Study of the Ethno-diversity in the Kalahari and Its Ecotone

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1. By analyzing the life history of the San, the transition of livelihood after the settlement, i.e, the contract work of cultivation and the trust of livestock, and the collection of materials related to the history of contacts among | Gui- || Gana and neighboring languages, interactions and dynamics of symbiosis between San hunter-gatherers and Bantu agro-pastoralists were elucidated.2. By collecting and analyzing the life history of the San elder men, the details of past life, such as hunting activity, extra-marital sexual relationship, male initiation ritual, ideology concerning witchcraft and sorcery imported from Bantu agro-pastoralists, were reconstructed and elucidated.3. Utilization of insects as food and material culture was investigated, and the qualitative importance of insects especially as food in San dietary life was pointed out. Furthermore, it was clarified how the minute cognition of animal figure and behavior closely correlated with such symbolic interpretation of na … More ture as foresight, mythical origin of habit and morphology.4. Previous reports on phonological and grammatical structures and lexicon in | Gui and || Gana were elaborated, and a linguistically adequate orthography of | Gui and || Gana which enable us to record vernacular names accurately was proposed.5. By analyzing demographic data of past 30 years, population dynamics of the San were elucidated.6. By comparative analysis of ritual systems of the San and the Kgalagadi, it was clarified that the factors concerning witchcraft and sorcery were hardly accompanied when San ritual ceremonies were influenced by the Kgalagadi.7. Language and motor development and socialization of San children were elucidated in relation to the "modernization" problems, such as the decline of hunting-gathering, deterioration of egalitarianism and introduction of school education etc.8. In the ecotone surrounding the Kalahari Desert, the importance of the mopane tree of family Caesalpiniaceae was stressed not only as material culture, but also as one playing a symbolic role in religious rituals. Furthermore, it was clarified that the conflicts among ethnic groups for land right might often occur in relation to the problem of ethnic identity and even affect profoundly a political issue in state level such as general election.9. The historical event of San migration initiated by the Botswana government occurred in 1997. Analysis and elucidation of the problems accompanied by this migration were striven and completed partly, leaving a number of subjects as future problem. Less