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| Title: | The Economics of Social Life among the Central Kalahari San (G//anakhwe and G/wikhwe) in the Sedentary Community of !Koi!kom |
| Author: | Sugawara, Kazuyoshi |
| Year: | 1991 |
| Periodical: | Senri Ethnological Studies |
| Issue: | 30 |
| Pages: | 91-116 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Botswana |
| Subjects: | social structure San economic anthropology hunter-gatherers sedentarization Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| Abstract: | This paper elucidates some essential features of the economic and social transformations of the life of the G//anakhwe and G/wikhwe San hunter-gatherers in the sedentary community at !Koi!kom in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana. Since 1981, under the guidance of the Remote Area Development Programme (RADP), both the San and Kgalagadi people have begun to migrate to !Koi!kom. A brief examination of group membership among the San is followed by a consideration of the composition and derivation of people's belongings, including goats. The presumption that gift partnerships represent some kind of positive social relationship, such as affinity or friendship, while partnerships involved in barter and purchase represent more depersonalized or practical relationships is tested. An examination of the network of keeping-and-entrusting relationships for goats shows that taking care of goats might be one of the means by which owner and caretaker reaffirm their alliance or friendship. Next, drawing on conversational analysis, the author highlights some points of tension between the different language speakers now thrown together and the way in which the perpetuation of formalized extramarital relationships underlines the continuing significance of economic mutualism. Finally, an examination of egalitarianism among the San shows that an aspiration for the egalitarian way of life is still alive at the back of San minds. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |