FREE ESSAY ON THE DOBE JU/'HOANSI

THE DOBE JU/'HOANSI

Lee, Richard B., 1993, The Dobe Ju/ ?hoansi. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College
Publishers, (second edition).
Bushman: a member of a group of short-statured peoples of southern Africa who
traditionally live by hunting and foraging. While the term ?bushman? has come to be known
as both racist and sexist, it is easily the most recognized term when describing the
people living amongst the bush of southern Africa. The San, as they are now known as, are
a cluster of indigenous peoples of southern Africa who speak a click language and who
have a tradition of living by hunting and gathering (10). In the book The Dobe
Ju/?hoansi, Richard B. Lee, an anthropologist from the University of Toronto, takes an
interesting and in-depth look into the San life by centering his studies on one specific
group. Lee?s focus of study takes place on the border between the countries of Namibia
and Botswana in an area called the Dobe. Here there live a tribe of people known as the
Dobe Ju/?hoansi.
Lee centers on several important issues of the Ju/?hoansi culture and lifestyle
throughout the book. He provides a tremendous amount of information that is broken into
twelve chapters that continually draws deeper into the internal thinking of the
Ju/?hoansi culture. The method of bringing out this information is delivered first
externally with their environment and examples of hunting techniques while moving into
deeper issues such as sexuality and religion. Lee also informs the reader on the
Ju/?hoansi?s kinship, social organization, marriage, as well as conflict, their politics,
and social change.
Lee begins the case study by providing an interesting lead-in as to the trials and
tribulations of locating the Dobe people. I thought that this was an interesting device
in order to grasp the reader?s attention towards the immense isolation that the
Ju/?hoansi remain in. Once contact has been established, Lee delves into covering basic
background information such as the environment that they live in including climate,
physical features, and settlement patterns. I found this information to be very helpful
in my attempt to familiarize myself with the Dobe Ju/?hoansi as to how they live. While
Lee covers a great deal of information about the Dobe Ju/?hoansi, I found that the most
important issues lie within their subsistence, kinship, and sexuality.
The Dobe Ju/?hoansi are a hunting and gathering group of people, which is thought to be
how early man lived. Therefore, it is easy to see why Lee acknowledges the importance of
studying the Ju/?hoansi while they are still relatively isolated. Here we are able to
view a culture that retains our early ancestral pattern. As recently as 1964, 85% of
their calories were the result of hunting and gathering (156). That number has since
decreased due to the increased Westernization. The most interesting feature of the
Ju/?hoansi foraging is the relatively little amount of work needed to feed a village. As
Lee observed on a trip to a mongongo tree, that within a two-hour period, a woman
gathered 30-50 lbs. of nuts enabling a person to eat for ten days (40).
The kinship of the Dobe Ju/?hoansi is very important in creating order to interpersonal
relationships, inheritance, and marriage (foreword, v). Lee suceeds where others have
failed in that he is able to take a difficult and complex topic (social organization of
kin) and create an easier way to understand it. Instead of diving right into the
organization, Lee provides a diagram showing what and where the terms are as seen on
pages 66 through 69. The most interesting part, in my opinion, was the limited number of
personal names. There are only 35 men?s names and 32 woman?s names in use in 1964 (71).
In fact 75% of all the men had one or another of the eleven most popular names, while 73%
of woman had one of the twelve most popular names (72). The reasoning behind this was due
to the Ju/?hoansi belief that a child must be named for somebody. A first-born son is
named after his father?s father, and the daughter named after her father?s mother. Never
are parents allowed to name their children after themselves. This varies greatly with our
society where it is a commonality. 
The sexuality of the Ju/?hoansi is also very interesting. In Ju/?hoansi culture, girls
and boys learn and take part in sex at a very early age. Parents and children sleep in
the same bed, under the same blanket and sex is performed discreetly as the child sleeps.
Sexual play is also considered just another part of childhood. Lee tells the story of one
woman and her discovery of sex by playing sexual games with her friends. The woman states
that ?most boys and girls will have some experience of sexual intercourse by age 15.?
(91) The Ju/?hoansi also fail to have forms of sexual behavior that is common in our
society. This includes oral and anal sex, bondage, and sado-masochistic practices.
Instead, the one goal is orgasm (91).
The Ju/?hoansi today are very different from the life lived in the 1960s. The Ju/?hoansi
have been in more contact with modernization. Whereas in 1964 hunting and gathering made
up 85% of the food calories, now only 30% of the calories come from it. The rest is found
in milk and meat from domestic stock, store-bought, or governmental mealie meal (156).
There has also been a rise in their cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
These were uncommon ailments before, but diets of carbohydrates, heavier smoking, alcohol
consumption, and changes in lifestyle are the reasoning behind this. Finally, the
education level of the Ju/?hoansi is very low. The large majority has little or no
schooling and job prospects are low. Poverty remains high with little prospect of
change.
The method of Lee?s book is done very well, in my opinion. He proceeds to ?set-up? the
reader with an outline of the Dobe Ju/?hoansi people as well as describing the scene to
the reader as if they were a part of the anthropological case study themselves. He
organizes the book in a relatively efficient way. I felt it was important to introduce
the reader to the people of the Dobe as well as the condition experienced in the African
bush. 
Lee?s style of writing is also very powerful in gaining the reader?s interest. Unlike
Chagnon?s Yanomamo, this book captures the intrigue of the reader by not filling the book
with an assortment of anthropological jargon. Instead, Lee allows the Ju/?hoansi to speak
for themselves through their own stories and experiences. The complex matters that Lee
intends to discuss are usually provided with a Ju/?hoansi conversation or story, which
helps for the technical ?jargon? to feel more alive and real. The one example where I
feel this is most evident is in the chapter of kinship and social organization. Most
commonly, this area is considered dull, difficult, and confusing. Lee, however, succeeds
in providing some interest on the topic. The story of meeting his ?brother? of the same
name is a great example of this.
Overall, I feel that Lee is effective in getting his information across on the Dobe
Ju/?hoansi. He is able to grab the reader?s attention and maintain in throughout the
book. I think Lee succeeds in his goal of sharing his knowledge of a culture similar to
how our own culture may have developed. Throughout the book, the reader will be able to
visit the Dobe, its culture, and perhaps grasp a higher understanding of man and his
evolution through life. This can all be done by comprehending the life and culture of the
Dobe Ju/?hoansi
Bibliography
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