Politics and History in Band Societies

This volume explores the patterns of relations between the sexes and the political orientations of the world's contemporary foragers.

Eleanor Leacock (Edited by), Richard Lee (Author)

9780521284127, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 September 1982

516 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.75 kg

The papers collected in this volume present important information on the history and culture of contemporary gathering and hunting peoples from Canada, India, Africa, Australia and the Philippines. The volume focuses on two themes: first, on the techniques which band-living foraging peoples employ to organise their social and economic lives; and second, on their fight for the right to their own lands and for a measure of cultural and political autonomy. The contributors maintain that gatherer-hunters are not examples of a disappearing way of life, but peoples who have maintained their social and economic practices through long periods of contact with stratified societies. The aim of this volume it to make known to as wide an audience as possible the daily lives, the patterns of relations between the sexes and the political orientations of the world's contemporary foragers.

Notes on the contributors
Introduction Eleanor Leacock and Richard Lee
Part I. Dynamics of Egalitarian Foraging Societies: 1. Political process in G/wi bands George Silberbauer
2. Politics, sexual and non-sexual in an egalitarian society Richard Lee
3. Risk, reciprocity and social influences on !Kung San economics Polly Wiessner
4. Descended from father, belonging to country: rights to land in the Australian Western Desert Annette Hamilton
5. Living dangerously: the contradictory foundations of value in Canadian Inuit society Jean L. Briggs
6. The ritualisation of potential conflict between the sexes among the Mbuti Colin M. Turnbull
Part II. Forgager-farmer Relations: 7. Relations of production in band society Eleanor Leacock
8. The family, group structuring and trade among South Indian hunter-gatherers Brian Morris
9. Aka-famer relations in the northwest Congo Basin Serge Bahuchet and Henri Guillaume, translated by Sheila M. Van Wyck
10. Adaptive flexibility in a multi-ethnic setting: the Basarwa of the Southern Kalahari Helga I. D. Vierich
11. Patterns of sedentism among the Basarwa of eastern Botswana Robert K. Hitchcock
12. Nomads without cattle: East African foragers in historical perspective Cynthia Chang
13. In the land of milk and honey: Okiek adaptations to their forests and neighbours Roderic H. Blackburn
Part III. Contemporary Political Struggles: 14. Utter savages of scientific value Renato Rosaldo
15. From foragers to fighters: South Africa's militarisation of the Namibian San Richard Lee and Susan Hurlich
16. Dene self-determination and the study of hunter-gatherers in the modern world Michael I. Asch
17. The future of hunters within nation-states: anthropology and the James Bay Cree Harvey A. Feit
18. Hydroelectric dam construction and the foraging activities of eastern Quebec Montagnais Paul Charest
19. The outstation movement in Aboriginal Australia H. C. Coombs, B. G. Dexter and L. R. Hiatt
20. Aboriginal land rights in the northern territory of Australia Nicholas Peterson
21. Political consciousness and land rights among the Australian Western Desert people Daniel A. Vachon
Indexes.

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