“San communities comprise up to about 25 men, women and children.” (Siyabona Africa, 2011, para 7) Everything they do in these small communities helps the survival of the entire family. Before explaining how these small communities survive, we must first talk about how they are laid out. Descent is “a cultural rule defining social categories through the parent-child connection.” (Nowak & Laird, 2010, 3.7) According to Nowak & Laird (2010), “descent is the passage of kinship though the parent-child links and the joining of the people into groups.” In the text they identify two patterns of descent: unilineal and bilateral. “Unilineal descents are relationships that follow through the mother or father”. (Nowak & Laird, 2010, 3.7) While bilateral descents are relationship passed through both mother and father.
Kinship Organization in the San Society The San society is a foraging society. Family, marriage and kinship, gender, and age are the key principles of social organization in foraging societies. People are related to each other either as consanguine, sharing a common ancestor, or as affine (what we call in–laws) through marriage. The way people are related is important in determining how they behave toward each other (Nowak & Laird, Sec. 3.7, 2010).
If people hunted just for the meat, then no one would do it. Weather hunting is a necessity or not, a man or women will benefit and feel successful when they accomplish the goal of hunting and killing their own food (Jackson). At one time, hunting was the only means of human survival. The men generally took on the task while the women cooked the game. In the past it was very ethical to hunt, because it was the only way a man could survive.
Groups of foragers are called bands, usually made up of several related nuclear families. Family relationships are the basis for social organization. They are a nomadic people, moving around following the animals and plants they rely on for food. To remain egalitarian social organizations, foraging societies distribute important resources equally among their member, usually along kinship lines. Foragers often display division of labor; women gather and men hunt.
San Tribe and their Kinship System Valery Taylor ANT 101 Prof. Melissa Kirkendall March 27, 2012 San Tribe and their Kinship System One of the historical tribes of Southern Africa, is the San society who have lived for a long time on a land that spans across Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Angola. San people, are a foraging tribe in Africa, they are band society made up of the nuclear family and extended family. Band society such as the San survive by going where there is numerous amount of food and water. The San people divide their labor between gender just like many other foraging bands. The women care for their children and forge for vegetation and men hunt and provide other skills.
The women are responsible for 80 percent of the food supply. The men of the group are the hunters. They hunt using poisonous darts in blow guns. It is sometimes hard always finding prey, thus making the gathering of vegetables so important.
Murdock believes the family is a social group of people including a socially acceptable sexual relationship and children. He also says that in some of these societies, the kinship is larger than normal. Some sociologists believe this means he is considering a polygamous family. They also suggest Murdock is talking about extended families. Extended families would naturally fit into his definition of the nuclear family as it is an extension, and in no way does it change the overall concept.
Within Sociology the family is defined as a primary social group that consists of parents and their offspring all living together to form a very close social group. This present essay will compare and contrast the difference between four perspectives, these being, the Functionalist, Interactionist, Feminist and the Marxist perspective. The functionalist approach believes that society is a structure of connected parts that work together to maintain a social balance for society. For example they believe that each social institute adds individual functions that are all important to the society. The family for example contributes a lot toward society as it is the main route of reproducing the population and teaching them the important lesson of socialization as they grow.
For this reason nuclear families are the most common type of families in foraging societies. A nuclear family is described as being, “composed of a mother and father and their children,” (Nowak and Laird, 2010, section 3.7). According to section 3.7, “The nuclear family is most common because, in a foraging setting, it is adaptive to various situations,” (Nowak and Laird, 2010, section 3.7). Foragers called the San “Bushmen,” live in southwest Africa in the Kalahari Desert. Due to living in the desert, the San have to move frequently.
Overall, the Mbuti are a peaceful culture living as one with nature. Primary Mode of Subsistence The diet of the Mbuti people consists mostly of meat. In fact, it is reported that the Mbuti consume more meat than any other group of tropical hunters (Walker & Hewlett, 1990). They are hunters and gatherers and they do not grow their own food. Because of this the percentage of meat that they eat depends on the time of year and what is currently available.