Hxaro

A group! Kung in 1896

Hxaro describes the mutual exchange system of the ǃKung, a clan of the San in the Kalahari , in which a network of social relationships is maintained with exchange partners, some hundreds of kilometers away, through gifts, storytelling and regular visits. These community-building relationships last a long time and are sometimes passed on from parents to their children. The system was examined in detail by the anthropologist Pauline Wiessner . She sees the main task of the system as being to collectively cover the ǃKung in times of food shortage, for example in the case of dry periods or floods, and compares it with the insurance system .

Characteristic properties are the symmetrical delayed reciprocity, the importance of the established relationship between individuals (as opposed to the practical use of gifts and group relationships), and the fact that the sex of the exchange partner does not play a major role.

In detail, the people were connected to an average of 16 exchange partners and spent around a quarter of the year creating or procuring gifts and visiting each other, the effort made for Hxaro is rated as high. During the visits, the visitors are initially completely supplied by the host, after a few days at least partially, so that a visit also represents a high effort for the host.

The system of delayed reciprocity is specific to the ǃKung and the Naro- speaking San. A similar system exists among the Enga of Papua New Guinea .

annotation

1. ↑ Note: This article contains characters from the alphabet of the Khoisan languages spoken in southern Africa . The display contains characters of the click letters ǀ , ǁ , ǂ and ǃ . For more information on the pronunciation of long or nasal vowels or certain clicks , see e.g. B. under Khoekhoegowab .

See also

• Kula ritual (gift exchange ring on the Pacific Trobriand Islands)

literature

• Pauline Wiessner: Hxaro, a Regional System of Reciprocity for Reducing Risk among the ǃKung San. University of Michigan, Michigan 1977.
• Richard B. Lee: The Dobe Juǀ'Hoansi (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology). Thomson Learning, 2002, ISBN 978-0-15-506333-4 .

Web links

• Claudia Dreifus: A Conversation With Pauline Wiessner: Where Gifts and Stories Are Crucial to Survival. In: The New York Times . May 25, 2009, accessed July 10, 2014.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt : The biology of human behavior. Outline of human ethology. 5th edition. Blank-Media, Vierkirchen-Pasenbach 2004, ISBN 3-937501-01-0 , p.?.
2. ^ Alan Barnard : Anthropology and the Bushman. Berg, Oxford 2007, p. 77.