Visiting Relations and Social Interactions between Residential Groups of the Central Kalahari San: Hunter-Gatherer Camp as a Micro-Territory

Abstract

Since 1979, the Botswana government prompted the Central Kalahari San in the Kade area to settle at !Koi!kom. In this sedentary community, I observed visiting activity between residential groups (camps). Visiting activity of females is based on close kinship relations among them, while male social relationships range beyond the boundary of their linguistic group. Economic transactions, such as giving-and-receiving-goods and serving-and-consuming-food, frequently occur during visiting. The San men sometimes visit the camps of the Kgalagadi people, expecting some reward for their labor. Longitudinal analysis of the composition of visitors demonstrates that a great part of the San living in camps other than the study group have never visited the latter during both the first (1982/83) and the second (1984/85) study periods. The discontinuity found in the networks of visiting relationship among the sedentary community leads us to reconsider the concept of `band.' The spatial organization of camp can well be characterized as a multi-layered micro-territory. Greeting interaction is a specific way in which those who enter into the micro-territory establish the focused interaction with its occupants. Most greeting episodes are exchanged between adult males in a relatively distant relationship. Various kinds of small behavior other than greeting can be also understood in terms of strategies for visiting and receiving. The ground rules, or conventional programs, governing the San greeting reveal two main themes; the openness of a camp and the definite distinction between residents and non-residents. The camp as a micro-territory is open, as the residents have no means to refuse a visitor. But the residents are situationally dominant to the visitor, as they enjoy the privilege of introducing the latter into the focused interaction, by initiating greeting.