Discontinuities in ethnographic time: A view from Africa

While there is evidence of discontinuities in the sequences of some archaeological sites that exhibit long-term occupation and use over time in southern Africa, there is less evidence of such discontinuity in the ethnographic record. Drawing on long-term interdisciplinary studies of southern African peoples in the Kalahari Desert, this paper examines the evidence of discontinuities in the historical and ethnographic records. Attention is focused primarily on two southern African San populations for which detailed diachronic data exist: (1) the Ju/'hoansi of northwestern Kalahari, and (2) the !Xóõ San of the southwestern Kalahari region of Botswana and Namibia. From an ethnographer's perspective it might at first appear as though there was a fair amount of continuity in the Kalahari. It is shown, however, that there have been complex changes over time in the period from 1850 to the present, which occurred as a result of a combination of factors, including short-term and long-term ecological changes, in-migration and out-migration of various groups, cycles of population growth and decline, colonization, technological shifts, and implementation of development and conservation programs. The two cases illustrate the complex ways that activities, mobility, technology, land use, and demographic patterns can change over time as a result of both internal and external forces, resulting in discontinuities in the ethnographic record.