Divinatory animals: Further evidence of San/Nguni borrowing? (Cultural borrowing, forager-farmer contact, customs)

The paper seeks to extend the debate as to the nature of possible San influ ence on the mediumistic divinatory practice of Nguni and thus contributes t o our understanding of the nature of forager-farmer contact, as well as cas ting cautionary light on the selective way in which cultural borrowing occu rred in the past. It suggests that, in addition to the trance dance, the Ca pe Nguni also adopted, in the (modified) form of divinatory animals, San co smological ideas of the power of animals in the healing process. The nature of this adoption, and the highly selective was in which it occurred, is di scussed.