Megan Biesele directs the Kalahari Peoples Fund, a US-based advocacy organization. Since the 1970s she has worked with Ju/’hoan San communities in Botswana and Namibia developing curriculum and language archives. She directed the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation at the time of Namibian Independence, and helped establish both the Nyae Nyae Village Schools Project and the Nyae Nyae Conservancy. Her publications include “Women Like Meat”: The Folklore and Foraging Ideology of the Kalahari Ju/’hoan (Witwatersrand and Indiana, 1993) and Hunters and Gatherers in the Modern World (co-editor, Berghahn Books, 2000).

“Readers will obtain unique insight into how culture is both transformed and maintained in social interaction.”  ·  Choice“There are many ways in which this is an extraordinary book…This account is much more than a valuable historical documentation. It contains valuable lessons for those in anthropology, NGO’s, development and advocacy, some of which were no doubt painfully learnt. Its themes resonate directly with problems facing other Khoe-San groups and indigenous peoples the world over, from land, food and water to alcohol, health and hope…That this story can be written from the inside with so much subtlety, detail and balance is a truly commendable achievement.”  ·  The Journal of Modern African Studies“...the most detailed case study ever written of the transformation of a hunting and gathering people - the Ju/’hoansi of Namibia - from a relatively independent and self-sufficient society into an economically struggling ethnic minority in a newly-independent nation state."  ·  Kirk Endicott, Dartmouth College“This is an important book that will have a strong place in at least two anthropological niches: the anthropology of development, and as a classic anthropological case study…It tells an original story which accomplishes a rarely achieved synthesis of top-down and bottom-up perspective.”  ·  Richard B. Lee

• List of TablesList of FiguresPrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of Acronyms and AbbreviationsNote on OrthographyIntroduction: A Community HistoryChapter 1. Namibia and the Nyae Nyae RegionChapter 2. Traditional Ju/’hoan Leadership and GovernanceChapter 3. The Ju/’hoan People’s Organization and Their FoundationChapter 4.Ju/’hoan Empowerment from Dialogue on Wildlife IssuesChapter 5. The Lead-up to Namibian Independence in Nyae NyaeChapter 6. Independence: The Years of HopeChapter 7. The Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of NamibiaChapter 8. The Nyae Nyae Farmers Co-operative after IndependenceChapter 9. Community-Based Natural Resource Management and Other Development Models in Nyae NyaeChapter 10. Nyae Nyae Conservancy Programs and the Future References Cited

Megan Biesele directs the Kalahari Peoples Fund, a US-based advocacy organization. Since the 1970s she has worked with Ju/’hoan San communities in Botswana and Namibia developing curriculum and language archives. She directed the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation at the time of Namibian Independence, and helped establish both the Nyae Nyae Village Schools Project and the Nyae Nyae Conservancy. Her publications include “Women Like Meat”: The Folklore and Foraging Ideology of the Kalahari Ju/’hoan (Witwatersrand and Indiana, 1993) and Hunters and Gatherers in the Modern World (co-editor, Berghahn Books, 2000).

“Readers will obtain unique insight into how culture is both transformed and maintained in social interaction.”  ·  Choice“There are many ways in which this is an extraordinary book…This account is much more than a valuable historical documentation. It contains valuable lessons for those in anthropology, NGO’s, development and advocacy, some of which were no doubt painfully learnt. Its themes resonate directly with problems facing other Khoe-San groups and indigenous peoples the world over, from land, food and water to alcohol, health and hope…That this story can be written from the inside with so much subtlety, detail and balance is a truly commendable achievement.”  ·  The Journal of Modern African Studies“...the most detailed case study ever written of the transformation of a hunting and gathering people - the Ju/’hoansi of Namibia - from a relatively independent and self-sufficient society into an economically struggling ethnic minority in a newly-independent nation state."  ·  Kirk Endicott, Dartmouth College“This is an important book that will have a strong place in at least two anthropological niches: the anthropology of development, and as a classic anthropological case study…It tells an original story which accomplishes a rarely achieved synthesis of top-down and bottom-up perspective.”  ·  Richard B. Lee

• List of TablesList of FiguresPrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of Acronyms and AbbreviationsNote on OrthographyIntroduction: A Community HistoryChapter 1. Namibia and the Nyae Nyae RegionChapter 2. Traditional Ju/’hoan Leadership and GovernanceChapter 3. The Ju/’hoan People’s Organization and Their FoundationChapter 4.Ju/’hoan Empowerment from Dialogue on Wildlife IssuesChapter 5. The Lead-up to Namibian Independence in Nyae NyaeChapter 6. Independence: The Years of HopeChapter 7. The Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of NamibiaChapter 8. The Nyae Nyae Farmers Co-operative after IndependenceChapter 9. Community-Based Natural Resource Management and Other Development Models in Nyae NyaeChapter 10. Nyae Nyae Conservancy Programs and the Future References Cited

Megan Biesele directs the Kalahari Peoples Fund, a US-based advocacy organization. Since the 1970s she has worked with Ju/’hoan San communities in Botswana and Namibia developing curriculum and language archives. She directed the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation at the time of Namibian Independence, and helped establish both the Nyae Nyae Village Schools Project and the Nyae Nyae Conservancy. Her publications include “Women Like Meat”: The Folklore and Foraging Ideology of the Kalahari Ju/’hoan (Witwatersrand and Indiana, 1993) and Hunters and Gatherers in the Modern World (co-editor, Berghahn Books, 2000).

“Readers will obtain unique insight into how culture is both transformed and maintained in social interaction.”  ·  Choice“There are many ways in which this is an extraordinary book…This account is much more than a valuable historical documentation. It contains valuable lessons for those in anthropology, NGO’s, development and advocacy, some of which were no doubt painfully learnt. Its themes resonate directly with problems facing other Khoe-San groups and indigenous peoples the world over, from land, food and water to alcohol, health and hope…That this story can be written from the inside with so much subtlety, detail and balance is a truly commendable achievement.”  ·  The Journal of Modern African Studies“...the most detailed case study ever written of the transformation of a hunting and gathering people - the Ju/’hoansi of Namibia - from a relatively independent and self-sufficient society into an economically struggling ethnic minority in a newly-independent nation state."  ·  Kirk Endicott, Dartmouth College“This is an important book that will have a strong place in at least two anthropological niches: the anthropology of development, and as a classic anthropological case study…It tells an original story which accomplishes a rarely achieved synthesis of top-down and bottom-up perspective.”  ·  Richard B. Lee

• List of TablesList of FiguresPrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of Acronyms and AbbreviationsNote on OrthographyIntroduction: A Community HistoryChapter 1. Namibia and the Nyae Nyae RegionChapter 2. Traditional Ju/’hoan Leadership and GovernanceChapter 3. The Ju/’hoan People’s Organization and Their FoundationChapter 4.Ju/’hoan Empowerment from Dialogue on Wildlife IssuesChapter 5. The Lead-up to Namibian Independence in Nyae NyaeChapter 6. Independence: The Years of HopeChapter 7. The Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of NamibiaChapter 8. The Nyae Nyae Farmers Co-operative after IndependenceChapter 9. Community-Based Natural Resource Management and Other Development Models in Nyae NyaeChapter 10. Nyae Nyae Conservancy Programs and the Future References Cited