Goat Raising among the San in the Central Kalahari

Abstract

In this paper, the goat raising practices among the San are analyzed with particular reference to the technical and socio-economic aspects. Each of the 35 camps of the Kade area had goats. The number of goats in a camp varied considerably, from 8 to 440 goats. The San have techniques to identify she-goats and their kids and young goats to castrate the adult males. Goats are raised not only to be exchanges for shoes, donkeys, radio-sets, or horses, but also to be sold to merchants visiting from outside the area. The goats kept in the corral of a camp do not necessarily all belong to the members of the camp. Some people have their goats consigned to other camps. Such consignment relationships serve to further confirm and strengthen the social relations, between the consignor and the consignee, throughout a large part of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.