PREFACE
among Blacks as well as Whites, has become highly relevant. Women's
history has already received considerable attention in South Africa, but
deeper examination of the role of gender in South African history has be-
come a high priority, owing to unresolved tensions between the ideal of
gender equality and the patriarchal traditions and practices of African so-
cieties. Among many other themes that warrant closer examination in the
new South Africa than previously are historical studies of African health,
of African families, of African spirituality and ideology, of South African
urbanization, and of the South African environment. We may look for-
ward to works on such themes cast in long-term perspective-exploring
the continuities and changes through the centuries before and since the
conquest and the impact of industrial capitalism.
The scene of a variety of complex relations among diverse cultures,
South Africa will always offer challenges to creative scholars. One hopes
that South African historiography will remain a rich field of intellectual
inquiry into the distant future. Meanwhile, this volume is a succinct sur-
vey of the present state of knowledge.
I am grateful to Lynn Berat, Leonard Doob, William Foltz, Christopher