112 BOOK REVIEWSnot without problems. Applying a hermeneutic of suspicion, first-yearstudents, or even third- and fourth-year students (p. 2) faced with anassignment are not likely to return from the 'field' with empty hands. Theauthor detects that 'for many students this was the first traditionalAfrican ritual they had ever observed' (p. 4). The absence of a researchcontext and the inexperience of freshers militate against their efforts. Forthose steeped in the indigenous traditions, some of the descriptionsassume a superficial character. At the risk of sounding elitist, I am morecomfortable with the descriptions by the author himself (cf pp. 87-89 and142-144) and the availability of a postgraduate student (p. 4). However,given that African scholars have always complained about the 'silencing'of informants, debate will rage over who is best placed to describe andinterpret African traditional religions. This admission notwithstanding, areader gets the impression that since the conclusion has already beenreached (p. 147), these numerous stories and descriptions constitute anaddendum.To sense the complexities of method in the study of African traditionalreligions, a reading of this book is helpful. Accurate spelling and translationof vernacular concepts, as well as the application of a clear writing stylemake the book quite readable. It will interest anthropologists, religionists,students and any reader keen on the indigenous religions of Zimbabwe.Above all, it should inspire local scholars to take up the challenge thrownat them by Cox.University of Zimbabwe EZRA CHITANDOCaves, Monuments and Texts: Zimbabwean Archaeology Today Editedby Gilbert Pwiti. Uppsala University, Sweden, 1997, 159 pp.Dr. Pwiti has provided a welcome overview of current interests inZimbabwean archaeology, with seven co-contributors who are all activein archaeological research in Zimbabwe or immediately adjacent countries.The book is well written, coherent and produced to a high standard. Onehopes that it is widely available in Zimbabwe at an affordable price. It isreasonable to assume that the book fairly reflects the current balance ofresearch interest in the subject which it covers. Of eight chapters, onedeals with the Stone Age, one with rock art and six with what may, forwant of a better term, be called the Iron Age.The Stone Age chapter, by Nicholas Walker and Carolyn Thorp, is aconcise but business-like survey of current knowledge. The authors eschewspeculation and provide a basic outline of the subject which serves toemphasise how little is actually understood. Peter Garlake's essay 'TheBOOK REVIEWS 113first eighty years of rock art studies, 1890-1970' is, as its title implies,concerned almost exclusively with the history of investigation and, endingas it does more than a quarter of a century ago, omits the recentdevelopments to which Garlake himself has made very significantcontributions. The meat of the book lies in the remaining six chapters, allby indigenous Zimbabweans, which are concerned with the archaeologyof the past two millennia.Three of these chapters focus specifically on the site of GreatZimbabwe. Godfrey Mahachi and Webber Ndoro consider past studies ofthe site in their socio-political context. Ndoro surveys the ongoing sagaof the evolution of a management policy, while Kundishora Chipunzaprovides an analysis of stone architecture at the Hill Complex. Two ofthese three contributions are concerned primarily with evaluating pastresearch and management strategies. One wonders whether such anemphasis on the works of past, predominantly non-Zimbabwean,archaeologists is entirely healthy. While it is indeed gratifying to notethat Zimbabwe now has a cohort of competent, energetic indigenousarchaeologists who can think for themselves and write with clarity andenthusiasm, one would prefer their energies to be more firmly focussedon expanding knowledge and revising, rather than evaluating, the work oftheir predecessors. Perhaps the hidden message is one of disillusionment:that, almost two decades after independence there is still debate abouthow the country's (and Southern Africa's) prime archaeological site is tobe managed and developed, by whom, in whose interests, and at whoseexpense.The remaining chapters (and including Chipunza's contribution tothe Great Zimbabwe trilogy) make up for this. Here is good, solid, forward-looking archaeology concerned not only with what we know but with howwe may learn more and how new approaches may be applied. InnocentPikirayi provides two of these chapters: 'Pots, people and culture' and'Recent trends in historical archaeology'. The editor writes on 'Aspectsof spatial studies in Zimbabwean archaeology'. These chapters do notaim to survey the present state of knowledge but to indicate its parametersand underlying paradigms.For which readership is the book primarily intended? Dr. Pwiti statesin his introduction that he seeks 'as wide a readership as possible',noting both 'the instructor and serious student of archaeology' as well as'the non-archaeologist'. The first of these categories will find a great dealof interest. The second, the non-archaeologist, may be somewhat bemused:is archaeology supporting a fuller understanding and appreciation of theZimbabwean past, or is it really an esoteric inward-looking academicexercise? Several contributors, notably Mahachi and Ndoro, emphasisethe need to relate archaeology to present-day reality.114 BOOK REVIEWSCould this book have done more to further that aim? With practitionersboth in the University and at National Museums and Monuments of thecalibre shown by this book's contributors, Zimbabwe clearly has thepersonnel to develop its own archaeology. The authors recognise thattheir success depends on developing popular appreciation of theirdiscipline. This book sets the stage but needs to be followed by the play.Cambridge University, UK DAVID W. PMLUPSON