The Life And Words Of A ! Kung Women: Life In The Bush '

In the book “The Dobe Ju/’hoansi”, the author Richard B. Lee, an anthropologist, provides a detailed look into the lives of the South African tribe known as the Dobe Ju/’hoansi. Lee did a great job capturing one of the only societies that live a way of life very similar to our ancestors. I believe each and every reader will take from this book that living this way was not easy and will be grateful for all that we are blessed from in our western societies. Throughout his time with one of the only foraging societies that still exist today Lee takes us on a journey through the Dobe Ju/’hoansi traditional way of life. With this rare lifestyle may question their way of life and its sustainability. When reflecting back on this great read we can grasp their impact on their environment and how globalization can impact the Dobe Ju/’hoansi way of life.

During the Paleolithic time period, people traveled in small tribes consisting of 20 to 30 people. In these tribes, men and women had equal social status and had equal jobs. The men were in charge of hunting game and the women gathered plants and other sources of nutrition. In reality, the women were bringing in a much more significant percentage of the total nutrition. In the Paleolithic era both parents were also there to raise their children because these small groups of people could only travel so far from the others in the tribe. At this time these tribes had few religious beliefs but studies suggest they worshiped some animals, and sculptures were found of pregnant women suggesting that they worshiped fertility.

The people of the Paleolithic Age were mostly nomads. To survive they had to travel everywhere, and follow the

The Paleolithic age and all the aspects of its culture were full of amazing inventions and discoveries. The people of the Stone Age created a whole new way of living. The Paleolithic period was believed to first begin in Africa as we started to evolve“ (McDougal, World History: Patterns of Interaction, 2004). The Paleolithic age lasted from about 2.5 million to 8000 B.C” The hunter-gather lifestyle was a big part of the Paleolithic culture. In this culture, there was an equal division of labor between the men and women. To find food prehistoric people would use the hunter-gather method to find food in their natural settings, this lifestyle was also called the nomadic lifestyle. The men would hunt animals and the women would gather food such as berries and other plants. The nomads equally shared the responsibilities of their families including the care their young. Small family groups were common in the Paleolithic age do to the travel and constant search for food. There was no set government in the Paleolithic period, the Neolithic period, however, was strikingly different than the old stone age.

Families assembled in spring to angle, in early winter to chase, and in the mid year they isolated to develop singular planting fields. Young men were educated in the method for the forested areas, where a man's aptitude at chasing and capacity to get by under all conditions were imperative to his family's prosperity. Ladies were prepared from their most punctual years to work perseveringly in the fields and around the family wetu, a round or oval house that was intended to be effortlessly disassembled and moved in only a couple of hours. They likewise figured out how to accumulate and handle normal foods grown from the ground, other create from the living space, and their harvests. The creation of sustenance among the Wampanoag was like that of numerous Native American social orders. Nourishment propensities were partitioned along gendered lines. Men and ladies had particular undertakings. Local ladies assumed a dynamic part in a hefty portion of the phases of nourishment creation. Since the Wampanoag depended fundamentally on products gathered from this sort of work, ladies had vital socio-political, financial, and profound parts in their groups. Wampanoag men were for the most part in charge of chasing and angling, while ladies dealt with cultivating and the social event of wild organic products, nuts, berries, shellfish, and so on. Ladies were in charge of up to seventy-five percent of all sustenance

Although it has been assumed for a long period of time that early Paleolithic people have a very uninteresting and uniform history, studies have shown that many cultures of the time have demonstrated many different ways of expressing beliefs, relationships with others, and ways of getting food by hunting and gathering.

In a period of complete change beknownst to us as the Neolithic Revolution, some groups of nomads deserted their “normal” way of life and began to settle down in villages and use agrarian methods to make a living for themselves. Two examples would be the Chumash of Southern California and the San of South Africa. Although the Chumash and the San both led a gathering and hunting way of life, they are ultimately two completely different civilizations, embodying unique political organizations, social structures and hierarchies, distinct economic foundations and individual sets of differing values.

However, with the remains of their pieces of tools and other goods across the lands in different villages it can be speculated that some groups of Native Americans had social relations with others, or had mobile groups spread across the lands. For example, the clovis was an instrument used for hunting by the Paleo-Indian groups. The Clovis and Folsom peoples, and has been found in animal and village remains across the land. Judging that their groups traveled a lot this means that they built social connections with other groups. Leaving behind many small villages of fewer people for archaeologists to excavate. Additionally, social constrictions are seen in the people who follow after the Paleo-Indian peoples who focused more on hunting and gathering, but relied heavily more on natural foods such as fruits and nuts. As a result of this gathering technique for food supply, more villages were formed beginning with the archaic peoples. I believe this had led to the evolution of larger populations in native villages as I had read throughout Plog’s book that the villages got bigger with the increased use farming agricultural goods such as maize and beans. Rather than small campsites, villages rose as a result such as the Shabik’eschee peoples in Chaco Canyon. The development of village life led to new cultural customs such as cremation of the dead and preserved

Hunter/Gatherers secured their own food supply and moved from place to place as needed to maintain it. They clothed themselves in the furs of animals that they had killed for food. They got the name, Stone Age, from tools made from stones.

One way pastoral nomads lived a different lifestyle than transhumant herders was through agriculture. First, agriculture was a big part of the nomad’s lifestyle. The earliest sign of agriculture is in Southwest Asia and was their main form of survival which included planting crops and domesticating animals. Agriculture gave people a regular food supply, and eventually was able to produce surpluses of food (pg.7). Thus, surpluses of food allowed for large populations and for labor specialization. Large populations and labor specialization led to social classes which ranked from highest to lowest was: elites (kings, religious leaders), commoners (craftsmen/farmers), and slaves. As wealth and social standings grew, so did the gender gaps. Women were thought of as being the first to begin the systematic care of plants, while men began to capture animals and domesticating them (pg.7). Transhumant herders lived a much different lifestyle than those of the nomads.

When people hear the words, prehistoric hunters and gatherers, their first thoughts are of a human wearing garments made of animal skin, carrying large clubs, and most stereotypes assume that their language consisted of grunt-like sounds. These perceptions include characteristics such as these people being uncivilized, unintelligent, having aggressive behaviors, and that their lives consisted of being nasty, brutish, and short. This stereotype is very wrong because before the adoption of agriculture, some 12,000 years ago, hunters and gatherers really were not nasty, brutish and short, as many people presume they were. These people lived in an actual communist society, where everyone works toward the same common goal; there are not wealthy

The Early Woodland people lived from 1000-300 BC and were a culture who primarily hunted and fished. However, plants became more important as they

Women have, for a long time, had to live up to a certain status quo. In most cinematic representations, women succumb to the status quo of their society but there are a few brave individuals who challenge it. For example, in Yellow Earth, Cuiqao is expected to go along with the plans to have an arranged marriage. She defies this part of her society and would rather join the army and fight in a war than have an arranged marriage. Cuiqao’s decision to escape is also indicative of how little options woman often have in society. It was only recently in our time that feminism has progressed greatly to empower women in society. This sort of empowerment can go astray, though, as Jen showed in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I do not deny that she

They would hunt and gather food in order to survive. This led the way to tribalism where a group of hunter-gatherers would stay together in order to have a better chance of surviving.

The !Kung bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa are one of the few bands of hunter-gatherers left in the world. They survive by foraging for their meals while traveling, never settling in one specific area. Hunting and gathering was the primary mode of survival until about ten thousand years ago. Anthropologists have made assumptions about the hunting and gathering lifestyle of current populations because it seems like a precarious method of living. Moreover, the Kalahari area where the !Kung live in was perceived to be baron because it is a desert. However, a study done over a period of years beginning in 1960 led by Richard Lee disproved the common misconception of the life of these foragers, proving that they were not