The Dobe !Kung

by Richard B. Lee

A case study of the !Kung San, foragers of the Kalahari Desert of northwestern Botswana. The Kalahari and its relative isolation provided an environment, over millennia, that nourished a significant foraging culture and insulated it from heavy penetration and influence by the outside world.

In the early 1960s, Richard Lee encountered a group of !Kung who were living almost entirely by hunting and gathering. This made it possible for him to study the !Kung foraging adaptation, one critically important in human evolution, as a whole and intact way of life.

Lee tries to let the people speak for themselves. Complex matters are often presented through dialogue with principal !Kung characters, so that the meaning of things to them is made clear at the same time that important technical points are made to come alive.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, History

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Anthropologist

Reviews

[Theo Logos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was my introduction to ethnographies. I encountered it in an Introduction to Anthropology Class in the early mists of my young manhood. This study of a modern group of hunter gathers, the !Kung, remains with me for two primary reasons. I found their tongue clicking language (clicks represented with a !) interesting, and it helped me to better appreciate the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy which I saw around the same time.

[Tibby]

This was a fascinating ethnography. Very informative but also engaging. The length makes it very manageable and digestible.
The Dobe Kung obviously lived such a different lifestyle from that of an American (although they have recently been marginalized and forced to abandon much of their traditional way of life) and, when I read this my first year in college, it was so eye opening. Even at 17 I could not put it down.

[lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interested in this case study. The Dobe !Kung lived almost entirely by foraging for food 3 to 4 hours a day. This book examines the introduction of Western influence ... medicine and technology ... on the Dobe !Kung lifestyle. Looking forward to seeing the positive + negatives aspects, what the !Kung keep versus what they reject ( + why ).

[Philip Stouffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot; too bad the clock can't go back to 1963. Preparation for Namibia.