essay
Pastoro-foragers to 'Bushmen': transformations in Kalahari relations of property, production and labor
herders, warriors, and traders : pastoralism in africa • Boulder • Published In 1991 • Pages: 248-263, 293-327
By: Wilmsen, Edwin N..
Abstract
In this article, Wilmsen examines the social relations of the 'Bushmen' in Botswana and Namibia and argues against the popular image of the San as timeless foragers. Going to the archaeological and archival records he shows that the San were heavily involved in interregional trade in such items as copper, salt, ostrich feathers, and ivory. Evidence suggests that San transferred some of their wealth into cattle, small livestock and practiced a form of pastoro-foraging. However once the region was hunted out and the San had nothing valuable left to exchange, they entered into patron-client relationships with surrounding pastoral chiefs and soon became serf-like herders. Wilmsen says that the San squatters at the cattleposts and their foraging kin deep in the Kalahari are both the dispossessed remnants of a once mighty people.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2005
- Region
- Africa
- Sub Region
- Southern Africa
- Document Type
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Historian
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard ; 2003
- Field Date
- no date
- Coverage Date
- 1896-1974
- Coverage Place
- Botswana and Namibia
- Notes
- Edwin Wilmsen
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-327)
- LCCN
- 91025206
- LCSH
- San (African people)