Affluence Without Abundance

Posted on 14 June 2018 by James Suzman

A vibrant portrait of the original affluent society the Bushmen of southern Africa by the anthropologist who has spent the better part of the last twenty five years documenting their encounter with modernity.If the success of a civilization is measured by its endurance over time, then the Bushmen of the Kalahari are by far the most successful in human history A hunting and gathering people who made a good living by working only as much as needed to exist in harmony with their hostile desert environment, the Bushmen have lived in southern Africa since the evolution of our species nearly two hundred thousand years ago.In Affluence Without Abundance, anthropologist James Suzman asks whether understanding how hunter gatherers like the Bushmen found contentment by having few needs easily met might help us address some of the environmental and economic challenges we face today Vividly bringing to life a proud and private people, introducing unforgettable members of their tribe, Affluence Without Abundance tells the story of the collision between the modern global economy and the oldest hunting and gathering society on earth In rendering an intimate picture of a people coping with radical change, it asks profound questions about how we now think about matters such as work, wealth, equality, contentment, and even time.Not since Elizabeth Marshall Thomas s The Harmless People in 1959 has anyone provided a intimate or insightful account of the Bushmen or of what we might learn about ourselves from our shared history as hunter gatherers. Free Read Affluence Without Abundance [ By ] James Suzman [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr All my anthropology professor told me the same thing, the difference between anthropologists and historians is in their books, while the fieldwork of an anthropologist is amazing out there, socializing and making connections with people the books they end up writing are the most boring you ll ever read , meanwhile historians gather resources in a busy library or from other written sources but the books they come up are so amazing The point that I m trying to make is that it is a challenge to All my anthropology professor told me the same thing, the difference between anthropologists and historians is in their books, while the fieldwork of an anthropologist is amazing out there, socializing and making connections with people the books they end up writing are the most boring you ll ever read , meanwhile historians gather resources in a busy library or from other written sources but the books they come up are so amazing The point that I m trying to make is that it is a challenge to write about an anthropological topic the bushmen and the practice of hunting and gathering and make it interesting to the general public, the lessons we can learn from this group of people are missed by the majority of people putting that aside we should also consider that for 90 % of our lives as human we practiced hunting and gathering so something must have worked ...Like James Scott s The Art of Not Being Governed , this book helps us think outside our implicit assumptions about how society necessarily functions In this case, Suzman argues, for example, that the work ethic and forward thinking acquisitiveness are tied up with agricultural societies and don t exist in bushman societies I imagine to peoplefamiliar with the anthropological literature this work would seem less insightful andas a topical introduction, ...I wanted this book to be about so muchthan it was It took on the wrong tone for me, and started out in a way that made it lose sway with me Instead of really showing the affluence without abundance it seemed to beabout breaking down the ideas of the bushman s way of life and spendingtime depicting their current state of dependence on aide and how they seem to have given up on their way of life, which makes me feel as though the title should have just been The Disappearing I wanted this book to be about so muchthan it was It took on the wrong tone for me, and started out in a way that made it lose sway with me Instead of really showing the affluence without abundance it seemed to beabout breaking down the ideas of the bushman s way of life and spendingtime depicting their current state of dependence on aide and how they seem to have given up on their way of life, which makes me feel as though the title should have just been Th...This was a beautiful and important book about the most sustained human culture on earth Suzman is not only a keen observer of culture, but also a wonderful writer This book is required reading for all those who seek to live in a way that does not exhaust nature and yet preserves the most impor...Thoughtful somewhat depressingA kind of rambling look at the three eras hunter gatherer agricultural industrial post thru the lens of the author s long aquaintance with bushman culture.Well worth reading on the most fundamental issues facing us personally as a global human society.Hunter gatherers were the original leisure society It didn t take as long as we civilized people might think to acquire the necessities of a simple life Life wasn t all work And the work people did Hunting Modern people do it for recreation Picking fruits and nuts and wild plants Again, something moderns do as a special leisure activity, though it may be on a pick your own farm The San or Bushmen lived as nomadic hunter gatherers for centuries, in a society characterized by a lack of Hunter gatherers were the original leisure society It didn t take as long as we civilized people might think to acquire the necessities of a simple life Life wasn t all work And the work people did Hunting Modern people do it for recreation Picking fruits and nuts and wild plants Again, something moderns do as a special leisu...The whites in Namibia, South Africa, and Botswana are taking everything from the Bushmen and giving nothing in return The Bushmen are no longer the people you might have seen in The Gods Must Be Crazy movies they are being resettled, forced into agricultural labor, not given any education, and in some regions no longer allowed to hunt or gather on their land Displacement and oppression always, always, always leads to trauma many Bushmen are self medicating with alcohol South African anthr The whites in Namibia, South Africa, and Botswana are taking everything from the Bushmen and giving nothing in return The Bushmen are no longer the people you might have seen in The Gods Must Be Crazy movies they are being resettled, forced into agricultural labor, not given any education, and in some regions no longer allowed to hunt or gather on their land Displacement and oppression always, always, always leads to trauma many Bushmen are self medicating with alcohol South ...This is one of the best books I ve read in years It s a beautifully written account of Namibia s hunter gathers, a culture that has been successful and sustainable for 200,000 years The content ranges from topics grand and small Learn the Bushman s amazing hunting technique in one chapter In the next, contemplate the impact of an agrarian society on man s relationship with the earth Ev...An excellent book that really shows the love the author had of the SAN people Very well written I wish I had read this before traveling through Namibia Highly recommend.Other reviewers have noted that the author meandersthan a little in making his points This is a shame, because the San people are interesting in many ways they are perhaps the original people of Africa, and hence of homo sapiens since research shows they have lived in Namibia for over 200,000 years Their traditional diet and way of life is a window into how all humans once lived But there is far too much academic discussion that does not contribute, in my opinion, to telling the story Other reviewers have noted that the author meandersthan a little in making his points This is a shame, because the San people are interesting in many ways they are perhaps the original people of Africa, and hence of homo sapiens since research shows they have lived in Namibia ...

English
14 June 2018

James Suzman