The San consist of various groups distinguished by language, locale and cultural practices. Focusing on the !Xun San living in Ekoka, a village originally established by a missionary organisation in the heartland of the Ovawambo agro-pastoral people, this paper aims to clarify how the !Xun, the extreme minority in the region, have been reorganising their relationships with various actors including the Ovawambo after Namibia gained independence. The results show that the Ovawambo play an important role in providing the !Xun with opportunities to engage in wage labour, which is the main source of their income, and various food materials. In addition, the land shortage problem that the Ovawambo experience has become increasingly serious after independence. Against the backdrop of these circumstances, the Ovawambo have overused the cooperative farm which was initially created for the San, and thus damages to the San’s crops have frequently occurred, largely caused by the Oshiwanbo livestock. Nonetheless, the !Xun have not shown consistent opposition to the Ovawambo’s use of their land. Ironically, the cooperative farm, which was established and run by the missionary organisations about half a century ago for the purpose of promoting food self-sufficiency among the San, is facilitating the !Xun’s engagement in labour for the Ovawambo. While advocating poverty reduction for the San and their integration into the nation-state, the government is actually strengthening the policy of assimilating the San into the Ovawambo. In such a situation, the !Xun seek a better lifestyle by reorganising the reciprocal relationship with the Ovawambo through using the cooperative farm and food materials provided by the Namibian government.
{"title":"Land use and interethnic relationships between the !Xun and the Ovawambo in post-independence north-central Namibia","authors":"Erika Miyake, Akira Takada","doi":"10.3828/hgr.2023.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2023.9","url":null,"abstract":"The San consist of various groups distinguished by language, locale and cultural practices. Focusing on the !Xun San living in Ekoka, a village originally established by a missionary organisation in the heartland of the Ovawambo agro-pastoral people, this paper aims to clarify how the !Xun, the extreme minority in the region, have been reorganising their relationships with various actors including the Ovawambo after Namibia gained independence. The results show that the Ovawambo play an important role in providing the !Xun with opportunities to engage in wage labour, which is the main source of their income, and various food materials. In addition, the land shortage problem that the Ovawambo experience has become increasingly serious after independence. Against the backdrop of these circumstances, the Ovawambo have overused the cooperative farm which was initially created for the San, and thus damages to the San’s crops have frequently occurred, largely caused by the Oshiwanbo livestock. Nonetheless, the !Xun have not shown consistent opposition to the Ovawambo’s use of their land. Ironically, the cooperative farm, which was established and run by the missionary organisations about half a century ago for the purpose of promoting food self-sufficiency among the San, is facilitating the !Xun’s engagement in labour for the Ovawambo. While advocating poverty reduction for the San and their integration into the nation-state, the government is actually strengthening the policy of assimilating the San into the Ovawambo. In such a situation, the !Xun seek a better lifestyle by reorganising the reciprocal relationship with the Ovawambo through using the cooperative farm and food materials provided by the Namibian government.","PeriodicalId":36941,"journal":{"name":"Hunter Gatherer Research","volume":"15 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138947258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jordie Hoffman, Kyle Farquharson, Vivek V Venkataraman
Women participate in hunting in some foraging societies but not in others. To examine the socioecological factors that are conducive to women’s hunting, we conducted an ethnographic survey using the Human Relations Area Files and other selected sources authored in the past 200 years. Based on life history theory and behavioural ecology, we predicted that women should engage in hunting when: i) it poses few conflicts with childcare, ii) it is associated with few cultural restrictions around the use of hunting technology, iii) it involves low-risk game within range of camp, with the aid of dogs, and/or in groups, and, iv) women fulfil key logistical or informational roles. We systematically reviewed ethnographic documents across 64 societies and coded 242 paragraphs for the above variables. The data largely support theoretical expectations. When women hunted, they did so in a fundamentally different manner than men, focusing on smaller game and hunting in larger groups near camp, often with the aid of dogs. There was little evidence to suggest that women only participated in hunting during non-reproductive years; instead, allocate networks were a prominent strategy for mitigating trade-offs between hunting and childcare responsibilities. Women commonly fulfilled crucial informational, logistical and ritualistic roles. Cultural restrictions limited women’s participation in hunting, but not to the extent commonly assumed. These data offer a cross-cultural framework for making inferences about whether and how women’s hunting occurred in the past.
{"title":"The ecological and social context of women’s hunting in small-scale societies","authors":"Jordie Hoffman, Kyle Farquharson, Vivek V Venkataraman","doi":"10.3828/hgr.2023.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2023.8","url":null,"abstract":"Women participate in hunting in some foraging societies but not in others. To examine the socioecological factors that are conducive to women’s hunting, we conducted an ethnographic survey using the Human Relations Area Files and other selected sources authored in the past 200 years. Based on life history theory and behavioural ecology, we predicted that women should engage in hunting when: i) it poses few conflicts with childcare, ii) it is associated with few cultural restrictions around the use of hunting technology, iii) it involves low-risk game within range of camp, with the aid of dogs, and/or in groups, and, iv) women fulfil key logistical or informational roles. We systematically reviewed ethnographic documents across 64 societies and coded 242 paragraphs for the above variables. The data largely support theoretical expectations. When women hunted, they did so in a fundamentally different manner than men, focusing on smaller game and hunting in larger groups near camp, often with the aid of dogs. There was little evidence to suggest that women only participated in hunting during non-reproductive years; instead, allocate networks were a prominent strategy for mitigating trade-offs between hunting and childcare responsibilities. Women commonly fulfilled crucial informational, logistical and ritualistic roles. Cultural restrictions limited women’s participation in hunting, but not to the extent commonly assumed. These data offer a cross-cultural framework for making inferences about whether and how women’s hunting occurred in the past.","PeriodicalId":36941,"journal":{"name":"Hunter Gatherer Research","volume":"13 26","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138947169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The theme of primordial androgyny is fundamental to male initiation rites and related myths in both Melanesia and Amazonia. The same theme also plays a central role in Australian and African hunter-gatherer rites and myths. Following Chris Knight’s treatment of these myths and rites, along with the model developed by him, Camilla Power and Ian Watts for the origins of human culture, this article argues that primordial androgyny – along with the related themes of the differentiation of primordial wholeness and the opening up of a sealed container or womb – are fundamental to male endeavours in Melanesian, Amazonian and Australian cultures to appropriate the powers of the womb and thereby undermine the egalitarian social system that these powers once supported. Even in their most abstract cosmological manifestations, these themes can be related to the basic ritual acts of male menstruation in these societies. However, amongst African hunter-gatherer societies, the social and religious functions of these themes are dramatically different, reflecting social structures in which attempts to build a gender hierarchy are constantly countered by egalitarian cultural institutions. Following an argument variously elaborated by James Woodburn and Camilla Power, I conclude by suggesting that the myths of egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies such as the Bushmen, who have no authoritarian religious structures, should be analysed in terms of an ongoing interaction between authoritarian and egalitarian cultural forces – that mythic motifs that in Amazonia and Australia underpin male authority are also present in Bushman culture but there they inform institutions that sustain egalitarianism.
{"title":"Primordial androgyny and gender politics","authors":"Deon Liebenberg","doi":"10.3828/hgr.2023.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2023.11","url":null,"abstract":"The theme of primordial androgyny is fundamental to male initiation rites and related myths in both Melanesia and Amazonia. The same theme also plays a central role in Australian and African hunter-gatherer rites and myths. Following Chris Knight’s treatment of these myths and rites, along with the model developed by him, Camilla Power and Ian Watts for the origins of human culture, this article argues that primordial androgyny – along with the related themes of the differentiation of primordial wholeness and the opening up of a sealed container or womb – are fundamental to male endeavours in Melanesian, Amazonian and Australian cultures to appropriate the powers of the womb and thereby undermine the egalitarian social system that these powers once supported. Even in their most abstract cosmological manifestations, these themes can be related to the basic ritual acts of male menstruation in these societies. However, amongst African hunter-gatherer societies, the social and religious functions of these themes are dramatically different, reflecting social structures in which attempts to build a gender hierarchy are constantly countered by egalitarian cultural institutions. Following an argument variously elaborated by James Woodburn and Camilla Power, I conclude by suggesting that the myths of egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies such as the Bushmen, who have no authoritarian religious structures, should be analysed in terms of an ongoing interaction between authoritarian and egalitarian cultural forces – that mythic motifs that in Amazonia and Australia underpin male authority are also present in Bushman culture but there they inform institutions that sustain egalitarianism.","PeriodicalId":36941,"journal":{"name":"Hunter Gatherer Research","volume":"17 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138947024","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Differences between the myths, lore and rituals of southern African huntergatherers are often subordinated to supposed similarities. However, the lore of southern San groups and the ǀXam of the Northern Cape in particular, centre on ideas about water and rainmaking, rain creatures and an underwater realm. These ideas are notably absent from the lore of the Kalahari Juǀ'hoan in Botswana and Namibia. This has implications for analogies used to interpret the /xam testimonies and South African rock art, but also points to problems in understanding change in belief, lore and practices. These are especially prominent in a growing body of work on interactions between huntergatherers and farmers, as it pertains to understanding rock paintings and generating historical accounts thereof.
{"title":"‘Everything has a history’","authors":"Anne Solomon","doi":"10.3828/hgr.2023.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2023.10","url":null,"abstract":"Differences between the myths, lore and rituals of southern African huntergatherers are often subordinated to supposed similarities. However, the lore of southern San groups and the ǀXam of the Northern Cape in particular, centre on ideas about water and rainmaking, rain creatures and an underwater realm. These ideas are notably absent from the lore of the Kalahari Juǀ'hoan in Botswana and Namibia. This has implications for analogies used to interpret the /xam testimonies and South African rock art, but also points to problems in understanding change in belief, lore and practices. These are especially prominent in a growing body of work on interactions between huntergatherers and farmers, as it pertains to understanding rock paintings and generating historical accounts thereof.","PeriodicalId":36941,"journal":{"name":"Hunter Gatherer Research","volume":"43 30","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138946667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Of pirates and fish people","authors":"A. Iankovskaia","doi":"10.3828/hgr.2018.26","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2018.26","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36941,"journal":{"name":"Hunter Gatherer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49110749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hunter-gatherer fission-fusion in ethnography and archaeology","authors":"Michael J. Shott","doi":"10.3828/hgr.2023.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2023.2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36941,"journal":{"name":"Hunter Gatherer Research","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42300041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sharing and subsistence systems of former hunter-gatherers in today’s Borneo","authors":"M. Koizumi, P. Levang","doi":"10.3828/hgr.2020.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2020.5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36941,"journal":{"name":"Hunter Gatherer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47638277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Menstruation, moon and the hunt","authors":"Deon Liebenberg","doi":"10.3828/hgr.2020.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2020.3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36941,"journal":{"name":"Hunter Gatherer Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47669058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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