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).
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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.
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