The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging SocietyFor most of human history hunting and gathering was a universal way of life. Richard Borshay Lee spent over three years conducting fieldwork among the !Kung San, an isolated population of 1,000 in northern Botswana. When Lee began his work in 19863, the !Kung San were one of the last of the world's people to live this life. By 1973, when Lee last lived with the group, it appeared that they !Kung were a society on the threshold of a transformation that signalled the end of foraging as an independent way of life, at least in Africa. The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society, an ecological and historical study, is Professor Lee's major statement on his research. By maintaining simultaneous historical and synchronic perspectives, Lee is able to extend his analysis of core features from the contemporary !Kung to prehistoric societies. These basic principles become the means to understanding the form of human life that has been obscured by the developments and complications of societies during the last few thousand years. |
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Contents
Fieldwork with the Kung | 8 |
a question | 29 |
its peoples and their history | 39 |
The environment | 87 |
Technology and the organization | 116 |
An inventory of plant resources | 158 |
The mongongo | 182 |
Hunting | 205 |
Production and reproduction | 309 |
Ownership leadership and the use of space | 333 |
Conflict and violence | 370 |
Economic and social change in the 1960s | 401 |
The lessons of the Kung | 432 |
Appendix A Unraveling the Dobe population | 462 |
Mammals of the Dobe area | 474 |
a note | 489 |
1 | 244 |
Men women and work | 250 |
The allocation of nutritional stress | 281 |
| 495 | |
| 513 | |
Other editions - View all
The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society Richard Borshay Lee No preview available - 1979 |
Common terms and phrases
adult Africa animal appear arrows base become birth Botswana camp carrying cattle Chapter child collected common considered continued core discussed Dobe area Du/da eaten edible effort example females fight Figure fire foraging four fruit gathering given groves hand Herero human hunter hunting hunting and gathering important July Kangwa killed Kung land later less living major male means meat mongongo months move named nuts Nyae observed percent period person plant poison population present production rarely relations residents result root season sharing single social society South species subsistence Table tion trees Tswana visiting water hole week weight woman women Xai/xai young
Bibliographic information
| Title | The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society |
| Author | Richard Borshay Lee |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | CUP Archive, 1979 |
| ISBN | 0521225787, 9780521225786 |
| Length | 560 pages |
| Subjects | › › Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |