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39-475: At the time of the symposium new research by anthropologists, such as Richard B. Lee 's work on the ǃKung people of southern Africa , challenged popular notions that hunter-gatherer societies were always near the brink of starvation and continuously engaged in a struggle for survival. Sahlins gathered the data from these studies and used it to support a comprehensive argument that states that hunter-gatherers did not suffer from deprivation , but instead lived in

78-472: A "marvelously varied diet " based on the abundance of the local flora and fauna . This demonstrates that hunter-gatherers do not exist on a mere subsistence economy but rather live among plenty. Through knowledge of their environment hunter-gatherers are able to change what foreigners may deem as meager and unreliable natural resources into rich subsistence resources. Through this they are able to effectively and efficiently provide for themselves and minimize

117-460: A complex climatic history over the past million or so years, in line with major global changes. Changes in the last 250,000 years have been reconstructed from various data sources, providing evidence of former extensive lakes and drier periods. During the latter, the area of the Kalahari has expanded to include parts of western Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Angola. Due to its low aridity, the Kalahari supports

156-466: A cooler climate than that of the Sahel or Sahara . For example, winter frost is common from June to August, rarely seen in the warmer Sahelian regions. For the same reason, summer temperatures certainly can be very hot, but not in comparison to regions of low altitude in the Sahel or Sahara, where some stations record average temperatures of the warmest month around 38 °C, whereas the average temperature of

195-562: A dry desert. The fossil flora and fauna from Gcwihaba Cave in Botswana indicates that the region was much wetter and cooler at least from 30 to 11 thousand Before Present , especially after 17,500 BP. Drainage of the desert is by dry black valleys, seasonally inundated pans, and the large salt pans of the Makgadikgadi Pan in Botswana and Etosha Pan in Namibia. The only permanent river,

234-406: A small region toward the west-southwest of Tsaraxaibis (Southeast of Namibia). The average annual rainfall ranges from around 110 mm (close to aridity) to more than 500 mm in some north and east areas. During summertime in all regions, rainfall may go with heavy thunderstorms. In the driest and sunniest parts of the Kalahari, over 4,000 hours of sunshine are recorded annually on average. In

273-453: A society in which "all the people's wants are easily satisfied." The basis of Sahlins’ argument is that hunter-gatherer societies are able to achieve affluence by desiring little and meeting those needs/desires with what is available to them. This he calls the " Zen road to affluence , which states that human material wants are finite and few, and technical means unchanging but on the whole adequate" (Sahlins, Original ). This he compares to

312-465: A variety of flora. The native flora includes acacia trees and many other herbs and grasses. The kiwano fruit, also known as the horned melon, melano, African horned cucumber, jelly melon, or hedged gourd, is endemic to a region in the Kalahari Desert (specific region unknown). Even where the Kalahari "desert" is dry enough to qualify as a desert in the sense of having low precipitation , it

351-569: Is a Canadian anthropologist . Lee has studied at the University of Toronto and University of California, Berkeley , where he received a Ph.D. He holds a position at the University of Toronto as Professor Emeritus of Anthropology. Lee researches issues concerning the indigenous people of Botswana and Namibia , particularly their ecology and history. Known best for his work on the Ju'/hoansi , Lee won

390-650: Is home to the lion ( Panthera leo ), cheetah ( Acinonyx jubatus ), African leopard ( Panthera pardus ), spotted hyena ( Crocuta crocuta ), brown hyena ( Parahyaena brunnea ), and African wild dog ( Lycaon pictus pictus ). Birds of prey include the secretarybird ( Sagittarius serpentarius ), martial eagle ( Polemaetus bellicosus ) and other eagles, the giant eagle owl ( Bubo lacteus ) and other owls, falcons , goshawks , kestrels , and kites . Other animals include wildebeest , springbok , gemsbok and other antelopes , Cape porcupines ( Hystrix africaeaustralis ), and ostriches ( Struthio camelus ). Some of

429-630: Is not strictly speaking a desert because it has too dense a ground cover. The main region that lacks ground cover is in the southwest Kalahari (southeast of Namibia, northwest of South Africa, and southwest of Botswana) in the south of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park . For instance, in the ZF Mgcawu District Municipality of South Africa, total vegetation cover may be as low as 30.72% on non-protected (from cattle grazing) farmlands south of Twee Rivieren Rest Camp and 37.74% in

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468-505: Is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal desert, whose name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". Kalahari is derived from the Tswana word Kgala , meaning "the great thirst", or Kgalagadi , meaning "a waterless place"; the Kalahari has vast areas covered by red sand without any permanent surface water. The Kalahari Desert was not always

507-675: Is situated in the Kalahari Basin . In 1996, De Beers evaluated the potential of diamond mining at Gope. In 1997, the eviction of the San and Bakgalagadi tribes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve from their land began. In 2006, a Botswana High Court ruled in favor of the San and Bakgalagadi tribes in the reserve, finding their eviction unlawful. The Government of Botswana granted a permit to De Beers' Gem Diamonds/Gope Exploration Company (Pty) Ltd. to conduct mining activities within

546-425: Is sub-humid rather than semi-arid in the north and east, where the dry forests, savannahs, and salt lakes prevail. South and west, where the vegetation is predominantly xeric savanna or even a semi-desert, the climate is "Kalaharian" semi-arid . The Kalaharian climate is subtropical (average annual temperature greater than or equal to 18 °C, at peaks reaching 40 °C and above, with mean monthly temperature of

585-524: The Namib Desert to the west. There is little rainfall, and the summer temperature is very high. The driest areas usually receive 110–200 mm (4.3–7.9 in) of rain per year, and the wettest just a little over 500 mm (20 in). The surrounding Kalahari Basin covers over 2,500,000 km (970,000 sq mi) extending farther into Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, encroaching into parts of Angola , Zambia and Zimbabwe . The climate

624-449: The Okavango , flows into a delta in the northwest, forming marshes that are rich in wildlife. Ancient dry riverbeds—called omuramba —traverse the central northern reaches of the Kalahari and provide standing pools of water during the rainy season. A semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains, the Kalahari supports more animals and plants than a true desert, such as

663-610: The western way towards affluence, which he terms as the " Galbraithean way" where "man's wants are great, not to say infinite, whereas his means are limited..." and "the gap between means and ends can eventually be narrowed by industrial productivity". Thus Sahlins argues that hunter-gatherer and western societies take separate roads to affluence, the former by desiring little, the latter by producing much. Through this comparison Sahlins also stresses that hunter-gatherer societies cannot be examined through an ethnocentric framework when measuring their affluence. For example, one cannot apply

702-452: The "Original Affluent Society" theory and especially the McCarthy and McArthur and Lee studies, including the definitions of "affluence," "work," and "leisure," the nutritional adequacy of the hunter-gatherer's diet, and the occurrence of "demand-sharing," the constant pressure to share as a disincentive to increased effort. Richard Borshay Lee Richard Borshay Lee OC (born 1937)

741-597: The 1980 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his book The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society . With Irven DeVore , Lee was co-organiser of the 1966 University of Chicago Symposium on "Man the Hunter". Lee co-edited with Richard Daly The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunter-Gatherers , which was first published in 1999. In 2003, Anthropologica , the journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society , dedicated an issue to Lee's oeuvre. In 2011 he co-authored

780-1012: The Arnhem Landers of Australia and quantitative materials cataloged by Richard Lee on the Dobe Bushmen of the Kalahari , Sahlins argues that hunter-gatherer tribes are able to meet their needs through working roughly 15-20 hours per week or less. Sahlins' theory has been challenged by a number of scholars in the field of anthropology and archaeology. Many have criticized his work for only including time spent hunting and gathering while omitting time spent on collecting firewood, food preparation, etc. Other scholars also assert that hunter-gatherer societies were not "affluent" but suffered from extremely high infant mortality, frequent disease, and perennial warfare. This appears to be true not only of historical foraging cultures, but also prehistoric and primeval ones. David Kaplan collected references to several problems with

819-660: The Association of American Anthropologists for which he organized several meetings and symposiums; founding member of Anthropologists for Radical Political Change; past president of the Canadian Anthropologist Society and the Canadian Ethnology Society. He has also been a referee for various publications (American Anthropologist, Current Anthropology) and granting agencies ( Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation and

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858-578: The Kalahari "desert", but in the Kalahari basin, halophytic vegetation to the north is adapted to pans, lakes that are completely dry during the dry season, and maybe for years during droughts, such as in Etosha ( Etosha Pan halophytics AT0902) and Makgadikgadi ( Zambezian halophytics AT0908). A totally different vegetation is adapted to the perennial fresh water of the Okavango Delta , an ecoregion termed Zambezian flooded grasslands AT0907. The Kalahari

897-597: The Kalahari Desert was once a much wetter place. The ancient Lake Makgadikgadi dominated the area, covering the Makgadikgadi Pan and surrounding areas, but it drained or dried out some 10,000 years ago. It may have once covered as much as 120,000 square kilometres (46,000 sq mi). In ancient times, there was sufficient moisture for farming, with dikes and dams collecting the water. These are now filled with sediment, breached, or no longer in use, though they can be readily seen via Google Earth. The Kalahari has had

936-573: The Kalahari, there are three main mechanisms of atmospheric circulation, dominated by the Kalahari High anticyclone in winter, and by the Kalahari Heat Low in summer: There are huge subterranean water reserves beneath parts of the Kalahari; the Dragon's Breath Cave , for example, is the largest documented non-subglacial underground lake. Such reserves may partly be the residues of ancient lakes;

975-657: The National Science Foundation). He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Kalahari The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for 900,000 square kilometres (350,000 sq mi), covering much of Botswana , as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa . It

1014-492: The affluent society, Sahlins deconstructed the then popular notions that hunter-gatherers are primitive and constantly working hard to ward off starvation. However, one must take into consideration that there has been much progress in this field since 1966 and that ideas on the category of hunter-gatherer are always shifting, with new paradigms continuously emerging. One must also acknowledge that one cannot generalize about hunter-gatherer societies. Although they have been pushed to

1053-414: The amount of leisure time available to them. Thus, despite living in what western society deems to be material poverty, hunter-gatherer societies work less than people practicing other modes of subsistence while still providing for all their needs, and therefore increase their amount of leisure time. These are the reasons the original affluent society is that of the hunter-gatherer. Through his thesis on

1092-584: The amount of time spent procuring food. "[T]he food quest is so successful that half the time the people do not know what to do with themselves". Hunter-gatherers also experience "affluence without abundance" as they simply meet their required ends and do not require surplus nor material possessions (as these would be a hindrance to their nomadic lifestyle). The lack of surplus also demonstrates that they trust their environment will continuously provide for them. By foraging only for their immediate needs among plentiful resources, hunter-gatherers are able to increase

1131-742: The areas within the Kalahari are seasonal wetlands , such as the Makgadikgadi Pans of Botswana . This area, for example, supports numerous halophilic species, and in the rainy season, tens of thousands of flamingos visit these pans. The following protected areas were established in the Kalahari: The San people have lived in the Kalahari for 20,000 years as hunter-gatherers . They hunt wild game with bows and poisoned arrows and gather edible plants, such as berries, melons and nuts, as well as insects. The San get most of their water requirements from plant roots and desert melons found on or under

1170-588: The children's book Africans Thought of It: Amazing Innovations with Bathseba Opini . Most recently his research has focused on the anthropology of health and the cultural and social factors in AIDS epidemic in southern Africa for which he has received funds from the National Institutes of Health (U.S.) via Columbia University School of Public Health as well as directly from the University of Toronto. Lee has been active in several professional associations including:

1209-595: The climate is drier, it becomes a true semi-desert with ground not entirely covered by vegetation: "open" as opposed to "closed" vegetation. Examples include the north of the ZF Mgcawu District Municipality , itself in the north of South Africa, and the Keetmanshoop Rural in the southeast of Namibia. In the north and east, dry forests cover an area of over 300,000 km in which Rhodesian teak and several species of acacia are prominent. These regions are termed Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands AT0709. Outside

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1248-537: The coldest month strictly below 18 °C), and is semi-arid with the dry season from April to September, the coldest six months of the year. It is the southern tropical equivalent of the Sahelian climate with the wet season during summer. The altitude has been adduced as the explanation why the Kalaharian climate is not tropical; its altitude ranges from 600 to 1600 meters (and generally from 800 to 1200 meters), resulting in

1287-429: The desert floor. They often store water in the blown-out shells of ostrich eggs. The San live in huts built from local materials—the frame is made of branches, and the roof is thatched with long grass. Most of their hunting and gathering techniques replicate pre-historic tribes. Bantu -speaking Tswana , Kgalagadi , and Herero and a small number of European settlers also live in the Kalahari desert. The city of Windhoek

1326-511: The general principles of economics (principles which reflect western values and emphasize surplus) to hunter-gatherers nor should one believe that the Neolithic Revolution brought unquestioned progress. By stepping away from western notions of affluence, the theory of the original affluent society thus dispels notions about hunter-gatherer societies that were popular at the time of the symposium. Sahlins states that hunter-gatherers have

1365-577: The margins of society, there are still many such societies in the world and they differ greatly from each other. Sahlins' argument partly relies on studies undertaken by McCarthy and McArthur in Arnhem Land , and by Richard Borshay Lee among the ǃKung. These studies show that hunter-gatherers need only work about fifteen to twenty hours a week in order to survive and may devote the rest of their time to leisure. Lee did not include food preparation time in his study, arguing that "work" should be defined as

1404-474: The protected (from cattle grazing) South African side of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park: these southernmost Kalahari xeric savanna areas are truly semi-deserts. However, in all the remaining Kalahari, except on salt pans during the dry season, the vegetation cover can be denser, up to almost 100%, in some limited areas. In an area of about 600,000 km in the south and west of the Kalahari,

1443-542: The time spent gathering enough food for sustenance. When total time spent on food acquisition, processing, and cooking was added together, the estimate per week was 44.5 hours for men and 40.1 hours for women, but Lee added that this is still less than the total hours spent on work and housework in many modern Western households. Sahlins concludes that the hunter-gatherer only works three to five hours per adult worker each day in food production. Using data gathered from various foraging societies and quantitative surveys done among

1482-518: The vegetation is mainly xeric savanna . This area is the ecoregion identified by World Wide Fund for Nature as Kalahari xeric savanna AT1309. Typical savanna grasses include Schmidtia , Stipagrostis , Aristida , and Eragrostis ; these are interspersed with trees such as camelthorn ( Acacia erioloba ), grey camelthorn ( Acacia haematoxylon ), shepherd's tree ( Boscia albitrunca ), blackthorn ( Acacia mellifera ), and silver cluster-leaf ( Terminalia sericea ). In certain areas where

1521-407: The warmest month in any region in the Kalahari never exceeds 29 °C, though daily temperatures occasionally reach up to close to 45 °C (113 °F) (44.8 °C at Twee Rivieren Rest Camp in 2012). The dry season lasts eight months or more, and the wet season typically from less than one month to four months, depending on location. The southwestern Kalahari is the driest area, particularly

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