Wikipedia article:
The Bushman kinship system reflects their interdependence as traditionally
small mobile foraging bands. The kinship system is also comparable to the
eskimo kinship system, with the same set of terms as in Western
countries, but also employing a name rule and an age rule. The age rule
resolves any confusion arising from kinship terms, as the older of two
people always decides what to call the younger. Relatively few names
circulate (approximately only 35 names per gender), and each child is
named after a grandparent or another relative.
Bushmen drinking water from the bi bulb plant
Children have no social duties besides playing, and leisure is very
important to Bushmen of all ages. Large amounts of time are spent in
conversation, joking, music, and sacred dances. Women have a high
status in the San society, are greatly respected, and may be leaders of
their own family groups. They make important family and group decisions
and claim ownership of water holes and foraging areas. Women are mainly
involved in the gathering of food, but may also take part in hunting.
The most important thing in the lives of the San people is water. Droughts
can last for many months and waterholes may dry up. When this happens,
they use sip wells. To get water this way, a San will scrape a deep hole
where the sand is damp. Into this hole will be put a long hollow grass stem.
An empty ostrich egg is used to collect the water. Water is sucked into the
straw from the sand, into the mouth, and then travels down another straw
into the ostrich egg.
Traditionally, the San were an egalitarian society.[13] Although they did
have hereditary chiefs, the chiefs' authority was limited. The bushmen
instead made decisions among themselves by consensus,[14] with women
treated as relatively equal.[15] In addition, the San economy was a gift
economy, based on giving each other gifts on a regular basis rather than
on trading or purchasing goods and services.[16]
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Subsistence
Starting fire by hand
Villages range in sturdiness from nightly rain shelters in the warm spring
(when people move constantly in search of budding greens), to formalized
rings, wherein people congregate in the dry season around permanent
waterholes. Early spring is the hardest season: a hot dry period following
the cool, dry winter. Most plants are still dead or dormant, and supplies of
autumn nuts are exhausted. Meat is particularly important in the dry
months when wildlife can't range far from the receding waters.
Bushmen women gather fruit, berries, tubers, bush onions, and other plant
materials for the band's consumption. The eggs of ostriches are gathered,
and the empty shells are used as water containers. In addition to plants,
insects furnish perhaps ten percent of animal proteins consumed, most
often during the dry season.[17] Depending on location, the Bushmen
consume 18 to 104 species including grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars,
moths, butterflies, and termites.[18]
Preparing poison arrows
The women's traditional gathering gear is simple and effective: A hide
sling, a blanket, a cloak called a kaross to carry foodstuffs, firewood,
smaller bags, a digging stick, and perhaps a smaller version of the kaross
to carry a baby.
Bushmen men traditionally hunted using poison arrows and spears in
laborious, long excursions. Kudu, antelope, deer, dikdik, and buffalo were
important game animals. The Bushmen offered thanks to the animal's spirit
after it had been killed. The liver was eaten only by men and hunters,
because it was thought to contain a poison unsafe for women.
In the 1990s, a portion of the population switched to livestock farming as a
result of government-mandated modernization programs, as well as the
increased risks of a hunting and gathering lifestyle in the face of
technological development.[vague]
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Ancestral land conflict with Botswana
1000- to 2000-year-old San paintings near Murewa, Zimbabwe.
Since the mid 1990s, the central government of Botswana has
implemented a relocation policy, aiming to move the Bushmen out of their
ancestral land on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve into newly created
settlements. Although the government has categorically denied that
relocation has been forced,[30] a recent court ruling confirmed that the
removal was unconstitutional and residents were forcibly removed.[31]
The government's official reasons for adopting the policy is:
"Over time it has become clear that many residents of the CKGR already
were or wished to become settled agriculturists, raising crops and tending
livestock as opposed to hunting-gathering when the reserve was
established in 1961. "In fact, hunting-gathering had become obsolete to
sustain their living conditions. These agricultural land uses are not
compatible with preserving wildlife resources and not sustainable to be
practiced in the Game Reserve. "This is the fundamental reason for
government to relocate the CKGR residents."[30]
Opponents to the relocation policy claim that the government's intent is to
clear the area – an area the size of Denmark — for the lucrative tourist
trade and diamond mining. This is strenuously denied on the government's
official web site, stating that although exploration had taken place, it
concluded that mining activity would not be viable and that the issue was
not related to the relocation policy.
It is further claimed that the group as a whole has little voice in the national
political process and is not one of the tribal groups recognized in the
constitution of Botswana. Over the generations, the Bushmen of Southern
Africa have continued to be absorbed into the African population,
particularly the Griqua sub-group, which is an Afrikaans-speaking people
of predominantly Khoisan that has certain unique cultural markers which
set them apart from other Africans.
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Court decision
On 13 December 2006, the Bushmen won a historic ruling in their longrunning court case against the government.[32] By a 2–1 majority, the court
ruled the refusal to allow the Basarwa into the Central Kalahari Game
Reserve (CKGR) without a permit, and the refusal to issue special game
licenses to allow the Bushmen to hunt, was "unlawful and unconstitutional".
It also found that the Bushmen were "forcibly and wrongly deprived of their
possessions" by the government. However, the court did not compel the
government to provide services such as water to any Bushmen who
returned to the reserve. As of 2006, more than 1,000 Bushmen intended to
return to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, one of Africa's largest
protected nature reserves.[31] However, only limited numbers of Bushmen
have been allowed to return to this land. In April 2008, the United Nations
Human Rights Council (UNHRC) criticised Botswana's government for not
allowing certain Bushmen to return.[33]
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High Court appeal
On 27 January 2011, the Bushmen won an appeal against the
Government in the Botswana High Court after they were initially prohibited
from accessing drinking water inside the Reserve through bore holes.
Barrister Gordon Bennett represented the Bushmen in court as the judges
declared the Botswana government guilty of ‘degrading treatment’ and
described the case as ‘a harrowing story of human suffering and despair’.
Furthermore, the Government were ordered to pay the costs of the
Bushmen's appeal[34]
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