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This classic, bestselling study of the !Kung San, foragers of the Dobe area of the Kalahari Desert describes a people's reactions to the forces of modernization, detailing relatively recent changes to !Kung rituals, beliefs, social structure, marriage and kinship system. It documents their determination to take hold of their own destiny, despite exploitation of their habitat and relentless development to assert their political rights and revitalize their communities. Use of the name Ju/'hoansi (meaning "real people") acknowledges their new sense of empowerment. Since the publication of the Third Edition in 2003, Richard Lee has made eight further trips to the Kalahari, the most recent in 2010 and 2011. The Dobe and Nyae Nyae Areas have continued to transform and the people have had to respond and adapt to the pressures of capitalist economics and bureaucratic governance of the Namibian and Botswana states. This Fourth Edition chronicles and bears witness to these evolving social conditions and their impacts on lives of the Ju/'hoansi.
List of contents
Preface to the Fourth Edition.
1. The Ju/'hoansi.
2. The People of the Dobe Area.
3. Environment and Settlement.
4. Subsistence: Foraging for a Living.
5. Kinship and Social Organization.
6. Marriage and Sexuality.
7. Complaint Discourse: Aging and Caregiving among the Ju/'hoansi.
8. Conflict, Politics, and Exchange.
9. Coping with Life: Religion, World View, and Healing.
10. The Ju/'hoansi and Their Neighbors.
11. Perceptions and Directions of Social Change.
12. The Ju/'hoansi Today.
13. Tsumkwe at 50: The 2010 Social Survey of a Namibian Ju/'hoansi Town.
14. Anthropological Practice and Lessons of the Ju/'hoansi.
Postscript: The /Gwihaba Dancers.
Appendix A: Eating Christmas in the Kalahari.
Appendix B: The Kalahari Debate: Ju/'hoan Images of the Colonial Encounter.
Glossary of Ju/'hoan and Other Non-English Terms.
Films of the Ju/'hoansi: An Annotated List.
References Cited and Recommended Readings.
Index.
