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Cultural Diversity among Twentieth-Century Foragers

Cultural Diversity among Twentieth-Century Foragers

Cultural Diversity among Twentieth-Century Foragers

An African Perspective
Susan Kent, Old Dominion University, Virginia
November 2006
Available
Paperback
9780521026000
$46.99
USD
Paperback

    This book examines variability within broadly defined African forager societies. Foragers have been seen as culturally similar as they all pursue a subsistence strategy emphasizing hunting and gathering. However, new research suggests there may be more diversity among groups than has been acknowledged. Here, leading scholars contrast groups within forager societies. Chapters range in scope from symbolic to ecological and behavioral, providing invaluable data on hunter-gatherer life for anyone concerned with past or present foragers.

    • A rich ethnography of contemporary African hunter-gatherers which will be of interest to a wide range of scholars
    • Based on research which dispels common myths about hunter-gatherers and their foraging way of life
    • Draws on leading scholars in the field with diverse backgrounds and theoretical orientations

    Reviews & endorsements

    "...this volume is invaluable to social scientists as well as development practitioners." Choice

    "As befits an editor of her considerable experience, Kent has done a solid job of integrating these diverse solicited pieces." Robert J. Gordon, African-American Studies

    See more reviews

    Product details

    November 2006
    Paperback
    9780521026000
    360 pages
    233 × 151 × 19 mm
    0.51kg
    11 maps
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • List of illustrations
    • List of contributors
    • 1. Cultural diversity among African foragers: causes and implications Susan Kent
    • Part I. Southern African Foragers:
    • 2. Neither are your ways my ways George Silberbauer
    • 3. Diversity and flexibility: the case of the Bushmen of Southern Africa Mathias Guenther
    • 4. Nharo and Hai//om settlement patterns in comparative perspective Alan Barnard and Thomas Widlok
    • 5. Kua: farmer/foragers of the eastern Kalahari, Botswana Helga Vierich and Robert Hitchcock
    • 6. Hunting variability at a recently sedentary Kalahari village Susan Kent
    • Part II. Eastern African Foragers:
    • 7. The global process and local ecology: how should we explain differences between the Hadza and the !Kung? Nicholas Blurton Jones, Kristen Hawkes and James O'Connell
    • 8. Fission, fusion, and foragers in East Africa: micro- and macroprocesses of diversity and integration among Okiek groups Roderic Blackburn
    • Part III. Central African Foragers:
    • 9. Cultural diversity among African pygmies Barry Hewlett
    • 10. A comparative approach to hunting rituals among Baka Pygmies (southeastern Cameroon) Daou V. Joiris
    • 11. Cultural diversity in the use of plants by the Mbuti hunter-gatherers in northeastern Zaire: an ethnobotanical approach Mitsuo Ichikawa and Hideaki Terashima
    • Part IV. Commentary:
    • 12. Hunter-gatherer research and cultural diversity Nurit Bird-David
    • References
    • Index.
      Contributors
    • Susan Kent, George Silberbauer, Mathias Guenther, Alan Barnard, Thomas Widlok, Helga Vierich, Robert Hitchcock, Nicholas Blurton Jones, Kristen Hawkes, James O'Connell, Roderic Blackburn, Barry Hewlett, Daou V. Joiris, Mitsuo Ichikawa, Hideaki Terashima, Nurit Bird-David

    • Editor
    • Susan Kent , Old Dominion University, Virginia