The Bushmen of Southern Africa — 2000 ·

A Foraging Society in Transition

By Andy Smith, Candy Malherbe, Mat Gunther, and Penny Berens

This book, by an anthropologist, historian, social anthropologist, and schoolteacher, introduces the long history and current condition of the hunting people of southern Africa to students, teachers, and interested laypersons. It places the modern San in historical context and shows how they have continually adapted to outside pressures, which are forcing them to fit into the modern states of Namibia and Botswana. In many ways this is a story of people who were and are well adapted to their environment and who, in spite of pressure from outsiders over the centuries, have kept their culture reasonably intact. These small-scale societies have social lessons to teach a world that is becoming increasingly homogenized. This book helps us to understand their lifestyle.

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Andy Smith is an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Cape Town.

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Candy Malherbe is a historian and writer.

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Penny Berens has been a teacher and is a freelance writer and editor.