Anthropology - the San (“Bushmen”) of the Kalahari Desert

The San (â€Å"Bushmen†) of the Kalahari Desert Angela Krantz ANT 101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Professor Michael King October 17, 2012 I have chosen to identify and describe the kinship system of the San (â€Å"Bushmen†) of the Kalahari. The San, as well as other cultures have a cultural rule, or descent that defines what category they are in socially. This descent originates from the parent and passes on to the child. There are two types of descents, unilineal and bilateral. With unilineal descent, kin relations are traced through either the mother or the father. In bilateral descent, the kinship connections through both the mother and the father are equally important. People believe they are related equally to†¦show more content†¦This is good especially in times of scarcity. If San band resources are low, they can rely on other bands within their affinal (marriage) and consanguineal (blood) kin for shelter, food, and water. They never do without, therefore there is no hunger, no thirst, and no one is ever homeless. This impacts the San by making sure that they are always taken care of, eve n in times of scarcity. (Nowak, B., Laird, P., 2010a, pg. 3.7) The San also do not allow for their people to marry any kin who is a second cousin or closer. A man also cannot marry a woman who has the same name as his parents. This causes more affinal (marriage) marriages and thus expands access to resources. If a San cannot marry from within his family, or cannot marry a woman with the same last name as his parents, he is limited to marrying a person outside of his own family. (Nowak, B., Laird, P, 2010b, pg. 3.7) By doing this, especially in times of scarcity he is ensuring himself that he has a lot of resources in time of need. I think that this is crucial for survival and actually really smart of the San. This impacts the San greatly in times of need. Lastly, San girls marry young as a result of pressure from their parents. Their parents want and need a man to collect meat for them, and hope that he will do so into their old age. The parents also want to get closer to th e grooms