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119-520: The ǃKung ( / ˈ k ʊ ŋ / KUUNG ) are one of the San peoples who live mostly on the western edge of the Kalahari desert , Ovamboland (northern Namibia and southern Angola ), and Botswana . The names ǃKung ( ǃXun ) and Ju are variant words for 'people', preferred by different ǃKung groups. This band level society used traditional methods of hunting and gathering for subsistence up until

238-503: A 1993 film , are about a white boy encountering a wandering San and his wife, and how the San's life and survival skills save the white teenagers' lives in a journey across the desert. James A. Michener 's The Covenant (1980), is a work of historical fiction centered on South Africa. The first section of the book concerns a San community's journey set roughly in 13,000 BC. In Wilbur Smith 's novel The Burning Shore (an instalment in

357-423: A culture hero named Prishiboro, whose wife was an elephant. Prishiboro's older brother tricked him into killing his wife and eating her flesh. Her herd tried to kill Prishiboro in revenge, but his brother defeated them. Amongst the ǃKung there is a strong belief in the existence of spirits of the dead ( llgauwasi ) who live immortally in the sky. The llgauwasi can come to the earth and interact with humans. There

476-708: A 1997 conference in Cape Town on "Khoisan Identities and Cultural Heritage" organized by the University of the Western Cape . The term San is now standard in South African, and used officially in the blazon of the national coat-of-arms . The "South African San Council" representing San communities in South Africa was established as part of WIMSA in 2001. The term Basarwa (singular Mosarwa )

595-501: A Bushman (2002) on the murder of San tracker Optel Rooi by South African police; The Will To Survive (2009), which covers the history and situation of San communities in southern Africa today; and My Land is My Dignity (2009) on the San's epic land rights struggle in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve . A documentary on San hunting entitled, The Great Dance: A Hunter's Story (2000), directed by Damon and Craig Foster . This

714-418: A Kalahari San group's first encounter with an artifact from the outside world (a Coca-Cola bottle). By the time this movie was made, the ǃKung had recently been forced into sedentary villages, and the San hired as actors were confused by the instructions to act out inaccurate exaggerations of their almost abandoned hunting and gathering life. " Eh Hee " by Dave Matthews Band was written as an evocation of

833-542: A celebration called kinaalda (kinn-all-duh). Girls are expected to demonstrate their strength through footraces. The girls make a cornmeal pudding for the tribe to taste. The girls who experience menarche wear special clothes and style their hair like the Navajo goddess " Changing Woman ". The Nuu-chah-nulth (also known as the Nootka) believe that physical endurance is the most important quality in young women. At menarche

952-428: A female role model. Then, and to an extent now, menstruation was a private matter and a girl's menarche was not a community phenomenon. The Ulithi tribe of Micronesia call a girl's menarche kufar . She goes to a menstrual house , where the women bathe her and recite spells. She will have to return to the menstruation hut every time she menstruates. Her parents build her a private hut that she will live in until she

1071-412: A happy heart is one that reflects a sense of community." Because of their longing to keep the peace between people, their community is tranquil. ǃKung women usually experience their first menstruation at the age of 16½, their first birth at 19½ and their last birth by their late 30s. ǃKung women often give birth unassisted , walking away from the village camp as far as a mile during labour and bearing

1190-487: A hunter is able to obtain enough food, he can afford to have a second wife as well. Villages range in sturdiness from nightly rain shelters in the warm spring (when people move constantly in search of budding greens), to formalized rings, wherein people congregate in the dry season around permanent waterholes. Early spring is the hardest season: a hot dry period following the cool, dry winter. Most plants still are dead or dormant, and supplies of autumn nuts are exhausted. Meat

1309-399: A median age of 12.4 years. This age at menarche is not much different (0.3 years earlier) than that reported for U.S. girls in 1973. Age at menarche for non-Hispanic black girls was significantly earlier than that of white girls at 10%, 25%, and 50% of those who had attained menarche, whereas non-white Mexican American girls were only slightly earlier than the white girls at 25%. Menstruation

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1428-545: A root saa "picking up from the ground" + plural -n in the Haiǁom dialect . "Bushmen" is the older cover term, but "San" was widely adopted in the West by the late 1990s. The term Bushmen , from 17th-century Dutch Bosjesmans , is still used by others and to self-identify, but is now considered pejorative or derogatory by many South Africans. In 2008, the use of boesman (the modern Afrikaans equivalent of "Bushman") in

1547-638: A similar trend in time, but also similar findings about ethnic, cultural, and environmental effects. The average age of menarche was about 12.7 years in Canada in 2001, and 12.9 in the United Kingdom . A study of girls in Istanbul , Turkey, in 2011 found the median age at menarche to be 12.7 years. In the United States, an analysis of 10,590 women aged 15–44 taken from the 2013–2017 round of

1666-541: A slow-acting arrow poison produced by beetle larvae of the genus Diamphidia . A set of tools almost identical to that used by the modern San and dating to 42,000 BC was discovered at Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal in 2012. In 2006, what is thought to be the world's oldest ritual is interpreted as evidence which would make the San culture the oldest still practiced culture today. Historical evidence shows that certain San communities have always lived in

1785-414: A status accessible to all," but it is a grand aspiration of many members because of its importance. Even though there is no restriction of the power, "nearly half the men and one-third of the women are acknowledged of having the power to heal," but with the responsibility comes great pain and hardship. To become a healer, aspirants must become an apprentice and learn from older healers. Their training includes

1904-589: A study published in March 2011, Brenna Henn and colleagues found that the ǂKhomani San, as well as the Sandawe and Hadza peoples of Tanzania , were the most genetically diverse of any living humans studied. This high degree of genetic diversity hints at the origin of anatomically modern humans . A 2008 study suggested that the San may have been isolated from other original ancestral groups for as much as 50,000 to 100,000 years and later rejoined, re-integrating into

2023-430: A wealth of information in anthropology and genetics . One broad study of African genetic diversity , completed in 2009, found that the genetic diversity of the San was among the top five of all 121 sampled populations. Certain San groups are one of 14 known extant "ancestral population clusters"; that is, "groups of populations with common genetic ancestry, who share ethnicity and similarities in both their culture and

2142-530: A whole and the protagonist does not actually start her first period. Girls experiencing their first period is part of many movies, particularly ones that include coming-of-age plot lines, such as The Blue Lagoon (1980), The Company of Wolves (1984), An Angel at My Table (1990), My Girl (1991), Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), Eve’s Bayou (1997), and A Walk on the Moon (1999). Menarche

2261-472: A wide age range. Sexual activities amongst children are seen as natural play for both sexes. ǃKung women often share an intimate sociability and spend many hours together discussing their lives, enjoying each other's company and children. In the short documentary film A Group of Women, ǃKung women rest, talk and nurse their babies while lying in the shade of a baobab tree . This illustrates "collective mothering", where several women support each other and share

2380-412: A woman cannot become pregnant until after menarche. A young age at menarche is not correlated with a young age at first sexual intercourse. When menarche occurs, it confirms that the girl has had a gradual estrogen -induced growth of the uterus , especially the endometrium , and that the "outflow tract" from the uterus, through the cervix to the vagina , is open. When a woman experiences menarche,

2499-740: A year later. Driven by a lifelong fascination with this "vanished tribe," Van der Post published a 1958 book about this expedition, entitled The Lost World of the Kalahari. It was to be his most famous book. In 1961, he published The Heart of the Hunter, a narrative which he admits in the introduction uses two previous works of stories and mythology as "a sort of Stone Age Bible," namely Specimens of Bushman Folklore ' (1911), collected by Wilhelm H. I. Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd , and Dorothea Bleek 's Mantis and His Friend. Van der Post's work brought indigenous African cultures to millions of people around

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2618-422: Is a cultural as well as scientific phenomenon as many societies have specific rituals and cultural norms associated with it. These rituals typically begin at menarche and some are enacted during each menstruation cycle. The rituals are important in determining a status change for girls. Upon menarche and completion of the ritual, they have become a woman as defined by their culture. For young women in many cultures,

2737-501: Is a surplus of meat, word will be spread to villages that are close by to come collect meat for themselves. The ǃKung language, commonly called Ju , belongs to the Kxʼa language family , which are typologically categorised as Khoisan languages (i.e. click languages ). Since the 1950s, the Juǀʼhoan population has increased. Cattle ranches have brought cows to their traditional lands. Cows eat

2856-585: Is a vague term and studies have examined conditions ranging from family tensions or conflict to wartime refugee status with threat to physical survival. The more dire social conditions have been found to be associated with delay of maturation, an effect that may be compounded by dietary inadequacy. There is more uncertainty and mixed evidence as to whether milder degrees of stress or early-life under-nutrition can accelerate puberty in girls as would be predicted by life history theory and demonstrated in many other mammals. The understanding of these environmental effects

2975-530: Is bathed in the river at the end of menstruation. When she returns to the village , she is paired with a man who will be her husband. In the United States , some public schools have a sex education program that teaches girls about menstruation and what to expect at the onset of menarche (often this takes place during the fourth grade). Historically menstruation has been a social taboo and girls were taught about menarche and menstruation by their mothers or

3094-550: Is central to her dangerous and out of control transformation. This theme is common to horror movies, another notable example being the Canadian horror movie Ginger Snaps (2000), where the protagonist's first period is central to her gradual transformation into a werewolf . The theme of transformation around the menarche is similarly present in Turning Red (2022), although the film also explores other aspects of puberty as

3213-427: Is cured by laying hands on the diseased. Nisa, a ǃKung woman, reported through anthropologist Marjorie Shostak that a healer in training is given a root to help induce trance. Nisa said, "I drank it a number of times and threw up again and again. Finally, I started to tremble. People rubbed my body as I sat there feeling the effect getting stronger and stronger. ... Trance-medicine really hurts! As you begin to trance,

3332-426: Is forcibly removed from her hut and presented to her groom. During the ceremony, the bride has her head covered and is carried and then laid down in the hut while the groom is led to the hut and sits beside the door. The couple stay respectfully apart from each other and do not join the wedding festivities. After the party is over, they spend the night together and the next morning they are ceremonially rubbed with oil by

3451-452: Is incomplete and the following observations and cautions are relevant: There were few systematic studies of timing of menarche before the later half of the 20th century. Most older estimates of average timing of menarche were based on observation of a small homogeneous population not necessarily representative of the larger population, or based on recall by adult women, which is also susceptible to various forms of error. Most sources agree that

3570-523: Is married. In Sri Lanka , an astrologer is contacted to study the alignment of stars when the girl experiences menarche because it is believed that her future can be predicted. The women of the family then gather in her home and scrub her in a ritual bathing ceremony. Her family then throws a familial party at which the girl wears white and may receive gifts. In Ethiopia , Beta Jewish women were separated from male society and sent to menstruation huts during menarche and every menstruation following as

3689-440: Is no particular connection to personal ancestors but the ǃKung fear the llgauwasi , pray to them for sympathy and mercy as well as call on them in anger. The ǃKung practice shamanism to communicate with the spirit world, and to cure what they call "Star Sickness". The communication with the spirit world is done by a natural healer entering a trance state and running through a fire, thereby chasing away bad spirits. Star Sickness

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3808-403: Is nubility. On the other hand, not every girl follows the typical pattern, and some girls ovulate before the first menstruation . Although unlikely, it is possible for a girl who has engaged in sexual intercourse shortly before her menarche to conceive and become pregnant , which would delay her menarche until after the end of the pregnancy. This goes against the widely held assumption that

3927-453: Is one of the central organizing principles for societies like the ǃKung. Richard Borshay Lee breaks ǃKung kinship principles down into three different sets (Kinship I, Kinship II, and Kinship III or wi). Kinship I follows conventional kin terms (father, mother, brother, sister) and is based on genealogical position. Kinship II applies to name relationships, meaning that people who share the same name (ǃkunǃa) are treated as though they are kin of

4046-401: Is particularly important in the dry months when wildlife cannot range far from the receding waters. Women gather fruit, berries, tubers, bush onions, and other plant materials for the band's consumption. Ostrich eggs are gathered, and the empty shells are used as water containers. Insects provide perhaps 10% of animal proteins consumed, most often during the dry season. Depending on location,

4165-995: Is pregnant with another child. This long period of time between children makes traveling long distances on foot – like to a gathering site or new settlement – easier, since fewer children require carrying and population numbers remain controlled. During times of deprivation, infanticide was permitted to preserve resources. The ǃKung people do not use contraceptives and generally do not practice abstinence, yet experience low fertility rates. Traditionally, especially among Juǀʼhoansi ǃKung, women generally collect plant foods and water while men hunt. However, these gender roles are not strict and people do all jobs as needed with little or no stigma. Women generally take care of children and prepare food. However, this does not restrict them to their homes, since these activities are generally done with, or close to, others, so women can socialize and help each other. Men are also engaged in these activities. Children are raised in village groups of other children of

4284-773: Is termed isolated premature menarche , but other causes of vaginal bleeding must be investigated and excluded. Growth is usually normal. Isolated premature menarche is rarely the first manifestation of precocious puberty . When menarche has failed to occur for more than three years after thelarche, or beyond 16 years of age, the delay is referred to as primary amenorrhea . Certain systemic or chronic illness can delay menarche, such as undiagnosed and untreated celiac disease (which often occurs without gastrointestinal symptoms), asthma , diabetes mellitus type 1 , cystic fibrosis and inflammatory diseases , among others. In some cases, because biochemical tests are not always discriminatory, underlying pathologies are not identified and

4403-483: Is unusual for the ǃKung to have a chieftain or headman in a position of power over the other members. These San are not devoid of leadership, but neither are they dependent on it. San groups of the Southern Kalahari have had chieftains in the past; however, there is a somewhat complicated process to gain that position. Chieftainship within these San groups is not a position with the greatest power, as they have

4522-479: Is used for the San collectively in Botswana. The term is a Bantu ( Tswana ) word meaning "those who do not rear cattle", that is, equivalent to Khoekhoe Saan . The mo-/ba- noun class prefixes are used for people; the older variant Masarwa , with the le-/ma- prefixes used for disreputable people and animals, is offensive and was changed at independence. In Angola, they are sometimes referred to as mucancalas , or bosquímanos (a Portuguese adaptation of

4641-481: Is used in a derogatory manner to describe people too poor to have cattle. Based on observation of lifestyle, this term has been applied to speakers of three distinct language families living between the Okavango River in Botswana and Etosha National Park in northwestern Namibia , extending up into southern Angola ; central peoples of most of Namibia and Botswana, extending into Zambia and Zimbabwe ; and

4760-490: Is used in many cultures to separate girls from activity with boys, and to begin transition into womanhood. In some cultures, a party, or celebration is thrown to show the girl's transition to womanhood. This party is similar to the quinceañera in Latin America, except that a specific age marks the transition rather than menarche. In Morocco , the girl is thrown a celebration. All of her family members are invited and

4879-718: The Die Burger newspaper was brought before the Equality Court . The San Council testified that it had no objection to its use in a positive context, and the court ruled that the use of the term was not derogatory. The San refer to themselves as their individual nations, such as ǃKung (also spelled ǃXuun , including the Juǀʼhoansi ), ǀXam , Nǁnǂe (part of the ǂKhomani), Kxoe (Khwe and ǁAni), Haiǁom , Ncoakhoe , Tshuwau , Gǁana and Gǀui (ǀGwi) , etc. Representatives of San peoples in 2003 stated their preference for

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4998-529: The Bantu , Europeans , and Asians . In 2017, Botswana was home to approximately 63,500 San, making it the country with the highest proportion of San people at 2.8%. 71,201 San people were enumerated in Namibia in 2023, making it the country with the second highest proportion of San people at 2.4%. In Khoekhoegowab , the term "San" has a long vowel and is spelled Sān . It is an exonym meaning "foragers" and

5117-463: The Courtneys of Africa book series ), the San people are portrayed through two major characters, O'wa and H'ani; Smith describes the San's struggles, history, and beliefs in great detail. Menarche The timing of menarche is influenced by female biology , as well as genetic , environmental factors , and nutritional factors. The mean age of menarche has declined over the last century, but

5236-510: The Dutch term for "Bushmen"). The terms Amasili and Batwa are sometimes used for them in Zimbabwe . The San are also referred to as Batwa by Xhosa people and as Baroa by Sotho people . The Bantu term Batwa refers to any foraging tribesmen and as such overlaps with the terminology used for the "Pygmoid" Southern Twa of South-Central Africa. The hunter-gatherer San are among

5355-481: The Kalahari were first brought to the globalized world's attention in the 1950s by South African author Laurens van der Post . Van der Post grew up in South Africa, and had a respectful lifelong fascination with native African cultures. In 1955, he was commissioned by the BBC to go to the Kalahari desert with a film crew in search of the San. The filmed material was turned into a very popular six-part television documentary

5474-498: The "principal human rights concern" of that country. The San kinship system reflects their history as traditionally small mobile foraging bands. San kinship is similar to Inuit kinship , which uses the same set of terms as in European cultures but adds a name rule and an age rule for determining what terms to use. The age rule resolves any confusion arising from kinship terms, as the older of two people always decides what to call

5593-474: The 1870s, the last San of the Cape were hunted to extinction, while other San were able to survive. The South African government used to issue licenses for people to hunt the San, with the last one being reportedly issued in Namibia in 1936. From the 1950s through to the 1990s, San communities switched to farming because of government-mandated modernization programs. Despite the lifestyle changes, they have provided

5712-642: The 1970s. Today, the great majority of ǃKung people live in the villages of Bantu pastoralists and European ranchers. The ǃKung people of Southern Africa recognize a Supreme Being , ǃXu , who is the Creator and Upholder of life. Like other African High Gods, he also punishes man by means of the weather, and the Otjimpolo-ǃKung know him as Erob, who "knows everything". They also have animistic and animatistic beliefs, which means they believe in both personifications and impersonal forces. For example, they recall

5831-450: The CDC's National Survey of Family Growth found a median age of 11.9 years (down from 12.1 in 1995), with a mean of 12.5 years (down from 12.6). Menarche is the culmination of a series of physiological and anatomic processes of puberty : No specific hormonal signal for menarche is known; menarche as a discrete event is thought to be the relatively chance result of the gradual thickening of

5950-564: The First People, published in 2006, are two of them. John Marshall and Adrienne Miesmer documented the lives of the ǃKung San people between the 1950s and 1978 in Nǃai, the Story of a ǃKung Woman. This film, the account of a woman who grew up while the San lived as autonomous hunter-gatherers, but who later was forced into a dependent life in the government-created community at Tsumkwe, shows how

6069-539: The San consume 18 to 104 species, including grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, moths, butterflies, and termites. Women's traditional gathering gear is simple and effective: a hide sling, a blanket, a cloak called a kaross to carry foodstuffs, firewood, smaller bags, a digging stick, and perhaps, a smaller version of the kaross to carry a baby. Men, and presumably women when they accompany them, hunt in long, laborious tracking excursions. They kill their game using bow and arrows and spears tipped in diamphotoxin ,

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6188-572: The San occupied the southern shores throughout the eastern shrubland and may have formed a Sangoan continuum from the Red Sea to the Cape of Good Hope . By the end of the 18th century after the arrival of the Dutch, thousands of San had been killed and forced to work for the colonists. The British tried to "civilize" the San and make them adopt a more agricultural lifestyle, but were not successful. By

6307-446: The San people (or Basarwa ), was conquered during colonization. Loss of land and access to natural resources continued after Botswana's independence. The San have been particularly affected by encroachment by majority peoples and non-indigenous farmers onto their traditional land. Government policies from the 1970s transferred a significant area of traditionally San land to majority agro-pastoralist tribes and white settlers Much of

6426-833: The South African San Council and the South African San Institute. This benefit-sharing agreement is one of the first to give royalties to the holders of traditional knowledge used for drug sales. The terms of the agreement are contentious, because of their apparent lack of adherence to the Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing, as outlined in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The San have yet to profit from this agreement, as P57 has still not yet been legally developed and marketed. The San of

6545-532: The World (2005) compares San cave paintings from 200 years ago to Paleolithic European paintings that are 14,000 years old. Because of their similarities, the San works may illustrate the reasons for ancient cave paintings. The presenter Nigel Spivey draws largely on the work of Professor David Lewis-Williams , whose PhD was entitled "Believing and Seeing: Symbolic meanings in southern San rock paintings". Lewis-Williams draws parallels with prehistoric art around

6664-697: The active ingredient in the Hoodia plant, p57 (glycoside), to be used as a pharmaceutical drug for dieting. Once this patent was brought to the attention of the San, a benefit-sharing agreement was reached between them and the CSIR in 2003. This would award royalties to the San for the benefits of their indigenous knowledge. During the case, the San people were represented and assisted by the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA),

6783-468: The association between obesity and timing of menarche; a meta-analysis and systematic review has determined that more studies must be conducted to make any definitive conclusions about this association. Some of the aspects of family structure and function reported to be independently associated with earlier menarche [antenatal and early childhood] Other research has focused on the effect of childhood stress on timing of puberty, especially female. Stress

6902-463: The average age of menarche in girls in modern societies has declined, though the reasons and the degree remain subjects of controversy. From the sixth to the fifteenth centuries in Europe, most women reached menarche on average at about 14, between the ages of 12 and 15. The average age of menarche dropped from 14-15 years in the nineteenth century to 12-13 years in the present, but it seems that girls in

7021-579: The blood associated with menstruation in the Beta Jewish culture was believed to be impure . The Beta Jews built their villages surrounding and near bodies of water specifically for their women to have a place to clean themselves. The menstruation huts were built close to these bodies of water. In Nigeria , the Tiv ethnic group cut four lines into the abdomen of their girls during menarche. The lines are supposed to represent fertility. The Navajo have

7140-423: The blood flow can vary from a slow and spotty discharge to a consistent blood flow for 3–7 days. While the color of the blood does range from a brown to bright red color, this is normal; some women have light periods while others have heavy ones; no two women will have an identical experience. In very rare instances, menarche may occur at an unusually early age, preceding thelarche and other signs of puberty. This

7259-609: The book follows these markers throughout the world, demonstrating that all of humankind can be traced back to the African continent (see Recent African origin of modern humans , the so-called "out of Africa" hypothesis). The BBC's The Life of Mammals (2003) series includes video footage of an indigenous San of the Kalahari desert undertaking a persistence hunt of a kudu through harsh desert conditions. It provides an illustration of how early man may have pursued and captured prey with minimal weaponry. The BBC series How Art Made

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7378-470: The brain." While the healers are in the trance they propel themselves in a journey to seek out the sickness and argue with the spirits. Women on the other hand have a special medicine called the gwah which starts in the stomachs and kidneys. During the Drum Dance, they enter the ǃkia state and the gwah travels up the spine and lodges in the neck. In order to obtain the gwah power the women, "chop up

7497-407: The child alone, delivering it into a small leaf-lined hole dug into the warm sand. The child's cord is not clamped or cut (a form of Lotus birth or umbilical nonseverance), and the placenta is delivered and put next to the child, as guardian. Shortly thereafter, the baby-placenta is lightly covered with another large leaf, and the new mother walks a short way to verbally alert the older women of

7616-409: The collection of wealth also challenges traditional sharing ideology. The ǃKung also face problems since their traditional lands are sought after by cattle ranchers, wildlife reserves , and state governments. San people The San peoples (also Saan ), or Bushmen , are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of

7735-408: The completed birth, at which time they join the mother and child in a ritual welcoming. If a laboring woman is delayed in returning to the village once she has left to give birth, the older women will come looking for her to assist; however, it is said to be a rare occurrence. Time between the births of children is traditionally about 3–5 years. Children are nursed for 3–5 years, ending when the mother

7854-578: The couple never becomes comfortable, separation is acceptable, prompted by either partner. If they do become a stable couple, they can reside with either partner's family, settling with whichever is beneficial at the time. Divorce remains possible throughout marriage. Extramarital sex is not condoned, but is equally acceptable for each spouse. Domestic violence is prevented because villages are small and close and houses are open so that neighbors and relatives can intervene as needed. Girls who are displeased with their parents' selection may violently protest against

7973-428: The cycles were anovulatory in the first year after menarche, 50% in the third and 10% in the sixth year. Regular ovulation is usually indicated by predictable and consistent intervals between menses, and predictable and consistent patterns of flow (e.g., heaviness or cramping). Continuing ovulation typically requires a body fat percentage of at least 22%. An anthropological term for this state of potential fertility

8092-537: The desert regions of the Kalahari; however, eventually nearly all other San communities in southern Africa were forced into this region. The Kalahari San remained in poverty where their richer neighbours denied them rights to the land. Before long, in both Botswana and Namibia, they found their territory drastically reduced. Various Y chromosome studies show that the San carry some of the most divergent (earliest branching) human Y-chromosome haplogroups . These haplogroups are specific sub-groups of haplogroups A and B ,

8211-424: The early phases of European colonization, tens of thousands of Khoekhoe and San peoples lost their lives as a result of genocide, murder, physical mistreatment, and disease. There were cases of “Bushman hunting” in which commandos (mobile paramilitary units or posses) sought to dispatch San and Khoekhoe in various parts of Southern Africa." Much aboriginal people 's land in Botswana, including land occupied by

8330-528: The endometrium induced by rising but fluctuating pubertal estrogen. The menstruum , or flow , consists of a combination of fresh and clotted blood with endometrial tissue. The initial flow of menarche is usually brighter than mature menstrual flow. It is often scanty in amount and may be very brief, even a single instance of "spotting". Like other menses , menarche may be accompanied by abdominal cramping . In most girls, menarche does not mean that ovulation has occurred. In post-menarchal girls, about 80% of

8449-408: The first menstruation is a marker that signifies a change in status. Post-menarche, the young woman enters a stage called maidenhood, the stage between menarche and marriage. There are cultures that have in past centuries, and in present, practiced rites of passage for a girl experiencing menarche. Canadian psychological researcher Niva Piran claims that menarche or the perceived average age of puberty

8568-401: The foraging San collectively. It was coined by Leonhard Schulze in the 1920s and popularized by Isaac Schapera in 1930. Anthropological use of San was detached from the compound Khoisan , as it has been reported that the exonym San is perceived as a pejorative in parts of the central Kalahari. By the late 1990s, the term San was used generally by the people themselves. The adoption of

8687-450: The gathering of food, but sometimes also partake in hunting. Water is important in San life. During long droughts, they make use of sip wells in order to collect water. To make a sip well, a San scrapes a deep hole where the sand is damp, and inserts a long hollow grass stem into the hole. An empty ostrich egg is used to collect the water. Water is sucked into the straw from the sand, into the mouth, and then travels down another straw into

8806-413: The girl is classified as constitutional growth delay . Short stature, delayed growth in height and weight, and/or delayed menarche may be the only clinical manifestations of celiac disease , in absence of any other symptoms. According to a review article, there may also be an association between early age at menarche and breast cancer risk. Studies have been conducted to observe the association of

8925-405: The girl is showered with money and gifts. When a Japanese girl had her first period, the family sometimes celebrated by eating red-colored rice and beans ( sekihan ) . The color of blood and the red of sekihan are not related. All the rice of ancient times of Japan was red. Since rice was precious in ancient Japan (usually, millet was eaten), it was eaten only during the celebration. Sekihan

9044-489: The girl is taken out to sea and left there to swim back. In the horror movie Carrie (1976), an adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name , protagonist Carrie White experiences her first period as she showers after the school gym class. Unaware of what is happening to her, she panics and pleads for help, but the other girls respond by bullying her. Carrie's first period unleashes her violent powers and

9163-475: The girls who have menstruated in the past year. The days are split between feasting and private ceremonies reflecting on their new womanly status. In Australia , the Aboriginals treat a girl to "love magic". She is taught the ways of womanhood by the other women in her tribe. Her mother builds her a menstruation hut to which she confines herself for the remainder of her menses. The hut is burned and she

9282-667: The government's policy regarding land tended to favor the dominant Tswana peoples over the minority San and Bakgalagadi . Loss of land is a major contributor to the problems facing Botswana's indigenous people, including especially the San's eviction from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve . The government of Botswana decided to relocate all of those living within the reserve to settlements outside it. Harassment of residents, dismantling of infrastructure, and bans on hunting appear to have been used to induce residents to leave. The government has denied that any of

9401-460: The governments throughout Southern Africa to respect and reconstitute the ancestral land-rights of all San. John Marshall, the son of Harvard anthropologist Lorna Marshall , documented the lives of San in the Nyae Nyae region of Namibia over a period spanning more than 50-years. His early film The Hunters, shows a giraffe hunt. A Kalahari Family (2002) is a series documenting 50 years in

9520-424: The husband's mother. Marriage is generally between a man in his twenties and a girl in her teens (14–18 years old). Newlyweds live in the same village as the wife's family so she has family support during her new life. Often, young wives return to their parents' houses to sleep until they become comfortable with their husbands. During this time, the husband will hunt for his wife's family (a form of bridewealth ). If

9639-400: The lives of the Juǀʼhoansi of Southern Africa, from 1951 to 2000. Marshall was a vocal proponent of the San cause throughout his life. His sister Elizabeth Marshall Thomas wrote several books and numerous articles about the San, based in part on her experiences living with these people when their culture was still intact. The Harmless People, published in 1959, and The Old Way: A Story of

9758-425: The lives of the ǃKung people , who lived for millennia as hunter gatherers, were forever changed when they were forced onto a reservation too small to support them. South African film-maker Richard Wicksteed has produced a number of documentaries on San culture, history and present situation; these include In God's Places / Iindawo ZikaThixo (1995) on the San cultural legacy in the southern Drakensberg; Death of

9877-411: The magnitude of the decline and the factors responsible remain subjects of contention. The worldwide average age of menarche is very difficult to estimate accurately, and it varies significantly by geographical region, race, ethnicity and other characteristics, and occurs mostly during a span of ages from 8 to 16, with a small percentage of girls having menarche by age 10, and the vast majority having it by

9996-440: The marriage by kicking and screaming and running away at the end of the ceremony. After she has run away, this may result in the dissolution of the arrangement. Half of all first-time marriages end in divorce, but because it is common, the divorce process is not long. Anthropologist Marjorie Shostak generalizes that, "Everyone in the village expresses a point of view" on the marriage and if the couple should be divorced or not. After

10115-401: The meat to everyone in the group. Upon returning from a successful hunt, if the kill is transportable, it will be brought back to the village. The ǃKung promote the belief of community well-being, and so the village elders or "those of mature years" will allot meat to the members of the group. The ǃKung also believe in the betterment of their neighbors, so if the kill is too large to move or there

10234-524: The music and culture of the San. In a story told to the Radio City audience (an edited version of which appears on the DVD version of Live at Radio City ), Matthews recalls hearing the music of the San and, upon asking his guide what the words to their songs were, being told that "there are no words to these songs, because these songs, we've been singing since before people had words." He goes on to describe

10353-563: The nineteenth century had a later age at menarche compared to girls in earlier centuries. A large North American survey reported only a 2–3 month decline from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. A 2011 study found that each 1 kg/m increase in childhood body-mass index (BMI) can be expected to result in a 6.5% higher absolute risk of early menarche (before age 12 years). This is called the secular trend. Fewer than 10% of U.S. girls start to menstruate before 11 years of age, and 90% of all U.S. girls are menstruating by 13.8 years of age, with

10472-443: The nurturing role. Marriage is the major focus of alliance formation between groups of ǃKung. When a woman starts to develop, she is considered ready for marriage. Every first marriage is arranged. The culture of the ǃKung is "being directed at marriage itself, rather than at a specific man." Even though it does not matter who the man is, the woman's family is looking for a specific type of man. The man should not be too much older than

10591-404: The nǀum [power to heal] slowly heats inside you and pulls at you. It rises until it grabs your insides and takes your thoughts away." Healing rites are a primary part of the ǃKung culture. In the ǃKung state of mind, having health is equivalent to having social harmony, meaning that relationships within the group are stable and open between other people. Any ǃKung can become a healer because it "is

10710-434: The older healer having to "go into a trance to teach the novices, rubbing their own sweat onto the pupils' centers – their bellies, backs, foreheads, and spines." "Most of the apprentices have the intentions of becoming a healer but then become frightened or have a lack of ambition and discontinue." The ǃKung term for this powerful healing force is nǀum. This force resides in the bellies of men and women who have gone through

10829-409: The older person makes the ultimate decision. This is especially important in cultures like the ǃKung as there are not many status distinctions. Hunting can take days of tracking, attacking, and following a wounded beast. The Juǀʼhoansi have rites to prevent arrogance amongst male hunters. When a man kills a beast, he does not take it directly into the settlement, but leaves the body and returns as if he

10948-460: The oldest cultures on Earth, and are thought to be descended from the first inhabitants of what is now Botswana and South Africa. The historical presence of the San in Botswana is particularly evident in northern Botswana's Tsodilo Hills region. San were traditionally semi-nomadic , moving seasonally within certain defined areas based on the availability of resources such as water, game animals , and edible plants. Peoples related to or similar to

11067-426: The ostrich egg. Traditionally, the San were an egalitarian society. Although they had hereditary chiefs , their authority was limited. The San made decisions among themselves by consensus , with women treated as relative equals in decision making. San economy was a gift economy , based on giving each other gifts regularly rather than on trading or purchasing goods and services. Most San are monogamous , but if

11186-589: The preparation of millet . Millet is more difficult to process than traditional Joǀʼhoan foods, and therefore women must spend more time preparing food for their household, leaving less time for employment outside the home. The changing gender roles, growing inequality between the sexes, and transformation from a wandering hunter-gatherer life-style to life in a village have contributed to more domestic violence, as women are more dependent on men and increasingly restricted from outside intervention through changing housing styles and arrangements. Houses that are less open and

11305-510: The properties of their languages". Despite some positive aspects of government development programs reported by members of San and Bakgalagadi communities in Botswana, many have spoken of a consistent sense of exclusion from government decision-making processes, and many San and Bakgalagadi have alleged experiencing ethnic discrimination on the part of the government. The United States Department of State described ongoing discrimination against San, or Basarwa , people in Botswana in 2013 as

11424-508: The region. Their recent ancestral territories span Botswana , Namibia , Angola , Zambia , Zimbabwe , Lesotho , and South Africa . The San speak, or their ancestors spoke, languages of the Khoe , Tuu , and Kxʼa language families, and can be defined as a people only in contrast to neighboring pastoralists such as the Khoekhoe and descendants of more recent waves of immigration such as

11543-484: The relocation was forced. A legal battle followed. The relocation policy may have been intended to facilitate diamond mining by Gem Diamonds within the reserve. Hoodia gordonii , used by the San, was patented by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 1998, for its presumed appetite suppressing quality. A licence was granted to Phytopharm , for development of

11662-622: The rest of the human gene pool. A DNA study of fully sequenced genomes, published in September 2016, showed that the ancestors of today's San hunter-gatherers began to diverge from other human populations in Africa about 200,000 years ago and were fully isolated by 100,000 years ago. According to professors Robert K. Hitchcock, Wayne A. Babchuk, " In 1652, when Europeans established a full-time presence in Southern Africa, there were some 300,000 San and 600,000 Khoekhoe in Southern Africa. During

11781-410: The root of a short shrub, boil it into a tea and drink it." They do not need to drink the tea every time because the power they obtain lasts a lifetime. The community of the ǃKung fully supports the healers and depends heavily on them. They have trust in the healers and the teachers to guide them psychologically and spiritually through life. The ǃKung have a saying: "Healing makes their hearts happy, and

11900-509: The same family and are assigned the same kinship term. This is a common occurrence as there are a limited number of ǃKung names. Kung names are also strictly gendered meaning that men and women cannot share the same name. Names are passed down from ancestors according to a strict set of rules, though parents are never allowed to name their children after themselves. There is a principle of alternating generations in terms of "joking" ( k”ai ) and "avoidance" ( kwa ) relations. One's own generation and

12019-570: The same social status as those members of "aged years". Becoming chieftain is mostly nominal, though there are some responsibilities the chieftain assumes, such as becoming the group's "logical head". This duty entails such roles as dividing up the meat from hunters' kills; these leaders do not receive a larger portion than any other member of the village. The ǃKung people have given name to the Theory of Regal and Kungic Societal Structures due to their peacefulness and egalitarian social structure. Kinship

12138-477: The second generation up and down are considered "joking" relations and are treated with relaxed affection. The first generations above and below one are "avoidance" relations and are treated in a respectful and reserved manner. Every member of ǃKung society fits into one of these categories, there are no neutral people. Kinship III or wi has to do with the principles of relative age status. In situations where there are two people trying to decide what kin terms to use,

12257-470: The song as his "homage to meeting... the most advanced people on the planet." In Peter Godwin 's biography When A Crocodile Eats the Sun , he mentions his time spent with the San for an assignment. His title comes from the San's belief that a solar eclipse occurs when a crocodile eats the sun. Laurens van der Post 's two novels, A Story Like The Wind (1972) and its sequel, A Far Off Place (1974), made into

12376-465: The southern people in the central Kalahari towards the Molopo River , who are the last remnant of the previously extensive indigenous peoples of southern Africa. The designations "Bushmen" and "San" are both exonyms . The San have no collective word for themselves in their own languages. "San" comes from a derogatory Khoekhoe word used to refer to foragers without cattle or other wealth, from

12495-866: The sparse vegetation which the Juǀʼhoansi and their game animals need, as well as dirty the Juǀʼhoansi water holes. This water pollution, along with the disappearance of native vegetation, has made disease more prevalent. In addition to the problems involved in sharing water with cows, the Juǀʼhoansi are less mobile than in the past. The current governments of Namibia and Botswana, where the Juǀʼhoansi live, encourage permanent settlements with European style houses. With urban employment and industrialization, indigenous people are changing their nomadic lifestyle. European-descended settlers have encouraged wage-paid agricultural labour, especially for men. Due to increased dependence on them and their access to wealth, men are valued more. Women, who traditionally prepared food, have taken up

12614-578: The term was preceded by a number of meetings held in the 1990s where delegates debated on the adoption of a collective term. These meetings included the Common Access to Development Conference organized by the Government of Botswana held in Gaborone in 1993, the 1996 inaugural Annual General Meeting of the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA) held in Namibia, and

12733-533: The time they were 14. There is a later age of onset in Asian populations compared to the West, but it too is changing with time. For example a Korean study in 2011 showed an overall average age of 12.7, with around 20% before age 12, and more than 90% by age 14. A Chinese study from 2014 published in Acta Paediatrica showed similar results (overall average of age 12.8 in 2005 down to age 12.3 in 2014) and

12852-413: The timing of menarche with various conditions and diseases. Some studies have shown that there may be an association between early or late-age menarche and cardiovascular disease , although the mechanism of the association is not well understood. A systematic review has concluded that early age at menarche is also a risk factor for the insulin resistance condition. There is conflicting evidence regarding

12971-443: The training and have become a healer. Healing can be transmitted through the ǃkia dance that begins at sundown and continues through the night. The ǃkia can be translated as "trance" which can give a physical image of a sleeping enchantment. While they dance, "in preparation for entering a trance state to effect a cure, the substance [the nǀum ] heats up and, boiling, travels up the healer's spine to explode with therapeutic power in

13090-436: The two earliest branches on the human Y-chromosome tree . Mitochondrial DNA studies also provide evidence that the San carry high frequencies of the earliest haplogroup branches in the human mitochondrial DNA tree. This DNA is inherited only from one's mother. The most divergent (earliest branching) mitochondrial haplogroup, L0d , has been identified at its highest frequencies in the southern African San groups. In

13209-582: The use of such individual group names, where possible, over the use of the collective term San . Adoption of the Khoekhoe term San in Western anthropology dates to the 1970s, and this remains the standard term in English-language ethnographic literature, although some authors later switched back to using the name Bushmen . The compound Khoisan is used to refer to the pastoralist Khoi and

13328-405: The village weighs in, they are divorced and can live in their separate huts with their family. Relations between divorced individuals are usually quite amicable, with former partners living near one another and maintaining a cordial relationship. After a woman's first divorce, she is free to marry a man of her choosing or stay single and live on her own. Unlike other complex food-foraging groups, it

13447-399: The woman, should preferably be unmarried rather than divorced, should be able to hunt, and should be willing to take on the responsibilities of the wife's family. The latter is because a woman's family depends heavily on her husband's family, particularly through trade, when there are times of scarcity. On the marriage day, the tradition is the "marriage-by-capture" ceremony in which the bride

13566-462: The world for the first time, but some people disparaged it as part of the subjective view of a European in the 1950s and 1960s, stating that he branded the San as simple "children of Nature" or even "mystical ecologists." In 1992 by John Perrot and team published the book "Bush for the Bushman" – a "desperate plea" on behalf of the aboriginal San addressing the international community and calling on

13685-530: The world, linking in shamanic ritual and trance states. A 1969 film, Lost in the Desert , features a small boy, stranded in the desert, who encounters a group of wandering San. They help him and then abandon him as a result of a misunderstanding created by the lack of a common language and culture. The film was directed by Jamie Uys , who returned to the San a decade later with The Gods Must Be Crazy , which proved to be an international hit. This comedy portrays

13804-539: The younger. Relatively few names circulate (approximately 35 names per sex), and each child is named after a grandparent or another relative, but never their parents. Children have no social duties besides playing, and leisure is very important to San of all ages. Large amounts of time are spent in conversation, joking, music, and sacred dances. Women may be leaders of their own family groups. They may also make important family and group decisions and claim ownership of water holes and foraging areas. Women are mainly involved in

13923-532: Was reviewed by Lawrence Van Gelder for the New York Times , who said that the film "constitutes an act of preservation and a requiem." Spencer Wells 's 2003 book The Journey of Man —in connection with National Geographic 's Genographic Project —discusses a genetic analysis of the San and asserts their genetic markers were the first ones to split from those of the ancestors of the bulk of other Homo sapiens sapiens. The PBS documentary based on

14042-426: Was the tradition of an ancient custom. The celebration was kept a secret from extended family until the rice was served. In some Indian communities, young women are given a special menarche ceremony called Ruthu Sadangu . The Mescalero Apaches place high importance on their menarche ceremony and it is regarded as the most important ritual in their tribe. Each year, there is an eight-day event celebrating all of

14161-484: Was unsuccessful. An older man will inquire about his hunt and remark upon his failure, to which the hunter must avoid credit and accept humility. The next day, a group will go "see if some small animal was nicked by an arrow." Upon finding the quarry, the hunter will be reassured of the little value of the kill which is finally returned. Additionally, the kill may belong not to him, but to the person who gave him arrows (man or woman), who then follows rules on how to distribute

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