The social structure of a Cape Coloured reserve

by W. Peter Carstens

The main focus of this book is an analysis of the social structure of a small peasant community of rural Coloured people who live on a reserve surrounding the old mission station, Steinkopf, in Little Namaqualand. It has been written primarily as an ethnographic study of one of the constituent communities of a composite society, the Republic of South Africa, although a chapter has been devoted to the comparison of Steinkopf with the four other Reserves in the Namaqualand district. An attempt has also been made to describe and analyse certain of the process of social change in this area with particular reference to these Coloured Reserves.