Demography and Ecology of the Tjimba of Northwest Namibia

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Humans were foragers for the vast majority of our history but few remain so today. The switch to farming and pastoralism is not well understood, primarily because few groups have been observed in the midst of this transition. The Tjimba of northwestern Namibia offer one of the few remaining opportunities. A four-month pilot study by this researcher in the fall of 2004 showed that Tjimba have been 'coming down from the mountains' for more than a century, abandoning foraging and integrating into other ethnic groups. Now, farming and cattle-herding have penetrated up into the Tjimba homeland, offering new economic alternatives where the Tjimba live. This project will examine the causes and consequences of adopting these new subsistence strategies with a particular focus on reproductive success, an important area of research in human evolutionary ecology. How individuals make their living affects their ability to find a spouse and to successfully have and raise children. Thus those ancient forgers who chose to abandon foraging may have been making an important strategic choice. The project will start with the first systematic census of the Tjimba, followed by interviews about genealogy, reproductive history, and subsistence behavior. This will be supplemented by observations of resource use and time devoted to childcare to see how these vary with circumstances. The project will extend our understanding of the relation between economic shifts and demographic changes among contemporay foragers, which will also contribute to our understanding of the processes involved when humans first abandoned foraging for more sedentary life styles millenia ago. The project also will benefit the Tjimba themselves, as well as policy makers and aid agencies trying to assist them, because the circumstances and health needs of the contemporary Tjimba are largely unknown.