Beasts, banknotes and the colour of money in colonial South Africa

Archaeological Dialogues

Volumn 12, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 107-132

  Comaroff, Jean ^a   Comaroff, John L ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Colonialism; Commensuration; Commodification; Currencies; Money; South Africa

Indexed keywords

COLONIALISM; COMMODITY; CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY; CURRENCY;

AFRICA; SOUTH AFRICA; SOUTHERN AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 33645285856     PISSN: 13802038     EISSN: 14782294     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1380203806211863     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. What seems significant in the use of the coin, jewel, bead or shell as personal adornment is that it be regarded as intrinsically valuable; not, like notes or credit cards, as a token of value that resides elsewhere. Yet the distinction between 'real' worth and its representation is often hard to sustain.
2. Earlier discrepancies - and the fact that they could mass produce trinket cash - had, of course, been advantageous to the Europeans. In 1802 LMS clergy in the eastern Cape actually contemplated setting up a button factory to assist their purchase of things like stock (Beck 1989, 214).
3. Mrs Hamilton, New Lattakoo, 16 February 1818 (CWM, LMS Incoming Letters (South Africa), 7-3-A).
4. There is evidence from elsewhere in South Africa that some African traders sold stock in order to use the cash they received to buy more at lower prices (Beck 1989, 214; Peires 1981, 100).
5. J. Mackenzie, Kuruman, 17 February 1882, Report for 1881 (CWM, LMS South Africa Reports, 2-1).
6. J. Mackenzie, Kuruman, 17 February 1882, Report for 1881 (CWM, LMS South Africa Reports, 2-1)
7. R. Price, Kuruman, 29 April 1885 (CWM, LMS Incoming Letters (South Africa), 43-1-B)
8. Mackenzie (1871, 521; 1975, 42f)
9. Wookey (1884, 304f).
10. J. Mackenzie, Kuruman, Report for 1881 (CWM, LMS South Africa Reports, 2-1).
11. Mackenzie (1887, i, 234f)
12. cf. W. Ashton, Barkly West, 26 January 1887 (CWM, LMS Incoming Letters (South Africa), 44-5-A).
13. W.C. Willoughby, Palapye, 21 April 1896 (CWM, LMS Incoming Letters (South Africa), 53-1-D).
14. J. Brown, Taung, Report for 1896 (CWM, LMS South Africa Reports, 2-4)
15. cf. Cape of Good Hope (1897, 71f).
16. H. Williams, Kanye, Report for 1908 (CWM, LMS South Africa Reports, 4-2).
17. In fact the very poor had little or no stock, or any other assets. They depended on wage work, and whatever else came to hand, to eke out an existence for themselves and their families.
18. Ralinki's Speedy P98 000 Win, Gaming gazette 5 (8) (August 1995), 2.