Anthroplpogy
The book of Dobe Ju/’hoansi by the author Richard B. Lee depicts the culture of the Dobe people and tries to Understand the various aspect of their cultural life. In chapter eight, Lee illustrates three ways in which the Dobe people strived to maintain peace in the community through ways such as land ownership and leadership, ways in which the resolved conflicts and also hxaro which was also known as the gift exchanged mainly served as maintain a social relationship between groups.
Hxaro gift exchange was not only to maintain social relationship between groups; it was also a way to minimize conflict and violence among the people. It is a type of balanced reciprocity whereby the gifts given will balance out at the end. Hxaro is also done among family members. As nomads, hxaro exchange plays an important role in the Ju/hoansi people in social relation to help them maintain contacts with different groups. (2013: 133-135)It was also a better way to exchange resources that were limited in different areas. The frequent hxaro items were ostrich- shell, necklaces and other beadwork. Food was never hxaroed.
Land tenure system was communal, they had a group of people responsible for the land and this is the way they controlled their resources such as food, reproduction of food, storage of food and even how the food was used. an extend of communal belonging was shown among the Dobe people by the giving of rights to each individual to at least two territories, also known as n!ores. the two groups of people that lived in this area were the san and the blacks. the san lived a nomadic life, while the hierardiacal society lived the black settled life. there was no headman among the Ju/’hoansi people. /Twigum, one of the owners of! Kangwa says, “Of course we have headmen...in fact, we are all headmen...each one of us is headman over himself.” (2013:124)This illustrates that the Ju/’hoansi lifestyle and social structure did not have a place for political authority. There
Hxaro gift exchange was not only to maintain social relationship between groups; it was also a way to minimize conflict and violence among the people. It is a type of balanced reciprocity whereby the gifts given will balance out at the end. Hxaro is also done among family members. As nomads, hxaro exchange plays an important role in the Ju/hoansi people in social relation to help them maintain contacts with different groups. (2013: 133-135)It was also a better way to exchange resources that were limited in different areas. The frequent hxaro items were ostrich- shell, necklaces and other beadwork. Food was never hxaroed.
Land tenure system was communal, they had a group of people responsible for the land and this is the way they controlled their resources such as food, reproduction of food, storage of food and even how the food was used. an extend of communal belonging was shown among the Dobe people by the giving of rights to each individual to at least two territories, also known as n!ores. the two groups of people that lived in this area were the san and the blacks. the san lived a nomadic life, while the hierardiacal society lived the black settled life. there was no headman among the Ju/’hoansi people. /Twigum, one of the owners of! Kangwa says, “Of course we have headmen...in fact, we are all headmen...each one of us is headman over himself.” (2013:124)This illustrates that the Ju/’hoansi lifestyle and social structure did not have a place for political authority. There