Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The uncertainty becomes greatest at the base of the tree—in this case,
at the time when the mitochondrial Eve lived. It is possible that the San
separated from the rest of us only 100,000 years ago instead of 170,000. At
the other extreme, the ancestry of the San might have parted company from
the rest of our species extremely far back in time, 250,000 years ago or more.
Either of these scenarios is quite possible.
But, regardless of when the San branched away, it is clear that the com-
mon ancestor of the San and the rest of us was already
H. sapiens
. This is
because the San are
H. sapiens
and so are the rest of us.
Is there something unique about the San, such as their amazing ability to
fi nd food in the unlikeliest places? Obviously not. Stefan comes from a family
that had moved to Botswana from South Africa. He grew up with San chil-
dren as playmates, learned two of their languages despite their intimidating
glottal stops and clicks, and absorbed their bush lore from the time he was a
toddler. He is also quite capable of surviving in the bush, and in fact he has
hiked alone across the Kalahari and the Okavango delta for weeks at a time.
Could it be that there is something unique about the rest of us? Again,
unlikely. The San languages are rich in words and concepts, their social rela-
tionships are complex, and they have proven perfectly able to learn about
and take advantage of European technology.
The culture of the San
The latest eyeblink in the long history of the San has been enmeshed in
politics and exploitation. These people of the Kalahari live in a diamond-
rich area. The disastrous ef ort to resettle the San outside their desert home
began with the desire of diamond companies to gain unrestricted access to
the gems scattered throughout the desert. But tourism has proved to be a
more stable source of revenue, and the Botswana government has halted dia-
mond mining in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The San are starting to
move back to their homes, and there are now attempts to re-establish some
approximation of their original bushland ecosystem.
