The !Xun are a San people living in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, Botswana, and in Angola. In this book, the cultural and ecological foundations of ethnicity of the !Xun provide a case study for an intensive regional structural comparison of Ì?å?Ì?å?Ju societies. Long known to Western Europe as the 'Bushmen,' the San consist of various groups distinguished by language, locale, and practice. Narratives on San Ethnicity focuses on the !Xun who have lived in north-central Namibia for centuries, and it adopts a life story approach to understand the lived histories of the people. The book looks at inter-ethnic relationships and the multi-dimensional associations with neighboring groups, particularly the Owambo and Akhoe. It scrutinizes kinship and naming terminologies, transitions of ethnicity, the interplay between ethnicity and familial / kin relationships, and the reorganization of environmental features that effect child socialization. Narratives on San Ethnicity provides a valuable research perspective in San studies and in the emerging anthropology of their life-world. It is a significant addition to the small body of anthropological studies on the !Xun.

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About Editors and Authors

TAKADA Akira is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University, and specialist in anthropology and area studies. He graduated from the Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University, and received a PhD from Kyoto University in Human and Environmental Studies. The focus of his fieldwork and research is on the San (Bushman), who are known as the hunter-gatherers of Southern Africa.

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