CARTA Glossary

A subsistence strategy that relies on domestication of species instead of hunting and gathering wild animals and plants.

A methodological and analytical process by archaeologists for reconstructing features of a prehistoric society and culture that leaves no direct archaeological imprint.

Any story where the teller and the listener both know it is untrue and is also not meant to be taken as true. Fiction can be distinguished from true narratives, as well as from myth, lies, mistakes, and unwitting falsehoods. Fiction includes most drama, feature films, comics, and poetry that tells invented stories as well as novels and short stories. But not all fictions need be narratives.

Searching for wild food or provisions as opposed to cultivating food crops or breeding livestock.

A subsistence strategy in which most or all food is obtained by foraging and is in contrast to agriculture, which rely mainly on domesticated species.

An indigenous population of San people in northeastern Namibia and northwestern Kalahari desert region of Botswana.

Derived from the Greek word for “imitation” and is used in three different senses:

1. The imitation of elements of the real world;
2. The showing or imitation of an action (as opposed to diegesis, or the telling of action in words);
3. Miming and other forms of imitative action (using facial expression, gesture, posture, and vocal sound) in communication without words, or even the representation to oneself of the stages of an action or process.

The factual or fictional representation of a coherent particular sequence of events, usually involving some agency and purpose.

A broad prehistoric period during which stone was used to make tools and weapons and is synonymous with Stone Age. During the paleolithic, hunting and gathering (foraging) was the primary subsistence method. The period ended with a flourishing of culture, not only in the manufacture of new stone (and bone tools) and other innovations (such spear thrower, bow and arrow, eyed needle, fishing implements), but also the development of splendid cave art paintings and engravings. Subdivisions:

• Lower Paleolithic: ~3.4 million years ago (mya) - 300 thousand years ago (kya).
• Middle Paleolithic: Consists of use of prepared cores (i.e. Levallois Technique) and hafted tools and weapons. ~300 - 30 kya.
• Upper Paleolithic: Coincides with behavioral modernity and predates the advent of agriculture. Artifacts include finely crafted stone blades and bone and antler tools, such as harpoons and needles. ~50 - 10 kya.

Members of various Khoisan-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer and former hunter-gatherer groups that are the first nations of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa. mtDNA and Y chromosome studies show that the San carry some of the most divergent (oldest) human haplogroups.

From Ancient Greek for “wild beast” and “human” to represent a fantastical hybrid. Examples from myth, folklore, and popular culture are the minotaur, the werewolf and Donald Duck, respectively.

A character in myth and folklore who plays tricks on others or disobeys conventional cultural norms.