Cultural Diversity among Twentieth-Century Foragers
An African Perspective

This book examines variability within broadly defined African forager societies.

Susan Kent (Edited by)

9780521026000, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2006

360 pages, 11 maps
23.3 x 15.1 x 1.9 cm, 0.51 kg

"As befits an editor of her considerable experience, Kent has done a solid job of integrating these diverse solicited pieces." Robert J. Gordon, African-American Studies

This book examines variability within broadly defined African forager societies, such as the Basarwa, Pygmies, Hadza and others. Foragers have been seen as culturally similar in that they all pursue a subsistence strategy that emphasizes hunting and gathering. However, research suggests there may be more diversity among groups than has previously been acknowledged. It is important to understand why diversity occurs within foraging societies and how this diversity compares with various societies. Here, leading scholars in the field compare and contrast various groups within more broadly defined forager societies. The chapters, which range in orientation from symbolic to ecological and behavioural, are based on rich ethnographic detail and the volume provides invaluable data on hunter-gatherer life that will interest anyone concerned with past or present foragers.

List of illustrations
List of contributors
1. Cultural diversity among African foragers: causes and implications Susan Kent
Part I. Southern African Foragers: 2. Neither are your ways my ways George Silberbauer
3. Diversity and flexibility: the case of the Bushmen of Southern Africa Mathias Guenther
4. Nharo and Hai//om settlement patterns in comparative perspective Alan Barnard and Thomas Widlok
5. Kua: farmer/foragers of the eastern Kalahari, Botswana Helga Vierich and Robert Hitchcock
6. Hunting variability at a recently sedentary Kalahari village Susan Kent
Part II. Eastern African Foragers: 7. The global process and local ecology: how should we explain differences between the Hadza and the !Kung? Nicholas Blurton Jones, Kristen Hawkes and James O'Connell
8. Fission, fusion, and foragers in East Africa: micro- and macroprocesses of diversity and integration among Okiek groups Roderic Blackburn
Part III. Central African Foragers: 9. Cultural diversity among African pygmies Barry Hewlett
10. A comparative approach to hunting rituals among Baka Pygmies (southeastern Cameroon) Daou V. Joiris
11. Cultural diversity in the use of plants by the Mbuti hunter-gatherers in northeastern Zaire: an ethnobotanical approach Mitsuo Ichikawa and Hideaki Terashima
Part IV. Commentary: 12. Hunter-gatherer research and cultural diversity Nurit Bird-David
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Anthropology [JHM], Regional studies [GTB]