Body Modifications among San Hunter-Gatherers: A Relational Practice and Subsistence Strategy

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Body Modification: Examples and Explanations" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Body modifications are a well-known aspect of various cultural practices among the historically and ethnographically known San hunter-gatherers of Southern Africa, but not until recently have such practices been analyzed within an interpretative framework that gives reason to suggest that they were mostly performed to ensure harmonious relationships—between humans and other-than-human sentient beings and identities—essential to uphold life and thrive in their world as foragers. This presentation provides an overview of the most relevant published literature, as well as two main corpuses of primary source material, discussing body modifications in San communities of the recent past. The purpose is to systematize the existing documentation and synthesize what appear to have been the practices of consequence. This will be done to outline and further develop the notion of body modifications in San hunter-gatherer contexts as a relational practice, suggesting a close cultural discourse between the alteration of the body and other material cultural practices—such as incised, burnt, and painted patterns in skin- and woodwork, as well as the art of rock engravings.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Body Modification: Examples and Explanations   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36518.0