Lesson 6: How the San lived in their environment

1 000 km

Image 2.1: The San originated from this general area in Southern Africa, mainly in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.

Lesson 6 How the San lived in their environment

Define

Ethnography: systematic study of people and cultures, a holistic study of people’s history, area of residence, climate and habitat – interaction of ethnic groups / interaction with the environment Nomads: people who move from place to place to find food and water. They do not have fixed homes

Core content

We have learnt how we obtain information about the San. Today there are still people who live like the San lived long ago and we can get information from others who observe how these people live. The process is called ethnography.

The San lived in harmony with their environment. This means they took everything they needed from their environment without harming it. The San never hunted more meat or collected more food than what they needed. The men and women worked equally hard. The women’s job was to gather wild honey and edible plants such as roots, fruits and nuts and to care for the children. Because the San relied on their environment for food, they moved around often in search of food and water – they were nomads.

Image 2.2: A man drinking water from an ostrich eggshell. Do you see how dirty the eggshell is? This indicates that it had been buried.

The San lived in dry areas, which meant that water was often very scarce. They had to make plans to get hold of water and to store it.

So, for example, they learned how to extract water from under the surface of the sand. They first scratched away the sand from the surface and then pushed a hollow reed deep into the ground through which they sucked up the water. To prevent sand from being sucked up with the water, they tied a bundle of grass to the bottom of the reed to serve as a filter.