The San Bushmen

664 Words3 Pages
Peter Haefner September 29 2011 34805 The San Bushmen The San Bushmen, also known as the Kalahari hunter-gatherers, are the indigenous people of Southern Africa whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. The San are referred to as the “hunting and gathering people of Southern Africa” (Lee, 1976b:5). Hunting and gathering has always been a part of their culture. Bushmen women gather fruit, berries, tubers, bush onions, and other plant materials for the band's consumption. Bushmen men traditionally hunted using arrows and spears in painstaking, long excursions. Kudu, antelope, deer, dikdik, and buffalo were important game animals. The Bushmen have been recognized by their elegant stone art which would not have been possible to create without the foraging lifestyle they lived. Also their way of life has been preserved for many years because of the low risks associated with the practice of hunting and gathering. The San maintained a varied and healthy diet, had to endure a significant less amount of labor, and experienced very little disease and poverty as a result of the nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle they lived. The San Bushmen have practiced hunting and gathering all of their existence. Generations and generations have been taught the art of foraging and as a result they have become masters of their craft. The San Bushmen women developed keen awareness of where vegetation would grow and would gather all the plant life they could to provide for their particular band. The men became expert hunters and developed many different effective strategies to kill their prey. One example is they would poison the tip of their arrows so it would usually only take one hit to take down their game. As an outcome of all the different vegetation and meats the San were eating they maintained

More about The San Bushmen

Open Document