Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- PART I TO DRESS: BACKGROUND AND PERSPECTIVES
- PART II DRESSED IN SOCIAL STRUCTURE: THE BUSHMAN DRESS OF DOROTHEA BLEEK
- Chapter 3 Field Notes and Diaries, 1911 and 1913
- Chapter 4 The South West Africa Expeditions, 1920–1921 and 1921–1922
- PART III DRESSED IN GROUP RELATIONS: THE BUSHMAN DRESS OF LOUIS FOURIE
- PART IV DRESSED AS TOLD: INTERPRETING DRESS PRACTICES FROM/XAM BUSHMAN NARRATIVES
- Conclusion: A World of Dress
- Appendix 1 Note on Nomenclature
- Appendix 2 Map of Southern Africa
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 3 - Field Notes and Diaries, 1911 and 1913
from PART II - DRESSED IN SOCIAL STRUCTURE: THE BUSHMAN DRESS OF DOROTHEA BLEEK
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 May 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- PART I TO DRESS: BACKGROUND AND PERSPECTIVES
- PART II DRESSED IN SOCIAL STRUCTURE: THE BUSHMAN DRESS OF DOROTHEA BLEEK
- Chapter 3 Field Notes and Diaries, 1911 and 1913
- Chapter 4 The South West Africa Expeditions, 1920–1921 and 1921–1922
- PART III DRESSED IN GROUP RELATIONS: THE BUSHMAN DRESS OF LOUIS FOURIE
- PART IV DRESSED AS TOLD: INTERPRETING DRESS PRACTICES FROM/XAM BUSHMAN NARRATIVES
- Conclusion: A World of Dress
- Appendix 1 Note on Nomenclature
- Appendix 2 Map of Southern Africa
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Words and sentences
Dorothea Bleek had a very systematic and comparative approach in her attempt to record as much as she could from as many Bushman languages as possible (see Weintroub 2010, 130). This is evident in her main work, A Bushman Dictionary, finally published in 1956, almost ten years after her death. The dictionary combines the work of her father and aunt before her with her own contributions from more than 30 years of fieldwork. Her comparative approach is, however, quite clear even from her first notes taken in 1910 and 1911.
Most of these notes are extensive lists of words and sentences, and often the same words and phrases recur time and again. Her efforts to implement a systematic process of recording amongst different people in different places are illustrated in book BC151.A3.005, pages 372– 382. For example, on page 382 she presents a table of words in English, colonial /Xam, Langeberg and southern Kalahari //n, /auni, Katia and !kun in columns next to each other. Some of these words, noted down and repeated throughout the different notebooks, are related to dress, ornamentation and clothing (figure II.12).
Many of the lists of words seem to have been taken down as Bleek and her informants pointed to different things in their immediate surroundings. The words are always written in the relevant Bushman language with the English translation next to them or immediately underneath. I do not reproduce the Bushman words for each example given as my ignorance of these languages would most probably result in an endless number of errors. Lists like the following one, from the very first notebook taken down among Langeberg Bushmen at the Mount Temple Farm in September 1910, are typical, particularly of places where Bleek was still not familiar with the language.
Petticoat
needle
front apron
waist band
bracelet
necklace
leglets
veldschoen
cap (BC151.A3.001, 8)
In another example, taken down a week later, with slightly different spellings in the Bushman //n language, the word for ‘petticoat’ is now translated as ‘back kaross’.
apron
back kaross
rings bracelets
leglets (BC151.A3.001, 32)
Dorothea was evidently making sure that she had got it right, or was eager to correct her first recording of the words.
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- Information
- Dress as Social RelationsAn Interpretation of Bushman Dress, pp. 44 - 60Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2018