Hunter and Habitat in the Central Kalahari Desert

This book describes and elucidates the foundation of G/wi society living in The Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana.

George B. Silberbauer (Author)

9780521281355, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 April 1981

352 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

The Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana is a sand desert covered by scrub and thorn forest, dry and bitterly cold in winter and extremely hot in summer before the short wet season. The only kinds of vegetation surviving this climate are short-lived annuals and deciduous species that lie dormant in the dry season. In this inhospitable territory live the hunter-gatherer G/wi bushmen. George Silberbauer has lived and worked among the G/wi for over ten years. In Hunter and Habitat, he analyses the ways in which G/wi society and culture have been shaped by the rugged natural environment. The book provides a thorough analysis of G/wi society, describing their social, political, and economic organization, their living patterns, subsistence technology, and seasonal adaptations. In short, Hunter and Habitat describes and elucidates the foundation of G/wi society: the interrelationships of the bushmen, their sociocultural system, and their habitat.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Note on orthography
1. Introduction
2. The habitat
3. The G/wi universe
4. Social organization
5. Utilization of the habitat
6. Socioecology of the G/wi
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]