Domestic Crop Production among the Ju/’hoansi San of Nyae Nyae, Namibia: Ethnoarchaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology on the Edge(s): Transitions, Boundaries, Changes, and Causes" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper examines the oscillations between foraging and farming among the Ju/’hoansi San of Nyae Nyae, Namibia from both ethnoarchaeological and ethnographic perspectives. In addition to a certain amount of foraging, some of the important economic activities of the Ju/’hoansi San Nyae Nyae region are agriculture and pastoralism. Some 27 of the 36 contemporary Nyae Nyae communities had gardens where they raised domestic crops in 2018. These gardens are small, generally less than half an acre, and they are cultivated using hand tools including hoes, digging sticks, and pitch forks. These rain-fed gardens are also irrigated by water facilities provided by the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia (NNDFN), the Traditions and Transition Fund, and the Namibian government. A variety of domestic crops are grown in the gardens which in 2018 numbered 18 species. Challenges to the agricultural production systems in Nyae Nyae include spatial and temporal variability in rainfall, periodic drought and floods, limited soil fertility, breakdowns in the water systems, destruction of water points and gardens by wild animals including elephants, and predation of livestock by lions, leopards, and other animals. There are also problems in gardening work due to conflicts among individuals in the communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology on the Edge(s): Transitions, Boundaries, Changes, and Causes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22808