Bushmen Case

Running head: Ju/'hoansi Bushman

Ju/'hoansi Bushman

Anthropology

Abstract

I am going to imagine that I am going to live in the Kalahari Desert to live a traditional semi-nomadic life with the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen. I am going to discuss the five items that I will take with me and the reason why I want to take these items. Then I will discuss how the semi-nomadic life style affects my sense of home my relationship with my environment and my attitude towards the people I am around and my material possessions.

Ju/'hoansi Bushmen

The Ju/'hoansi bushmen are semi-nomadic people that live on the boarders of the Kalahari Desert. This people are traditionally hunter-gathers. Deciding to join their lifestyle will ultimately change everything I think about the world.

There are five items that I will bring with me on this voyage to a new lifestyle. These items are a knife, hairbrush, toothbrush, blanket, and water bottle. The reason that I want to bring a knife is that this item I believe would be valuable to me. It could help me cut up a kill, cut fruit or give me the ability to crave items that I find in the desert into something else that I could use. I think this item is a want over a need. I do not need the knife in order to survive out their but it would make my life much easier.

The second and third item that I want to bring with me is a hairbrush and a toothbrush. This goes to my own personal need for hygiene. This without a doubt is a want. I could not use these items for anything else then my personal hygiene, and thus it does not help me to survive in the desert.

My fourth item that I would like to take along is a blanket. This item could be used in multiple ways. The first way of course is to sleep on it. This item would be very important to me because it is a survival tool. I could use this blanket to keep me off the ground or wrap up in it to keep myself warm. The second way that I could use the blanket is to carry items in it. Since the people that I am going to live with are nomadic and gathers it will be important to be able to keep my things together and always ready to go. It will also be valuable to be able to store things as I go is a tight compact space that will help to keep sand and dirt out of it.

Finally we come to my final item which is a water bottle. This item is a need. It allows me to keep a supply of life giving water on me at all times. This item could also be useful to store small food items in it if I didn't have water in the bottle.

When going from a world that has material all around you to a nomadic lifestyle the items that you