THE ROLE OF RITUAL IN RESISTING DOMINATION IN THE TRANSKEI

Ritual and the public oratory accompanying ritual have played a vital role in allowing some Xhosa people to construct and maintain a conservative world view. It is largely through such conservatism that many rural Xhosa have been able to develop a spirit of resistance to full incorporation into the.wider political economy of which they are part. This was possible up to the early 1970s, after which Xhosa conservatism as a response to wider political and economic realities became less and less feasible. There are, of course, certain limitations and ambiguities in such a response to domination, and these are discussed. The paper also deals with the relationship between ritual change, on the one hand, and wider social and material changes, on the other. Thi