Past and present colour symbolism among African hunter-gatherers.

I plan to investigate colour symbolism among African hunter-gatherers (AHGs), using the results to help interpret findings of my previous archaeological research on southern African pigment use before, during, and after our morphologically diagnosed speciation.

Having previously shown that earth pigments were primarily chosen for their saturated redness and/or sparkling brilliance, I am interested in discovering the part played by similar perceptual properties in the cosmological systems and rituals of AHGs whose voices can inform us today.

AHGs are distinguished by high levels of gender egalitarianism, including the coexistence of women’s rituals alongside those of men, often in ways which augment women’s solidarity and power.

One aim, therefore, will be to investigate the use of coloured substances in ritual performances and how this relates to broader cosmology and gender dynamics.

I will also undertake structuralist analysis of selected myths where similar percepts play a significant role (having access to a previously unpublished store of narratives which can be analyzed in these terms).

While attentive to ethnographic detail, I will go beyond mere description, drawing on current theoretical frameworks addressing either our emergence in Africa as a symbolic species or colour symbolism in myth and ritual, investigating whether any of them make sufficiently detailed predictions to test in the light of my findings.

I hope to publish my results in three peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Within the MSCA Work Programme, the project is relevant to the societal challenge of inclusive, innovative and reflective societies.

Modern human origins research attracts high levels of public interest, but has suffered from low levels of cultural sensitivity or self-awareness.

Bringing the insights of social anthropology to bear on our emergence in Africa as a symbolic species is intended to help remedy this.