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Statistics of struggling and failed mega projects testify that the impact of cultural complexities on mega project implementation over the years has become a talking point that needs a deeper understanding. This is pertinent with mega projects as strategic alliances exacerbate culture and national cultural differences which would require more harmonising to effect utmost success. The possibility of cultural disruptions in implementing Mega Construction Projects (MCPs) in South Africa using Medupi and Kusile coal plant projects as cases for this study was explored with the intention of enlightening project stakeholders in order to assist developing countries achieve their sustainable develop- ment objectives and overcome the challenges that hinder the successful development of MCPs. Based on the findings, the study results reveal that there are cultural disruptions that can be found in implementing mega construction projects, ignoring and mismanaging these cultural differences could lead to massive project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the Asian presence in South Africa through the work of Ronnie Govender. One of its concerns is how fictional worlds based on real-life experiences become a means to counter the discourses of apartheid that insisted upon the incommensurability of cultural difference as regards Asian and African communities. In this light, the paper references how a white hegemony sets about compromising an already fragile co-existence that existed between the Black, Coloured, and Asian communities and considers the body of Govender's work as a repository which aids future generations to connect with the traumatic nature of apartheid so as to reconnect with the era's lost possibilities. Throughout the analysis of Govender's texts, the Group Areas Act emerges as a silent actor that casts its shadow upon his writing. This paper notes how these Acts were detrimental to conviviality and shows how Govender creates textual cartographies that counter the surveilling and controlling of ethnic groups under apartheid. Regarding the Indian presence within South Africa, the paper presents how Govender adapts an Afro-centric position as regards the configuring of this identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the benefits of performative ethnography as a methodological intervention. The intervention discussed in this paper utilizes the persuasive power of aesthetics and performance to attain participation amongst a broad spectrum of research interlocutors and to challenge my own power and positionality in the fieldwork, whilst rendering me invisible as a participant observer. The performative ethnography discussed in this paper took place in the central business district (CBD) of Bellville, in the Cape Town area in South Africa, and consists of two performances, curated by the author, that took place at the same time. One is a painting performance through which Somali participants were invited to express their emotional experiences of living in Cape Town, and their memories, nostalgia and attachment to their land of origin. The painting performance revealed Somali diversity, multiple belongings and a politics of making cultural difference. The second performance was staged to overlap, in ways unanticipated by the participants, and consisted of a South African minstrel troupe walking through Bellville CBD, attaining a moment of conviviality through the unmaking of cultural difference. Beneath this methodological intervention is an exploration of the politics of difference and the conviviality of Bellville CBD's everyday multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I attempt a comparison between the sacred significance of fat and honey in the myths and rituals of the San peoples of southern Africa and the ancient Greeks. As Biesele (1993) and Lewis-Williams (2015) have convincingly demonstrated, the creation narratives of the diverse linguistic groups which constitute the /Xam (San) peoples of southern Africa, arguably the first peoples to call this country 'home', reveal strong links between the gathering and possession of animal fat and honey, and access to spiritual power. In ancient Greek mythology, as is well known from Callimachus and many later texts (e.g., Apollodorus and Nonnus), the infant Zeus was fed on honey by the bee-woman, Melissa. Many fundamental rites in ancient Greek religion, as reflected in texts from Homer onwards--libations, some sacrifices, ritual offerings such as the 'panspermia', and funerary rites--all provide evidence of the Greek belief in the spiritual potency of fat and honey. I thus analyse the similarities and differences between the significance of the fat-honey nexus in these two religious traditions and reflect on cross-cultural comparisons, their history, and their purpose in contemporary South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anthropology Southern Africa (2332-3256) is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The temporal focus hypothesis (TFH) proposes that whether the past or the future is conceptualized as being located in front depends on temporal focus: the balance of attention paid to the past (tradition) and the future (progress). How general is the TFH, and to what extent can cultures and subcultures be placed on a single line relating time spatialization and temporal focus in spite of stark differences in language, religion, history, and economic development? Data from 10 Western (sub)cultural groups (N = 1198,) were used to derive a linear model relating aggregated temporal focus and proportion of future-in-front responses. This model then successfully fitted 10 independently collected (sub)cultural groups in China and Vietnam (N = 899). Further analysis of the whole data set (N = 2,097) showed that the group-level relation arose at the individual level and allowed precise quantification of its influence. Finally, in an effort to apply the model to all relevant published data sets, we included recent data from Britain and South Africa: The former, but not the latter, fitted the model well. Temporal focus is a central factor that shapes how people around the world think of time in spatial terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Infant Mental Health Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This short article serves as a programme note forThe Songs of Madosini, contained on the CD appended to this issue of the journal. Apart from describing the composition structurally and dramaturgically, it suggests that beyond its musical effect the work's more important function is perhaps that of a ‘social intervention’ as its musical performances invariably facilitate deep intercultural exchanges, for which South Africa's society otherwise hardly provides comparable forums. The composition is based on an appreciation of musical differences as well as a conviction that these differences concern each other in ways that areconcurrently constraining and enabling. It thereby evinces systemic qualities not contained in any single style in isolation, but qualities and properties that emerge only from the interactions of stylistic juxtapositions. Striving to arrive at a uniquely local and inclusive style of performance practice, the work implicitly suggests that what might be termed a ‘specifically South African idiom’ is principally attainable only on such a systemically complex level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]