Publication Date

12-13-1979

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of trade and reciprocity in two river regions of Northern Botswana. The regions studied, the Nata and Botletle River areas, are inhabited by similar ethnic groups (River Bushmen and various Bantu groups) but they exhibit environmental differences as well as differences in the pattern of exchange found among the inhabitants. The study is a controlled comparison between these two regions, and attempts to explain these differences in exchange with reference to the environmental differences between the regions. The Botletle River, which is characterized by habitat diversity and a limited resource zone, exhibits ethnic specialization and trade between the specialized groups. The Nata River, which is more homogeneous and lacks any limited resource, is characterized by a reticulate network of generalized reciprocity. The study seeks to demonstrate that the exchange found on the Botletle River is explainable in terms of costs and can be seen as a way of buffering spatial variability in resources, whereas the exchange that predominates on the Nata is best explained as a way of minimizing risk and buffering temporal variability in resources. These differences in function result in predictable differences in structure and form, and these differences are documented and discussed with reference to the two study regions. The exchange data were collected by the author during 1975-1977, and are based on interviews that ascertained the origin of all food items recorded in a household inventory. These data are supplemented by data on various aspects of production. Data from both Bushman and Bantu households were analyzed, although the study focused most intensively on the Bushman population. Economic arguments (classical trade theory and the theory of risk minimization) are shown to be useful in understanding the exchange on the Botletle and Nata Rivers, but other issues, anomalous or irrelevant from the standpoint of economic theory, are also important in understanding the prevailing patterns of exchange. One issue that is addressed in the study concerns the prevailing pattern of standard prices that are not responsive to changes in supply and demand. An explanation is offered for this pricing pattern, and the controlled comparison is used to support the argument that trade on the Botletle River is "economic" in spite of the apparent absence of market mechanisms. Another issue that is addressed in the dissertation concerns the implications of mobility and sedentism for trade and reciprocity. The Bushmen on both Nata and Botletle Rivers are now sedentary, and depend primarily on cultivated foods, but ethnohistorical information provides suggestive evidence concerning the patterns of exchange that prevailed in the recent past when these Bushmen were mobile foragers. Information concerning Botletle River history is used to suggest that the development of specialization and trade on the Botletle was due in part to the increased sedentism of the area's Bushman inhabitants, which was a consequence of the intrusion of Bantu pastoralists into the area. With respect to generalized reciprocity, it is argued that increased sedentism will have the opposite effect, namely a reduction in dependence on generalized reciprocity and the substitution of storage as the primary buffer for regional sources of risk. The analysis of the Nata River exchange shows that the reciprocity networks that exist today among the sedentary Bushmen are very localized, and are used to cope with local, rather than regional, sources of risk.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Anthropology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Patricia Draper

Second Committee Member

Lewis R. Binford

Third Committee Member

Henry Cosad Harpending

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