The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society (Paperback)

~ Richard Borshay Lee (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

For most of human history hunting and gathering was a universal way of life. Richard Borshay Lee spent over three years conducting fieldwork among the !Kung San, an isolated population of 1,000 in northern Botswana. When Lee began his work in 19863, the !Kung San were one of the last of the world's people to live this life. By 1973, when Lee last lived with the group, it appeared that they !Kung were a society on the threshold of a transformation that signalled the end of foraging as an independent way of life, at least in Africa. The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society, an ecological and historical study, is Professor Lee's major statement on his research. By maintaining simultaneous historical and synchronic perspectives, Lee is able to extend his analysis of core features from the contemporary !Kung to prehistoric societies. These basic principles become the means to understanding the form of human life that has been obscured by the developments and complications of societies during the last few thousand years.

Book Description

The !Kung San: men, women and work in a foraging society, an ecological and historical study, is Professor Lee's major statement on his research. By maintaining simultaneous historical and synchronic perspectives, Lee is able to extend his analysis of core features from the contemporary !Kung to prehistoric societies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 526 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (December 12, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521295610
• ISBN-13: 978-0521295611
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #954,334 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wealth of information on an African hunter-gatherer group, March 13, 2002

By A Customer

This 1979 book contains the findings of four years of fieldwork done in the 60s and early 70s by the well known American anthropologist Richard Lee (and others) among the !Kung San, a hunter-gatherer group living on the border of Botswana and Namibia in Southern Africa. All realms of !Kung life are documented in great detail, including the Kalahari desert environment they live in, its plant resources and animals, the tools the !Kung use, their hunting skills, the division of labour between men and women, and much more. It doesn't stay with written descriptions of the !Kung (which always have the danger of subjectivity), but the information is supplemented with a large number of tables and figures with quantitative information, like relative hunting success of !Kung men, caloric and protein levels in the !Kung diet, and !Kung homicide statistics. Some of the information might surprise you. The lives of hunter-gatherers are often thought of as "nasty, brutish, and short", but the !Kung show hardly any signs of malnutrition, it turns out they need to work only 12 to 21 hours a week to get enough food, and there are quite some !Kung over 60 years of age. Studying a hunting and gathering lifestyle is very important because humans have lived like this for about 95% of their existence and so it contains valuable information about were we come from. Unfortunately, in the world there are hardly any people living like this anymore. Lee reports that at the end of his fieldwork even the !Kung were, for better or worse, changing their way of life quickly with the arrival of agriculture, shops, beer, and a cash economy.