Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 249
establish how important those places were for the sense of identity and belonging, and also in
terms of local group formation. In the context of that, it was not only the ritual management
of the territorial aspect which was key, but also the spiritual and gender aspect of human
reproduction linked to femininity and water. We further addressed the importance of the
sequential ritual order in which a lineage priest had to first carry out sacrifices of his own
house as a place of worship before he could serve the lineage shrine of the local group.
In the next chapter we will introduce our reader to the basics of how the Dghweɗe interacted,
not only ritually, but also physically in terms of the social division of labour as part of their
agricultural system. We will learn about the structure of a traditional farm layout, and social
arrangements of working the land in practice. Thus we will be confronted with many lists
about soils, trees and other assets of the Dghweɗe subsistence economy, to reconstruct a
vision of a possible late pre-colonial past. We will see the importance of technological
change, when for example we describe the transformation of their bi-annual calendar resulting
from the introduction of chemical fertiliser.
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