About the !Kung

The !Kung are an indigenous group from the Kalahari desert in Botswana. They mostly live in isolated small villages of 10-30 people. Formally a society of hunter gatherers, they now live in more settled locations generally close to permanent bodies of water. Due to recent changes in their lifestyle, the !Kung now depend on farming and cattle herding for subsistence. Their language, !Kung, is unique in that it utilizes clicks. The exclamation point represents a specific click, or phoneme. They have no writing system. Other names that the !Kung go by are: !Kung San, !Kung Bushmen, and ju /’hoansi (their own term for themselves).

----------

Sources:

Draper, Patricia, and Marion Kranichfeld
1990 Coming in from the Bush: Settled Life by the !kung and Their Accommodation to Bantu Neighbors. Human Ecology 18(4): 363-384.

Howell, Nancy
2010 Another Look at the !Kung: A Life History Approach. In Life Histories of the Dobe !Kung: Food, Fatness, and Well-being Over the Life-span. Pp. 1-17. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
2007 Language Hotspots-South Africa. Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/langhotspots/hotspots/SAF/index.html, accessed October 23, 2012.

Mission, Vision, and Values of this Blog

Mission: The iCross-Cultural Citizen Project is a cultural anthropology course-based project meant to raise critical consciousness about the rich cultural diversity in our indigenous world (in our planet). Being totally aware of the limitations of being outsiders, we are a group of multidisciplinary undergraduate students who believe in cross-cultural sensitivity and participatory agency aimed at disseminating information about indigenous realities as accurately as possible.

Vision: The iCross-Cultural Citizen Project’s vision is to create an online cross-cultural space for students, professionals, and youth to learn and exchange cross-culturally sensitive information about contemporary indigenous experiences. From that outsider student’s perspective, we will try to theoretically explore possible collaborative solutions to problems that affect the indigenous populations of our planet. Finally, we hope for the future creation of a space where indigenous youth can share their experiences and their realities with us for real mutual collaboration to take place.

Values:
1. We value the maximization of benefits to indigenous peoples and vulnerable populations in the world.
2. We value the respect for persons all over the world.
3. We value the equal treatment of people, and we are against the exploitation of vulnerable groups around the world.
4. We value collaborative cross-cultural learning and critical thinking.