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Kinship, language and production: a conjectural history of Khoisan social structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Alan Barnard
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Extract

In earlier articles I have argued the merits of the method of controlled comparison, both for the study of hunter-gatherer social organisation and for the study of Khoisan kinship across the forager/non-forager divide. In this article I put these two interests together to examine specifically the relation between kinship, production and culture contact among the Khoisan, and particularly the Khoe-speaking, peoples. Certain kinship structures and practices are dependent upon the means and methods of subsistence, while others are not. The latter are products of Khoisan history and in general reflect linguistic relationships between economically diverse Khoisan peoples.

Résumé

Parente, langue et production: une histoire conjecturale de la structure sociale des Khoisans

Cet article examine la parenté Khoisan par rapport à l'histoire linguistique des Khoisans, et particulièrement les peuplades parlant le Khoi. Les groupes de langue Khoi qui ont divergé les uns des autres il y a quelques 2000 ans sont de loin le groupe le plus grand et de culture la plus diversifiée de l'ensemble des groupes de langue Khoisan et comprennent à la fois des bergers (Khoekhoe) et des chasseurs (les Bushman Khoi). Néanmoins, la classification de la famille Khoi est caractérisée par un degré élevé d'uniformité, ce qui facilite la conjecture historique concernant la signification des origines Unguistiques, les modes de production et la diffusion culturelle pour déterminer les structures de parenté. Parmi autres choses, on affirme que les Bushman Khoi de l'Ouest ont acquis les règles d'appellation alternée de leurs générations et d'équivalence d'homonymes des !Kung (qui possèdent autrement un système de parenté très différent), et qu'ils ont, en conséquence directe, adopté les principes de la classification de la famille Khoi à leur extrême le plus simple.

Type
Kinship dynamics, past and present
Information
Africa , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 29 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1988

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