The San Tribe

The San Tribe

If you were to travel around the world you would find varies different cultures with amazing stories. In South Africa, there is a tribe that is known as the San tribe that has many stories about life in their tribe. They live in the South African deserts and have the ability to survive in it. These individual base their lives on a Kinship, "a system of culturally defined social relationships based on marriage (principle of affinity) and birth (principle of consanguinity)" (Nowak and Laird, Glossary, 2010).

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). The Bushman tribe is considered to be the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa. They are known as foragers, who are by tradition known as a band society. "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).

These interesting individuals hunt for what they can find such as meat (animals), berries and nuts. The men of the tribe due the hunting and making tools for survival while the women search for other kinds of food and mind the children. When their food and water resources become insufficient, the San tribe has to migrate in order to find more. They survive and search for food in the harshest conditions anyone would dream of going through.

"To the locals, the Kalahari means thirst, hot, dry, home, harsh, splendid, bright full moons, birds, buck, sheep cattle, horses, dunes, thorn bushes and trees, hardship ... and peace. It also means survival, and much, much more. To the visitor it can restore vitality, bring humour, and teach endurance and vulnerability. The Kalahari leaves one still within and in awe of creation." (Vetkat).

As their resources become scares, they must ask for assistance from other San tribes nearby, which shows how their Kinship systems plays a part of their life. Their Kinship system can be compared to the system that western society follows. Their system structure is described as a bilateral decent. Nowak and Laird (2010) describe bilateral descent as "the kinship connections through both the mother and the father are equally important" (p. 3.7). They utilize this type of decent, so they can be able to provide for their families. Descent involves the passage of membership through the parent-child links and the incorporation of these people into groups (Nowak & Laird, 2010, pg. 3.7).

Since they follow a bilateral decent they acknowledge both sides of the family not just the husband's side. Nowak and Laird (2010) describe bilateral descent as "the kinship connections through both the mother and the father are equally important" (p. 3.7). Within each band there is usually a family member to other San tribes.

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