The Ju/'hoansi are bushmen of the Kalahari Desert who live in the area of northwestern Botswana near the border of Namibia. This location is important because the Kalahari and its relative isolation provide an environment that nourishes a significant foraging culture and isolates it from heavy penetration and influence by the outside world. This paper will examine how the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen's lives are influenced by their environment and how it affects their subsistence, political organization, mobility, and shelter.
In contrast to the conceptions of a Western industrialized culture as the pinnacle of human success, the Ju/'hoansi present a picture of steady work, steady leisure, and adequate diet (Lee iv). The traditional Ju/'hoansi need to work only a few hours a day to maintain a caloric level that enables them to live vigorous lives without losing weight. Many of their waking hours are devoted to celebrating their existence through ritual and dance, as well as leisurely and rewarding social interaction.
The Dobe area where the Ju/'hoansi live can be divided into three sections (Lee 12-13). The more northern waterholes are strung out along the !Kangwa Nyae dry river valley that has its source in the Nyae Nyae area of Namibia, transversing an area of limestone and granite known to the Ju/'hoansi as N!umsi. The area has permanent waterholes and a hinterland of gathering and hunting areas. South of the Ahas, a smaller dry river valley, the /Xai/xai Molapo, forms the main site of settlement with its major waterhole at /Xai/xai Pan and a hinterland containing many smaller seasonal waterpoints to the west, south, and east. In the center are the Aha hills, consisting of several scattered ranges of low hills 100 meters above the surrounding plain.
About 70 percent of the Ju/'hoansi live in the N!umsi, while the remainder live at Xai/xai. The Aha Hills, because of no permanent water, contain no permanent settlements. ...