steps they take to indicate their responses.