Anth 145 Spring 2022 Recitation 1 Reading Assignment Instructions Read the first four chapters of The Dobe Ju hoansi by Richard Lee Then consider and write brief responses to the following questions To receive full participation credit for recitation you will need to turn in your responses as well as participate in the discussion during Rec Sec which will be based on this reading assignment You should also consider this assignment as preparation for your exam We ask that you bring a hard copy of your responses to recitation as well as upload a copy to the assignments tab of your Sakai Recitation Section page Due Date Submit on Sakai before the start of your section Lee Chapter 1 1 What does Lee mean when he writes we have to be careful to avoid the twin pitfalls of racism and romanticism Why study the Ju hoansi Pg 3 Para 1 a He wants to make sure that they take caution to treat the Ju hoansi respectfully because they are people also I feel that they want to make sure not to urbanize the area at all and the ideas of racism and romanticism will negatively affect the area b This group of people life a hunter gatherer lifestyle in a modern world This helps us to better understand what life would have been like in the Pleistocene era The ju hoansi are the World s best documented foraging society and there is so much to learn from them 2 From Lee s introductory descriptions of the Ju hoansi what features of the Dobe Ju hoansi way of living may help us understand the human past How are the Dobe Ju hoansi different than Pleistocene foraging groups a They are foragers so they go out and hunt and gather food as they did in the past They give us a good idea of how foraging groups lives in the past by simply showing their day to day lives ie How they eat sleep work etc Lee Chapter 2 3 What does the archaeological evidence at Dobe reveal Why has it sparked debate What non archaeological evidence can be used to explore these debates a People argue that the Dobe are Kung were pastoralists and paid tribute to Bantu speaking Iron Age Overlords Archeological evidence reveals only few fragments from the Iron age and only one cow bone This shows that the people remained hunters and gatherers and possibly engaged in some long distance trade with distant Iron Age peoples Further if the people of the Dobe area were pastoralists many cow like bones would have been found at the site b Historically it does not make since for the Jo hoansi to revert back to hunter gathers after they potentially were pastoralists The Jo hoansi are more 1 conservative than other groups in the area who do partake in pastoralist ideology Lee Chapter 3 4 Describe what Lee means when he writes theirs is long term adaptations to the problem of living Why is the problem of living difficult to ethnographically study is it similarly difficult to study archaeologically a An ethnographer can only see a small segment of what they are studying All while the people of the Dobe area have adapted over a long period of time to adjust to their way of life It is in some ways difficult to the study of archeology in that archeology also just looks in on the surface of its findings Lee Chapter 4 5 Why is foraging so sustainable for the Ju hoansi a Their main diet is that of vegetable foods which are more plentiful in their area The Ju hoansi people are very resourceful and use all available resources to gather what they need to survive 6 Describe the social functions of insulting the meat how does it help maintain egalitarianism a When a hunter is successful in his kill he cannot boast or brag Rather he goes back to the camp and says that he might not have gotten anything and other men offer to help him the next day The men will go out and find the killed animal and insult it like it is worthless This is to keep the successful hunters humble This promotes egalitarianism because even though some men are better hunters than others this practice molds their behavior to minimize the tendency of self praise and to channel their energies into socially beneficial activities 2