Bushmen

BUSHMEN. The Kalahari desert and northern neighbour hood (south-west Africa) are the present habitats of nomad hunt ers and food gatherers, the Khuai or San groups known as Bush men. The average height of the men of the southern, central and western groups is about 5ft. but in the North and East where inter-marriage and admixture with Bantu-speaking peoples have occurred, men are found occasionally of 6ft. height. The skin is yellow to olive. Steatopygia (q.v.) is common among the women, the head is small and flat, while the nose is very broad, the cheek bones are prominent and the forehead bulging. The hair is short, rolled up into small knots and distributed like peppercorns. The ears frequently have no lobe and the eyes are narrow and often slightly oblique.

Social Organization.

The family consists of a man and his wife or wives and their dependent children. The unit is the small hunting band (patrilineal), within which marriage is forbidden. In some cases marriage is matrilocal until a child is born when the wife and husband join his patrilineal group. There are no chiefs but social matters are managed by the elders.

Religion.

The moon is worshipped and as the hunting group breaks up into family groups during the dry season, the main relig ious rites fall within the rainy season when the families mass together and form the group, each group having definite territor ies. In Bushmen folk lore the praying mantis plays a large part. The Bushman formerly extended over the greater part of South Africa and evidence is accumulating to show that in the north and east of Africa Bushman peoples once existed.

See G. M. Theal, The Yellow and Dark-skinned People of South Africa (191o) ; also S. AFRICA: Ethnology and Bibliography.