Discontinuity Between Political Power and Religious Status: Mountains, Pools, and Dry Ones Among Venda-Speaking Chiefdoms of Southern Africa

Like most traditionalists worldwide, traditional Venda-speaking people of southern Africa make a distinction, albeit not a rigid one, between mundane linear time and sacred cyclical time (cf. Eliade 1959). Whereas their recognition of linear time is crucial for the successful completion of everyday tasks, such as metal smelting or preparing food, their notions about cyclical time come to the forefront when recounting oral traditions or during ritual performances, public or private (though this does not negate the fact that technical tasks are accompanied by ritualized behaviors or that ritual ceremonies often involve matters of technological nature). Recognition of linear time allows traditionalists to acknowledge the existence of a more distant past (Figure 11.1a).