a comparative ethnography of the Khoisan peoples /
Alan Barnard.
New York :
Cambridge University Press,
1992.
xxv, 349 pages :
illustrations, maps ;
24 cm
Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology ;
85
Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-336) and index.
Part I. The Khoisan Peoples: Introduction ; Ethnic classification, origins, and history of the Khoisan peoples -- Part II. A Survey of Khoisan Ethnography: The!Kung ; The!Xo and Eastern Hoa ; The southern Bushmen ; The G/wi and G//ana of the central Kalahari ; The eastern and northern Khoe Bushmen ; The Nharo ; The Cape Khoekhoe and Korana ; The Nama and others ; The Damara and Hai//om -- Part III. Comparisons and Transformations: Settlement and territoriality among the desert-dwelling Bushmen ; Politics and exchange in Khoisan society ; Aspects of Khoisan religious ideology ; Bushman kinship : correspondences and differences ; Khoe kinship : underlying structures and transformations ; Conclusions.
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"The Khoisan are a cluster of southern African peoples which include the famous Bushmen, or San, 'hunters', the Khoekhoe 'herders' (in the past called 'Hottentots'), and the Damara, also a herding people. The present-day Khoisan include hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, and wage labourers. In spite of differences associated with their economic pursuits, as well as differences in language and other aspects of culture, the Khoisan peoples share features of territorial organization, gender relations, kinship, ritual, and cosmology. These represent elements of structures held in common across economic, cultural, linguistic, and 'racial' boundaries. This book focuses on these structures and the diverse forms which they take within Khoisan culture and society. It is written within the framework of regional structural comparison." "Part I examines the theoretical aspects of regional structural comparison, and the prehistory and classification of the Khoisan peoples. Part II presents an extensive ethnographic overview of Khoisan culture and social organization -- the first since 1930. Part III explores facets of Khoisan society in comparative perspective, and, in particular, the complex relationships between environmental conditions, ethno-linguistic boundaries, and processes of change. There are chapters on settlement patterns, politics and exchange, religious belief, and kinship. Book jacket."--Jacket.