Ju/’hoansi
Ju/’hoansi of Botswana Slowly Gain Land and Water Rights [anthology chapter reviews, part 2]
Robert Hitchcock has a generally pessimistic view of the progress made by the Ju/’hoansi in Botswana. While the Ju/’hoansi of Namibia have been able to gain some rights to their traditional lands, the ones living in Botswana have been less successful overall. The reason is that the government of that country does not believe in […]
The Ju/’hoansi and the Kalahari Peoples Fund [anthology chapter reviews, part 1]
Graduate-student anthropologists in the Harvard Kalahari Research Group learned so much from the Ju/’hoansi that they developed the Kalahari Peoples Fund as a way of reciprocating. “We all felt that somehow we must try to equalize our exchanges with the Ju/’hoansi, that somehow we must give back some compensation for the knowledge of their culture […]
Ju/’hoansi Chronicles—The Marshall Family Legacy, part 2 of 2 [video review]
Extracts of John Marshall’s epic film about the Ju/’hoansi, A Kalahari Family, available for several years in five videocassettes, were released to the Web last year by Documentary Educational Resources. Over an hour of the five films, the first 12 to 18 minutes of each, is now available (see citations below). The descriptions of the […]
Ju/’hoansi Chronicles—The Marshall Family Legacy, part 1 of 2 [book review]
One day, while the 19 year old college student was walking near a bank a mile from camp, an adult hyena walked out of a hole and bared its teeth at her. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas wisely walked off at an angle, showing neither fear nor aggression towards the predator. The hyena seemed satisfied and backed […]
Ju/’hoansi Still Losing Lands in Namibia
Thousands of San in Namibia, including many members of the Ju/’hoansi society, continue to survive in conditions that are as bad, or worse, than when the country gained its independence in 1990. According to Clement Daniels, chair of the Namibian Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), “it is a disgrace that 17 years after independence, one group […]
Portion of a Ju/’hoansi Film Now Available on the Web
The first 14 minutes of John Marshall’s 1958 documentary film “The Hunters” was released on November 30th by Documentary Educational Resources on the Google Video website. It is the first film about the Ju/’hoansi produced by the famed film maker. The full 70 minute video is available for purchase through the Google site. The film […]
The Health of Indigenous Societies in Africa [journal article review]
Many Pygmy societies of Central Africa, as well as the San in Southern Africa, suffer more than other people in their countries from health problems. A recent article in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet describes the health challenges of the two indigenous African cultures. Defining “indigenous” in the context of Africa is often a […]
Prominent Author Reconsiders Ju/’hoansi [magazine article review]
The Ju/’hoansi that the Marshall family lived with in the 1950s avoided jealousy and emphasized cooperation, according to an interview last week with Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of the best seller The Harmless People. Ms. Thomas indicated to the interviewer that both she and her mother, Lorna Marshall, who did extensive ethnographic field work among […]
Do the Ju/’hoansi Still Drink the Morning Dew? [journal article review]
Mention the Bushmen of southern Africa and millions of people will think of the idyllic Kalahari Desert scenes portrayed in the immensely popular 1980 film “The Gods Must Be Crazy.” But how accurate, really, was the romantic portrayal of the peaceful Ju/’hoansi in that film and in its 1989 successor, “The Gods Must Be Crazy […]
John Marshall Photos Now Available Through Flickr
The black and white photo on flickr of a Ju/’hoansi woman winnowing grain is only mildly interesting until you notice the dog-tag hanging around her neck—she is number 73. Her face is mostly obscured by her right arm holding up a handful of grain, which adds to the power of the shining number at the […]
