A Reassessment of the Kung San
The !Kung San are a group of hunter-gathers that make their home in the northern Kalahari desert. Although many ecological and cultural changes have occurred within this group throughout the past thirty years, this article examines the gathering and subsistence patterns that characterize these people. Bentley examines the total fertility rate of the !Kung San and hypothesizes that the pattern of female energetics in their subsistence routine has a direct effect upon their fecundity (1984: 79). His perspective explores the topic of fertility in great depth, and represents a viewpoint that is absent from the text written by Richard Lee, The Dobe Ju’/hoansi. In fact, some of the hypotheses proposed by Bentley appear to contradict Lee’s own research, while others are supported by the findings of Lee.
One question that remains undecided regarding the low fertility rates of the !Kung is the degree to which this is a result of sociocultural means, or an effect of physiological and biological processes. Bentley examines the "intermediate variables" within Bongaarts’ reproductive equation, which is one means of illustrating and quantifying the mechanisms that may cause the low fertility rate, and demonstrates that this research seems insufficient in explaining fertility. Briefly, Bongaarts’ equation incorporates the following variables: total fertility rate, index of proportions married, index of contraception, index of induced abortion, index of lactational infecundability, and total fecundity (which includes fecundability, intra-uterine mortality, and permanent sterility).
In addition to showing that the intermediate variables of Bongaart’s equation are insufficient in explaining th...
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...estyle may consist of foods that are more malleable, therefore reducing the amount of time mothers spend nursing their young.
As the !Kung make cultural transitions into more sedentary lifestyles, fertility rates will presumably be affected. As Lee points out, in village life the men maintain the mobility while the women become housebound, with more of their time spent alone with the children. Thus, a more sedentary lifestyle may lead to an increase in fertility rates and a subsequent increase in population. In fact, the population of Dove has risen from 35 in 1964 to 165 at the time Lee wrote his book (1994: 154). Another result of such changes is that they may lead to the subordination of women. The new emergence of a sedentary lifestyle has implications for overall fertility, but also threatens to undermine the egalitarian values of this group of people.
Marjorie Shostak, an anthropologist who had written this book had studies the !Kung tribe for two years. Shostak had spent the two years interviewing the women in the society. The !Kung tribe resided n the Dobe area of Northwest Botswana, that’s infused with a series of clicks, represented on paper by exclamation points and slashes. Shostak had studied that the people of the tribe relied mostly on nuts of the mongongo, which is from an indigenous tree that’s part of their diet.
“Small Happiness” is a documentary about women of a Chinese village. The title derived from the quote, “To give birth to a boy is considered a big happiness, to give birth to a girl is a small happiness.” It covered a variety of topics such as how women view their bodies, marriages, and families. From the documentary’s interviews of women of different ages, we can see although the tradition of male dominance in the Chinese society remains, the lives of rural Chinese women have changed significantly in the last half century.
"Children of the Forest" is a narrative written by Kevin Duffy. This book is a written testament of an anthropologist's everyday dealings with an African tribe by the name of the Mbuti Pygmies. My purpose in this paper is to inform the reader of Kevin Duffy's findings while in the Ituri rainforest. Kevin Duffy is one of the first and only scientists to have ever been in close contact with the Mbuti. If an Mbuti tribesman does not want to be found, they simply won't be. The forest in which the Mbuti reside in are simply too dense and dangerous for humans not familiar with the area to enter.
Although we have yet to discover complete equality among the sexes in any pre-existing or presently existing society, the !Kung people are among the closest to reach such equality. The !Kung are an egalitarian society, meaning everyone has access to the valued resources. While the amount of access does vary, just the fact that everyone is includedat least on some levelwhen it comes to meeting the essential needs of living is significant.
“The Sambia: Ritual, Sexuality, and Change in Papua New Guinea” is a book written by Gilbert Herdt. It is based on a case study Herdt did during the 1970’s of the culture of the Sambia people. His study took place in Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. He didn’t know much about their language, however through out his time there he was able to learn their language and customs. As he settled into their village, he mostly slept in the clubhouse with the other Nilangu villagers; however, eventually they built a house for him to stay at. Herdt had a great interest in gaining new knowledge about the Sambia culture.
In her book, The House of Lim, author Margery Wolf observes the Lims, a large Chinese family living in a small village in Taiwan in the early 1960s (Wolf iv). She utilizes her book to portray the Lim family through multiple generations. She provides audiences with a firsthand account of the family life and structure within this specific region and offers information on various customs that the Lims and other families participate in. She particularly mentions and explains the marriage customs that are the norm within the society. Through Wolf’s ethnography it can be argued that parents should not dec5pide whom their children marry. This argument is obvious through the decline in marriage to simpua, or little girls taken in and raised as future daughter-in-laws, and the influence parents have over their children (Freedman xi).
Robbins Burling, David F. Armstrong, Ben G. Blount, Catherine A. Callaghan, Mary Lecron Foster, Barbara J. King, Sue Taylor Parker, Osamu Sakura, William C. Stokoe, Ron Wallace, Joel Wallman, A. Whiten, Sherman Wilcox and Thomas Wynn. Current Anthropology, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 25-53
The way of the Ju/‘hoansi life has changed dramatically in many ways throughout the years. However, it is still possible to reflect upon their original way of life and compare it with their present state of living. Most of the changes occurred due to environmental, economical, developmental, social and cultural changes. All of which play a vital role in determining a Ju’s way of life. Although the land of the Dobe and !Kangwa have developed and changed in recent years, there are still some remnants of how the environment used to be. A significant shift in social and cultural aspects of the Ju/‘hoansi life can be observed in the new environment. However, some important aspects of their culture and belief system are still reflected in their everyday lives.
In 1979, China decided to establish a one child policy which states that couples are only allowed to have one child, unless they meet certain exceptions[1].In order to understand what social impacts the one child policy has created in China it important to evaluate the history of this law. China’s decision to implement a Child policy has caused possible corruption, an abuse of women’s rights, has led to high rates of female feticide, has created a gender ratio problem for China, and has led to specific problems associated with both the elderly and younger generation. Finally, an assessment of why China’s one child policy is important to the United States allows for a full evaluation of the policy.
of a blind or control group can affect the documenting of these types of coincidental effects and the belief of their cause. Thus people who know they are taking placebos will assume that their headache or other unpleasant symptom is not due to anything they are taking and may fail to report it. Those who know they are receiving real treatment are more likely to believe the causality are more likely to report it. The "blind" control group helps to balance the effects of incidental timing
The main focus of the post war testimony of Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess, Commandant at Auschwitz from May 1940 until December, 1943, is the mass extermination of Jews during World War II. His signed affidavit had a profound impact at the Post-War trials of Major War Criminals held at Nuremburg from November 14, 1945 to October 1, 1946. His testimony is a primary source that details and describes his personal account of the timeline, who ordered Auschwitz to become a death camp, and the means used to execute and exterminate millions of Jews. Obtained while tortured nearly to death under British custody, the authenticity and reliability of this document is questioned due to arguable inconsistencies that exist. However, the events sworn to in his testimony have been recounted and corroborated by witnesses and thousands of survivors.
Feng Wang and Cai Yong stated that the fertility rate was already declining and the policy wasn’t necessary for the Chinese people, especially because of the enormous costs. The fertility rate, which is the number of children the average woman has in her lifetime, in China started at 2.7 in 1979 and decreased to 1.7 in 2008. The article “China’s One Child Policy at 30” argued that the policy did not need to be introduced in China because the rates were already lower than Brazil at 4.2 and Thailand at 3.6.
For example, When one of Nisa’s husbands died, she was pressured into marrying a man who worked in the villages because this was the only way to ensure her financial stability. She married this man, Besa, even though neither she, nor her parents approved, and she was in love with someone else. When women stopped providing most of the food for their families, they lost their economic independence. When Nisa’s daughter, Nai, was killed by her husband, the headman appointed to lead the bush tribes did nothing but call Nai’s husband “foolish” and he told him to bring Nisa five goats in compensation. If the headman had not existed, then the !Kung could have exacted their own justice on Nai’s husband by beating or killing him, instead of letting him go free, only having to give five goats in exchange for taking a woman’s life. If Nisa’s stories are true, then there is evidence to suggest that the women in !Kung society are losing some of the high status they enjoyed before their society was forced to
Different anthropologists such as Nowak and Laird (2010), and Butler (2006), recommended that these residents of jungles contain an exclusive background; position, morals and everyday life is entirely through big adjustment. It can be said that the Mbuti people live in their own world. This paper will discuss the kinship system and the social organization of the culture as far as how they practice equal sharing of food after engaging in hunting and gathering. This paper will also discuss how the Mbuti culture uses gender relation to determine their hunting ages.
Teitelbaum, Michael S., Jay Winter. “Low Fertility Rates - Just a Phase?” YaleGlobal Online. Yale Global, 9 Jul. 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.