Social and Spatial Boundary Maintenance among Southern African Hunter-Gatherers

Abstract

This chapter explores the notion of territoriality with reference to its social context. The social boundaries maintained in Bushman, or southern African hunter-gatherer, society are defined according to language, culture and kinship relations. Land tenure refers to the appropriation of resources, while territoriality involves social relations which are spatially based, or more specifically, those directly contingent upon the spatial organisation of resource extraction. The degree to which rights to such resources are defended depends again on local custom. Various species of monkeys, birds, hyenas, and so on, have been observed as exhibiting increased territorial behaviour when they have more resources to defend. The Namibian case aside, among most Bushman groups there is a degree of flexibility in territorial ideology which permits the temporary occupation of territories by alien groups. Territoriality, in the sense of defence of resources and spatial boundary maintenance, functions primarily in relation to like populations.

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