San (people)

San (people), ethnic group living mainly in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana and Namibia. In the past, the San have been called Bushmen by southern African whites; they are now often known as the Khoi-San to reflect their cultural affinities. The San speak Khoisan languages characterized by click sounds. Linguistic groups include the Auen, Gwi, Heikum, Kung, and Naron.

Traditionally, the San lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers organized in small groups, or bands, of about ten nuclear families. Each group had exclusive rights to a large area of land and usually moved around its rather desolate territory as a unit, changing homesites about once a month as the food supply became exhausted. Women gathered wild plants and fruit, which provided most of the nourishment. Men supplemented the diet by killing animals with light bows and poison-tipped arrows. During the winter, when the overall food supply was reduced, the group’s households lived apart. The San sometimes lived in caves or thatched shelters and wore short aprons and sandals made of skins.

The San have lived in southern Africa for thousands of years. Their culture may be one of the most ancient in the world. In 2006 archaeologists reported evidence of rituals practiced by the San around 70,000 years ago—the oldest indications of human rituals ever found. The ancient artwork and artifacts were discovered in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana in a cave that the San have traditionally used for rites associated with the python, an animal that plays a major role in their creation stories.

San territory, once extensive, was constricted by white settlers after the early 1700s. In the 20th century many San took up a settled existence, mostly as farmers and cattle raisers, and as a result their cultural heritage is in danger of disappearing. Today, less than 5 percent of the approximately 50,000 San live as hunter-gatherers.