essay

Hunting variability at a recent sedentary Kalahari village

Cultural diversity and twentieth-century foragers : an African perspectiveCambridgePublished In 1996 • Pages: 125-156

By: Kent, Susan.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article, Kent examines the influence of sharing on hunting behavior, skill, and success among six hunters in a recently settled band of foragers over a five-year period. Although now sedentary, hunting remains an important subsistence activity, even for those hunters who own goats. Kent found that although the individual skills of the hunters varied, the time spent hunting and hunting success depended less on the hunter's skill, size of family, or season, and more on sharing practices. A poor hunter would hunt more frequently to supply meat to his sharing network, whereas a more skilled hunter would hunt less in order to maintain sharing equity. Kent concludes that it is the social relationships, both kinship and friendship, that matter most, influencing subsistence practices.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Hunting and trapping
Pastoral activities
Production and supply
Social relationships and groups
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
San
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2005
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Africa
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Southern Africa
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Ian Skoggard ; 2003
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1987-1991
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1987-1992
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Kutse, Botswana
NotesAdditional notes
Susan Kent
For bibliographical references see document 76: Kent
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
95017648
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
San (African people)