Early Maravi

levels. Inferred from the following: "Mankhamba was more than a large village — it was a town, with its own satellite villages. It was both the capital of the Maravi and a major trading centre of local and imported products." [Juwayeyi 2020] QUOTE ABOUT SHRINES?
1. Mankhamba
2. Ritual centers3. Large villages4. Small villages

levels.
"A common feature were the 'spirit wives', women living in permanent celibacy and set apart from the cult of the godhead. One of their tasks was to transmit to those concerned mesages of communal interest which they received in dreams. [...] [T]hey were held in high esteem, their office being considered the highest in the cult hierarchy. They acted as overseers of the female initiation rites, and they are said to have been [...] confidantes of local rulers. The spirit wives were members of the Banda clan and thus were associated with the prestate period in Malawi. This is emphasized in oral traditions cited by Ntara, according to which the Chewa at first had no chiefs but spirit wives, suggesting that they embodied a form of regional jural authority before the emergence of centralized state systems. "A final feature to be considered is the apparent universality of a priesthood at the great shrines, which consisted of members of the Mbewe clan. These Mbewe were also of pre-Maravi stock, and their presence at the great shrines functioned as an additional factor which bound these shrines together into some form of common organization. The central cult object was conceived of as a snake, called tunga, which was associated both with the shrine hut and with the sacred pool, another invariable feature of each cult complex. The snake spirit was visibly represented by the senior Mbewe official, who was himself known as tunga and who acted as the spirit wife's ritual consort." [Schoeffeleers 1992]

Inferred continuity with succeeding polities. "What Pedro de Barreto de Rezende observed in the early seventeenth century could still be confirmed two centuries later by A. C. P. Garmitto: the Maravi polities had no standing army and no formal recruitment system. If and when armed men were needed, a chiefdom's war drum would be sounded to call them up, and in case of a more general alarm, the surrounding chiefdoms would do the same." [Schoeffeleers 1992]

On the priesthood and shrine system supposedly established in Pre-Maravi times, which still existed up until the 19th century (most of the information available dates to the 19th century and after, though some of the written sources are based on long-held local oral histories): "A common feature were the 'spirit wives', women living in permanent celibacy and set apart from the cult of the godhead. One of their tasks was to transmit to those concerned mesages of communal interest which they received in dreams. [...] [T]hey were held in high esteem, their office being considered the highest in the cult hierarchy. They acted as overseers of the female initiation rites, and they are said to have been [...] confidantes of local rulers. The spirit wives were members of the Banda clan and thus were associated with the prestate period in Malawi. This is emphasized in oral traditions cited by Ntara, according to which the Chewa at first had no chiefs but spirit wives, suggesting that they embodied a form of regional jural authority before the emergence of centralized state systems." [Schoeffeleers 1992]

Inferred continuity with succeeding polities. "What Pedro de Barreto de Rezende observed in the early seventeenth century could still be confirmed two centuries later by A. C. P. Garmitto: the Maravi polities had no standing army and no formal recruitment system. If and when armed men were needed, a chiefdom's war drum would be sounded to call them up, and in case of a more general alarm, the surrounding chiefdoms would do the same." [Schoeffeleers 1992]

Inferred continuity with succeeding polities. "That dispensing justice may have been not only an important but also a time-consuming task is suggested by a passage about a Maravi king (probably Kalonga) by a mid-seventeenth century Jesuit missionary: 'That King continuously receives his people in audience and adjudges civil and criminal cases with incredible brevity. Even when he is ill he is still expected to judge cases. If he has been absent for two or three days, they go to his successor.'" (Schoffeleers 1992: 42-43)

"The king apparently also kept large storehouses of grain which could be drawn upon in times of famine." [Schoeffeleers 1992]

Food storage sites. "The king apparently also kept large storehouses of grain which could be drawn upon in times of famine." [Schoeffeleers 1992]

"Malawi, unlike southern Zambezia, did not have gold, copper or silver in commercially exploitable quantities. With respect to silver, however, an exception might be made even though the extent of its exploitation by the people of Mankhamba is far from clear. Apparently, silver deposits existed not far from Mankhamba, and it appears some members of the Portuguese community in the Zambezi Valley had heard of these deposits. In 1678, the captain or leader of the Portuguese called Jo o de Sousa Freire sent Theodósio Garcia to the land of Kalonga to investigate exploitability of these silver deposits. Garcia and the Kalonga of the time were said to have been friends. However, when he arrived at Mankhamba, Kalonga would not allow him to see the mines. Instead, he sent his men and two of Garcia’s slaves, who brought back some silver that they had mined and smelted. Garcia took back a sample, but no further action was taken, probably because Sousa Freire died two days after Garcia’s return. It is also possible, however, that the silver was of low quality and that is probably why there are no other records of silver exploration in the area." [Juwayeyi 2020]

"Prestate shrines were located on narrow plateaus in mountainous areas that were rather difficult to access." [Schoeffeleers 1992]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

The following suggests that writing did not develop indigenously in the region. "The earliest of the written documents on Malawi go back to the sixteenth century. Some adventurous Portuguese explorers and traders who periodically passed through central and southern Malawi as they sought minerals and other resources in the interior of the region wrote these documents." [Juwayeyi 2020]

"One other foreign item commonly occurring at Mankhamba, but whose usefulness to the community is entirely unclear, is the cowrie shell. Like imported ceramics, cowrie shells are very rare at other archaeological sites in the southern Lake Malawi area. Elsewhere in Africa, cowrie shells had economic and cultural value. [...] At Mankhamba, however, all the 46 shells were whole, with no evidence of any attempted modification. Further, cowrie shells do not feature in the oral traditions of the Chewa. It is therefore not clear what economic, social or ritual role these objects played among the Chewa at Mankhamba." [Juwayeyi 2020]

"Some of the objects recovered at Mankhamba, such as copper rings and bangles, were used as a medium of exchange. One type of object not recovered at the site, but nearby, was the copper ingot. In 1967, a man removing a tree stump on the adjacent Dedza escarpment, not far from Mankhamba, found a hoard of eight, large H-shaped ingots (see Plate 12.1). This shows that despite their absence in the Mankhamba excavations, these objects circulated in the area. Their absence in the excavation was value-related as ingots were expensive objects and unlikely to be disposed of carelessly." [Juwayeyi 2020]