When the San were constantly on the move, water was hard to come by. Usually during the dry season their moisture came from scraping and squeezing roots for drinking. Root water was also used for bathing and cleaning oneself.           This past week I (Claudia) learned how to make homemade soap. … Continue reading Fun Fact Friday: Saving Power of Soap

Since the San are nomadic, they built huts of grass thatched over a framework of branches, planted into the ground and tied with strips of bark of the knob-thorn tree at the apex. The men usually gather the branches and construct the framework, while the woman gather grass and set about thatching the hut in … Continue reading Fun Fact Friday: San Hut’s

Today, the San are mainly confined in the barren inhospitable environment of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, Botswana, and Angola and adjacent sub-tropical grasslands of South-West Africa. The Kalahari Desert has 102-254 mm (4-10 inches) of rainfall in a year.  

San Bushman hunters use lightly constructed bows and arrows in their hunting which inflict insufficient injury to take down large prey, but they apply poison from the larva and pupae of chrysomelid beetles in the genus Diamphidia to their arrows. Once the animal is shot, the hunter follows it until the poison subdues it which … Continue reading Fun Fact Friday: Poison Arrows