Dobe Ju/Hoansi Culture

The ethno-linguistic community, located in the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa, also known as the Dobe Ju/’hoansi, are people who live near Bechuanaland water holes. Also known as the san speaking people, their kind has been around for over twenty thousand years. The san’s kinship system is based on lineage. Their kinship ties, in the Jo/’hoansi culture, have specific names for all relations, in order to establish how one is related to another. These names also determine what type of relationship one has with another and differentiates nuclear families and collateral relatives. Food being brought back to camps is another way kinship ties are maintained. Due to this, others rely for food to be brought back to the camp, so it’s wise for one
Unlike the the elders in United States, where they’re feeble and dependant on others, to some extent, the elders in the Ju/’hoansi culture are still heavily involved in social activities and are ranked high on the social ladder. The Dobe Ju/’hoansi religion is polytheistic, comprised of multiple Gods, but mainly two. The names for the two Gods are the higher God, “gangwan!an!a”, and the lower god, “gangwa maste”. Majority believe that the higher God is righteous while the lesser God is evil, though some have different beliefs. Another big aspect of the Ju/’Hoansi is spirituality. Spirituality is important because it is used to cure sickness. One must achieve a level of spirituality to become a certified healer. The Ju/’hoansi also believe sickness, death, and misfortune are supernatural and can be cured through
By the late nineteen-fifties, this information had made it’s way to the Ju/’hoansi territory. Income and wages from gold mining were unknown to the Ju/’hoansi, so they established their own idea of an exchange system. Values of the wage and income one would receive were equally exchanged for items of equal value, such as clothing. Also, during the late nineteen-seventies, the first store open up at !Kangwa, in Ju/’hoansi area, which was controlled by greek traders. The first school was also open up in !Kangwa, though none of the Ju/’hoansi children attended, because parents were dubious and wary about the school. The problem they faced was, the culture was changing and literacy skills would be needed in order to survive and get