Mathias Guenther

War and peace among Kalahari San

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain the discrepancy between ethnohistorical accounts on north-western Kalahari San of the nineteenth to early twentieth century and recent ethnographic accounts, the former depicting the San as intensely warlike, the latter as basically peaceable. Design/methodology/approach – Review of historical, ethnohistorical and ethnographic source material (reports, journal articles, monographs). Findings – The warlike ways of the nineteenth-century Kalahari San were reactions to settler intrusion, domination and encapsulation. This was met with resistance, a process that led to the rapid politicization and militarization, socially and ideationally, of San groups in the orbit of the intruders (especially the “tribal zone” they created). It culminated in internecine warfare, specifically raiding and feuding, amongst San bands and tribal groupings. Research limitations/implications – While the nineteenth-century Kalahari San were indeed warlike and aggressive, toward both...

Nomadic peoples and human rights

colonial history of nation building’, she writes, ‘than an erasure or denial of the true costs of colonial gains.’ How far the costs to Indigenous human rights will be recognized in the museum remains doubtful; the past would seem to be too present for many. In such public ways – together with resource exploitation, economic and social disadvantage, and everyday cultural devaluation – the relations of genocide are manifested all over North America. Such relations, says Margaret Jacobs, are naturalized to the point of common sense. The ‘habit of elimination’ that allowed the removal of children from their families remains endemic in attitudes, policies and actions. Where the academy goes, museums, movies, web pages and other books do not always follow. Indigenous activists know better than most how hard it is bring about even incremental change. But scholars can play a part. The warped definitions of genocide installed in public attitudes and forthrightly contested in this book will not yield without resistance. Ideologies are not systems that can simply be de-installed. But they must be confronted, argued with, and undermined. These scholars show the way.