The Kinship Of The Sans Culture Sociology Essay

The Kinship Of The Sans Culture Sociology Essay To start off, the San culture is the kind of people that share food with the other families in their culture, the women, and the men work their butts off going out everyday hunting or even planting and growing crops like: berries, nuts, and fruits the women do most of the work. All the men do is go out and hunt for meat and all that adds up to 20% of the work and the other 80% belongs to the hard work the women put in to taking care of their culture. Another thing that I want to say about the San culture is, the San culture is known as (Bushmen) of the Kalahari Desert, and they Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades have lived in that region for thousands of years. There are a couple of more things I want to talk to you about this San culture is, after they get all of their work done the rest of the time is spent in leisurely pursuits: visiting, playing, sleeping, and just enjoying each others company. Not only do families pool the days production, but the entire camp, residents and visitors alike, shares equally in the total quantity of food available. The evening meal of any one family is made up of portions of food from each of the other families in the band. Foodstuffs are distributed raw or are prepared by the collectors and then distributed. The three examples of how the kinship system of the San culture impacts the way this culture behaves is: Generalized Reciprocity, Negative Reciprocity, Balanced Reciprocity and first the Generalized Reciprocity impacts the way they behave is, a form of exchange in which there is no expectation for the immediate return of an item in exchange for something else; in the long Kinship of the San Tribe Kinship of the San Tribe Kinship of the San Tribe The San tribe of South Africa has an amazing story. Their way of life and the ability to survive in the desert speaks volumes to their kinship system. They are a people that have built their entire life on the ability to survive on what the land provides and the families they create. The following summary of the San will comprise of who the San are and the ties that bind them together. How does an indigenous tribe with limited resources live in the desert? The San, or also known as the Bushmen, are a small yet mobile foraging band that resides in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa (NowakLaird, 2010, p. 3.1). As foragers the San hunt for their food, whether it is berries, nuts, or meat. The women of the San spend their time taking care of their children and searching for food. The men of the San spend their time hunting either individually or in groups. Because the San is a Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades foraging band this means they are required to move from place to place in order to find food when resources become scarce. However, they arent always hunting for food. The San find it very important to take time out of their day to spend visiting with family and friends. Family is very important to the San as will be described later in this summary. In addition to family, water is just as important as family. Because of the desert environment in which they live, it requires them to be aware of their resources and call upon other San tribes if assistance is needed. When resources are scarce, thats where the Sans kinship structure comes in to play. The Sans kinship system is structured is considered bilateral. Nowak and Laird (2010) describe bilateral descent as the kinship connections through both the mother and the father are equally important (p. 3.7). In the United States, a bilateral descent system exists. Individuals are related to both parents equally. Foragers, San Tribe The San Tribe When compared to our society, the San people have similar value systems. The San are the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa, where they have lived for thousands of years. The term San is commonly used to refer to a diverse group of hunter-gatherers living in Southern Africa who share historical and linguistic connections. Some foragers have lived in their present location for thousands of years, such as the San in southwest Africa (Nowak and Laird, 2010, p. 3.2). The San were also referred to as Bushmen, but this term has since been abandoned as it is considered derogatory. Here are three examples of how the San are like many American societies. Like many American families, the San people have no true leader. Leadership among the San is kept for those who have lived within that group for a long time, who have achieved a respectable age, and Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades good character. In many American families this is also true. The eldest person is treated with the most respect and families often try to discuss their problems together in order to keep peace in the family. The San also believe there is one powerful God. In our circles this belief is also true. They also respect the dead; we pay our respects to the dead as well by the various small things we do. We pull our vehicles over during a funeral procession, we do not walk on anyones grave, we lower flags for dead dignitaries, and we have large lists of things that we consider respect for the dead. Lastly, the San have religious aspirations. We also share this trait. There have a person they hold in high regards as we would a priest of preacher. They call their holy man a Shaman or medicine man. The San are big on having strong family ties and bonds. Lets look at how the family is thought to work or structure itself. Most foraging societies consist of a nuclear family setting. When looking how a The San Tribe The San Tribe One of the best-known hunting and gathering communities in the modern world are the San (Bushmen) of the Kalahari Desert. The San have been living in this region for thousands of years. Their diets are composed primarily of nuts, fruit, melons, and berries gathered by the women. The women are the primary gatherers and are responsible for contributing nearly 80 percent of the San diet. Men, the hunters, provide the remaining 20 percent of the diet in the form of meat. Even though they live in one of the most marginal environments in the world, the San search for food only two or three days a week. Women can collect enough food in one day to feed their families for a full week, while men hunt two or three days a week. The rest of the time is spent in leisurely pursuits: visiting, playing, sleeping, and just enjoying each others company. (Lee, Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades 1979) The San use Generalized Reciprocity, sharing what they have with other people in their band. Each San is not an island unto himself or herself, each is part of a collective. The group pools the resources that are brought into the camp so that everyone receives an equitable share. They do not do this out of nobility of soul or because they are made of better stuff than we are, they do it because it works for them and it enhances their survival. Without this core of sharing, life for the San would be harder and infinitely less pleasant. The San have rights to waterholes, and if others need to use them, they must obtain permission from the group holding the rights. Among the San, the owner of a hunted animal is not the hunter who killed the animal but rather the owner of the arrow or spear. The San migrate based on water availability and their shelters are built quickly, typically in one day, and are made from materials found locally and available to anyone. Amon g the San, the oldest woman in a San Tribe San Tribe San Tribe The San tribe of South Africa has an astonishing story. Their way of life and the aptitude to survive in the desert endowers wonders to their kinship system. They are a people that have built their entire life on the ability to live on what the land provides and the families they design. The following synopsis of the San will include who the San are and the ties that bind them together. How does a native tribe with scarce resources live in the desert? The San, or also known as the Bushmen, are a small yet mobile foraging band that resides in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa (Nowak Laird, 2010, p. 3.1). As foragers the San search for their food, whether it is berries, nuts, or meat. The women of the San devote their time taking care of their children and exploring for food. The men of the San devote their time hunting either individually or in groups. Because the San is a foraging band Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades this means that its necessary for them to move from place to place in order to find food when sources become limited. However, they are not continuously hunting for food. The San find it very significant to take time out of their day to spend visiting with family and friends. Kinfolk are very important to the San as will be described later in this synopsis. In addition to family, water is just as significant as family. Because of the desert environment in which they live, it makes them to be aware of their resources and call upon other San tribes if help is needed. When resources are scarce, thats where the Sans kinship binding comes to the surface. The Sans kinship system is considered bilateral. Nowak and Laird (2010) describe bilateral descent as the kinship connections through both the mother and the father are equally important (p. 3.7). In the United States, a bilateral descent system do exists. Individuals are related to both parents alike. Foragers, like the San, Kinship System of the San People Kinship of the San Bushmen The San or Bushmen people as they are sometimes called are a foraging group. Most foraging societies consist of a nuclear family setting. When looking how a family is laid out you must pay attention to descent. Descent is the passage of kinship though the parent-child links and the joining of the people into groups. There are two patterns for identifying descent: unilateral and bilateral. When looking at unilateral descent the relationships are followed through the mother and the father. The descent within the bilateral relationship is just as important. Most of all the foraging bands have bilateral descent. A San tribe member can find a blood relative in every tribe that he/she visits. This type of kinship is important if the family is low on resources, they can relocate, find family, and survive until they are once again able to thrive on their own. Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades To have a family member in every band that you travel to, a marriage has had to occur. Marriage between the men and women between the bands helps strengthen the social links. Once again these types of family ties are a survival tool for the bands desolate times. When a man is to consider marriage in the San tribe he must first make sure that the woman he is considering to marry does not have the same name as a parent or sibling. Marrying of a second cousin or closer is also prohibited. By doing this the tribe insures that there is no incest helping create future generations of children that can marry without the high chance of incest. With these rules in place it limits the number of women that can be married though out the region. Women would gather, and men hunted using poison arrows and spears in laborious days-long excursions. Children had no duties besides to play, and leisure was very important to the Bushmen. They spent large amounts of time with conversation , joking around, music, and sacred dances. The San Kinship System KINSHIP OF THE SAN PEOPLE 1 KINSHIP OF THE SAN PEOPLE 2 KINSHIP OF THE SAN PEOPLE The San people are indigenous cultures that are referred to as the Bushmen they live and have lived in the deserts of the Kalahari for many thousands of years. The San people are foraging band of families that gather and hunt for their livelihood traditionally women are responsible for eighty percent of the food gathering which consists of nuts, fruits, melons and berries while the men are responsible for twenty percent of the meat Nowak, B. Laird, P (2010). The family structure of the San people is one of kinship in which could include many family member such as uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers, sisters, maternal, paternal grandparent and their parents. It is a band of families that work together as a group Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades to provide food for all family members if another person killed a big animal they will share it with another family who wasnt as fortunate in hunting that day this is their way of life. This kinship reinforces the importance of family and keeps them close thus providing safety and comfort for all involved. The numbers of the San people can include over 30 members in their group or village; families can live in other parts of neighboring camps are usually interconnected by kinship and marriage: a brother and sister can live with spouses in one camp and in troubled times when food and their basic necessities are scare they have the option to move to another camp and live with their in-laws this type of family connections is referred to as a bilateral kinship. In bilateral kinship one cannot marry another family member who consists of second cousins or even people whom share the same name as her or his parents. KINSHIP OF THE SAN PEOPLE 3 The kinship of the family is very important to them the children The Sans Kinship System The Sans 1 The San 2 The San Kinship System The San are foragers who reside in the Kalahari Desert in Africa. The San people have survived and flourished here for thousands of years. In a foraging culture the people live in mobile groups called Bands (Nowak Laird, 2010). Typically, they move every few weeks to location were food and water is thriving. In foraging cultures continuous movement and the sharing of food and water are part of what builds kinship ties. These kinship ties build a greater sense of obligation to each other (Nowak Laird, 2010). I will explore a general reciprocal kinship system between the San people. I will provide three examples of this kinship system to display how it affects the San culture. General Reciprocal Exchange The San people live in a reciprocal economic system. This is defined as a mutual exchange Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades of goods and services which occurs between members of a kinship group (Nowak Laird, 2010). To be more specific the San people live in a generalized reciprocity. A generalized reciprocity is a form of exchange where there are no expectations for an immediate return of an item in exchange for something else (Nowak Laird, 2010). Sharing of Food and Water One example of generalized reciprocal culture lived by the San is their sharing and pooling together of food gathered for the day with all members of the Band. This sharing helps to ensure the survival of the camp. For example, a hunters family will not go hungry if he is unable to make a kill. Another hunter who was successful will provide equal shares of his kill with all members of the camp. This generalized reciprocity is The San 3 based on family and kin relationships (Nowak Laird, 2010). Typically, the neighbor they are sharing with is a parent, parent-in-law, or sibling. When thinking about how the San people The San Kinship System Introduction The San are foragers who reside in the Kalahari Desert in Africa. The San people have survived and flourished here for thousands of years. In a foraging culture the people live in mobile groups called Bands (Nowak Laird, 2010). Typically, they move every few weeks to location were food and water is thriving. In foraging cultures continuous move Sin Kinship System ment and the sharing of food and water are part of what builds kinship ties. These kinship ties build a greater sense of obligation to each other (Nowak Laird, 2010). I will explore a general reciprocal kinship system between the San people. I will provide three examples of this kinship system to display how it affects the San culture. General Reciprocal Exchange The San people live in a reciprocal economic system. This is defined as a mutual ex change of goods and services which occurs between Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades members of a kinship group (Nowak Laird, 2010). To be more specific the San people live in a generalized reciprocity. A generalized reciprocity is a form of exchange where there are no expectations for an immediate return of an item in exchange for something else (Nowak Laird, 2010). Sharing of Food and Water One example of generalized reciprocal culture lived by the San is their sharing and pooling together of food gathered for the day with all members of the Band. This sharing helps to ensure the survival of the camp. For example, a hunters family will not go hungry if he is unable to make a kill. Another hunter who was successful will provide equal shares of his kill with all members of the camp. This generalized reciprocity is based on family and kin relationships (Nowak Laird, 2010). Typically, the neighbor they are sharing with is a parent, parent-in-law, or sibling. Environment When thinking about how the San people The men and the women work together to make their Kinship System Cultural Thinking Paper: Kinship Organization Kinship remains at the core of social relations, but marriage customs and other kin-related rules change to deal with new relationships in terms of property, denser population, and conflict. People are related to each other as sharing a common ancestor or as in-laws. The way people are related, determines how they behave towards each other. In general there are two basic patterns for calculating descents: unilineal and bilateral. San kinship system is based on bilateral descent. In bilateral descents, the kinship connections through both the mother and the father are equally important. Because of this kinship relationship, a San will find a relative in every band he or she visits. If a family is facing shortage where they live, the can go to another bands territory and find kin, a place to stay, and access to water. San society Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades is groups of people whom love each others company. San live in the most marginal environments in the world. Hunters and gathers such as the San, who live in the desert, migrate based on water availability. San have many hours of free time for leisure activities, including socializing with their kin and friends. San is a very generous society; evening meals are shared among all families. Generosity maintains kin and social relationships while providing a safety net. Each San does not have an island unto him or herself, each is part of a collective. Because the San is apart of a band and are very generous you would think they share with no problem, in fact the often gripe about sharing. Without the core of sharing, life for the San would be harder and infinitely less pleasant. The way our cultures kinship system works is based on the way one is raised. One may have been raise to only give to you relatives and friends if the were to receive something back, on the other hand, one may have been raised Kinship System of the San People Kinship of the San Bushmen The San or Bushmen people as they are sometimes called are a foraging group. Most foraging societies consist of a nuclear family setting. When looking how a family is laid out you must pay attention to descent. Descent is the passage of kinship though the parent-child links and the joining of the people into groups. There are two patterns for identifying descent: unilateral and bilateral. When looking at unilateral descent the relationships are followed through the mother and the father. The descent within the bilateral relationship is just as important. Most of all the foraging bands have bilateral descent. A San tribe member can find a blood relative in every tribe that he/she visits. This type of kinship is important if the family is low on resources, they can relocate, find family, and survive until they are once again able to thrive on their own. Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades To have a family member in every band that you travel to, a marriage has had to occur. Marriage between the men and women between the bands helps strengthen the social links. Once again these types of family ties are a survival tool for the bands desolate times. When a man is to consider marriage in the San tribe he must first make sure that the woman he is considering to marry does not have the same name as a parent or sibling. Marrying of a second cousin or closer is also prohibited. By doing this the tribe insures that there is no incest helping create future generations of children that can marry without the high chance of incest. With these rules in place it limits the number of women that can be married though out the region. Women would gather, and men hunted using poison arrows and spears in laborious days-long excursions. Children had no duties besides to play, and leisure was very important to the Bushmen. They spent large amounts of time with conversation , joking around, music, and sacred dances. Impact of the Kinship System on San Culture Impact of the Kinship System on San Culture ANT 101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology August 21, 2011 Impact of the Kinship System on San Culture In this paper I will describe the kinship system of the San (Bushmen) and how it impacts their lives. First I will give a brief description of their culture. Then I will provide three examples of how the kinship system impacts the way the culture behaves. Following each of these examples I will discuss how this aspect of the kinship system compares with American society and also how it may impact behaviors in my life. Finally I will summarize the papers key points. Let us begin by learning a little about the San. The San live in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa which is one of the most inhospitable regions of the world. They survive on hunting wild game and also gathering roots and tubers. They are considered to be one of the oldest cultures in the world. The culture is expected to be over a Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades hundred thousand years old. Only until the last two thousand years have the San began living in the inhospitable desert. They have gradually been pushed here by modernization and farmers that have taken their old, more fertile lands (Tishkoff, 2009). I will now provide some examples of their kinship system and how it relates to Americans today. Generalized reciprocity plays a huge role in the San Culture. They do a very good job of making sure that everyone in the camp has equal amounts of food. This includes both family and visitors alike. The evening meal of any one family is made up of portions of food from each of the other families in the band. Food can be distributed either raw or will be prepared by whoever has collected the food and then it will be distributed. There is a constant flow of nuts, berries, roots and melons from one family to another. This will continue until everyone has an equal amount of food (Nowak Laird, 2010). This continuous movement of goods between families Kinship of the San Throughout the southern land of Africa live the native Bushmen also known as the San. According to the National Geographic video on The Bushmen, the San are recognized as one of the oldest cultural societies that still remain active. One of the strongest qualities epitomized by the society is their cohesive support system they operate in order to survive on a daily basis. As indicated by our text, the San are a foraging culture, meaning they generate only enough food and resources to consume for a day or two; lessening the amount of surplus and need for storage. The San believe in maintaining strong unions within their nuclear families and often joining with related nuclear families to assemble their bands. These bands look to each other for support within their community while harvesting, gathering, and operating daily duties within the community. Since the San are considered a band society, they are habitually on the move in search of new grounds to cultivate and develop. But regar dless of where Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades they move and who joins them, the San continue to stay linked with family that is near or far. Since the San believe in strong bonds with related kin, the choices made in their communities are decisions made as a group. Their preference for leaders comes from within their kinships. The San delegate a leader from inside their band as their informal headman or woman. San people look to their own people to find that one person who can help lead them in times of decision-making. San kinships look to elderly members to be their leaders. They use their age as a sign of experience and knowledge. There is no formal or political organization of leadership, but instead they choose a member who is well respected, has lots of charisma, and has been experienced through age. Since both genders are equally respected within their culture for their contributions, the headman or woman can be a male or female. This leader is the person they look to when in search of new territory or I Chose the San In this paper I have chosen to write about the San. I will be telling you about many different things that I have read in this the beginning of our studies in anthropology. I will cover kinship as it relates to the San tribe, and how it impacts their lives. I will make a comparison in how current day culture and kinship differs from theirs also how kinship today impacts our daily living. Residing in South West Africa the San are foragers. The San are considered to be one of the best-known hunting and gathering communities in the modern world (Nowak Laird, 2010); they are also known as the San (Bushmen) of the Kalahari Desert (Nowak Laird, 2010). The San are a foraging band of families, they live off of what they can either hunt or gather from their surroundings this is part of the reason that they move every so often as not to put a strain on the environment also to be Is this essay helpful? Upgrade your account to read more and access more than 650,000 just like it! get better grades able to provide for them self. women are responsible for eighty percent of the food gathering which consists of nuts, fruits, melons and berries while the men are responsible for twenty percent of the meat (Nowak Laird, 2010). The type of kinship that the San follow starts as nuclear and can go as far as the extended family. This seems to make the idea of general reciprocal exchange easier to deal with. The San live in an economic system of general reciprocal exchange. In the text generalized reciprocity is defined as a form of exchange where there are no expectations for an immediate return of an item in exchange for something else (Nowak Laird, 2010). The members of the San would hunt and gather food and share the wealth with everyone in the band, making sure that everyone can eat even if they were unable to contribute, Sharing of this kind helps strengthen ties.