Faces: People, Places, and Cultures articles from February 2003

Faces: People, Places, and Cultures archives from February 2003

Editor's message.(Editorial)
February 1, 2003... Dear Reader, We dedicate this issue of FACES to the spirit of American anthropologist Lorna Marshall, who passed away at the age of 103 on July 8, 2002, here in Peterborough, New Hampshire. In the early 1950s, she and her family made the...

Kalahari Plain. (At a Glance).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Location: high plateau (altitude, 3,000 feet) in southern Africa (primarily Botswana, eastern Namibia, and northern South Africa) between Orange and Zambezi rivers Area: approximately 360,000 square miles (approximately the size of Texas...

The Kalahari: the lonely baobab tree offers food, water, medicine, and shelter to the people and animals of the Kalahari. (Only In ...).
February 1, 2003... It is high noon in the dry season of the Kalahari Desert. The temperature hovers near 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun bakes the earth into a brittle, parched landscape. A giant bull elephant trudges through the heat. Then he spies something in...

Welcome to the Kalahari: the Namib Desert in the western Kalahari is a stark-looking landscape.
February 1, 2003... The San people say of the Kalahari, When God made this land, He must have been very angry." Indeed, it is a lonely place. So quiet is it that the San say, "At night, you can hear the stars in song." The Kalahari plain stretches across...

The Kalahari. (Through Time).
February 1, 2003... 30,000 B.C. Migrating hunter/gatherers, called the San, settle in the Kalahari plain. A.D. 1000 Khoekhoe, Herero (Bantu), and other people from the north and south move into certain areas occupied by the San and displace them; the San move...

The San.
February 1, 2003... The story of the inhabitants of southern Africa, is the story of a courageous and ongoing fight for human rights. Thousands of years ago, the San, like many other groups, lived as nomadic hunters and gatherers all over the land. Gradually,...

Click when you say `!Kun'!
February 1, 2003... Like most cultures long ago, the people of the Kalahari had no written language. Children learned about their history and community by listening to stories told by elders. Different groups of San speak separate languages. Although most Kalahari...

The myth and mystery if the Tsodilo Hills.
February 1, 2003... Botswana's Tsodilo Hills are not only a sacred place for the San, the native people of this area; it is also a wilderness art gallery, as well as a wonderful area for bushwalking. The San say that the hills are the site of the First Creation, a...

Big bird beads.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... The San people of the Kalahari don't have many personal possessions, but they love to give gifts. For thousands of years, they have been using broken ostrich shells to make beautiful necklaces, dance aprons, and headbands. Beads have been found...

Watery wonderland.(Botswana's Okavango Delta )
February 1, 2003... Botswana's Okavango Delta is one of Africa's most exciting and unusual wildlife areas. Imagine traveling down a river through thick reeds in a three-person mokoro (canoe). The animals are almost close enough to touch. Waterbirds are everywhere....

Architects of the Kalahari.
February 1, 2003... Ounce for ounce, this tiny creature--Africa's sociable weaver bird--is the busiest construction worker in the Kalahari, building huge condominium nests out of dry grass. "Nest" doesn't quite describe one of these thatched wonders--some are 10...

Towers. .(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... Tall towers with millions of windows Stand still along a wide river. The windows make a second sun, Which comes in the east and leaves in the west. A towering anthill with ants going Quietly and quickly in and out. Brendan Striegl...

My Tree. .(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... I planted a tree one day, and then I started to pray. I prayed it would grow, so I went with the flow. It worked well enough, but it was rough. It needed something, something was missing, so I just kept on watering and wishing. Suddenly it came...

Face facts.(ostrich)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... The ostrich is the world's largest bird. An ostrich egg weighs about three pounds. At six to eight inches tall and about five inches across, it is also the world's largest single cell.

Nsue and the honeyguide.(Short Story)
February 1, 2003... Silently he crept through jagged thornbushes. Bare feet moved swiftly over hot, arid soil to the edge of a waterhole where the kudu was drinking. The great animal suddenly looked up, spiral horns curving sharply into the endless African sky....

Further exploring.(children's books on Africa)(Buyers Guide)
February 1, 2003... Books The Kalahari by Rose Inserra and Susan Powell Part of a series on remote and wild places, this book provides a look at all aspects of life in the Kalahari--plants, animals, birds, humans--and how their ecosystems intertwine....

Think about it ...
February 1, 2003... Over the years, outsiders have used many names to refer to the people of the Kalahari, including Bushmen (the European name), Basarwa (in the Tswana language, "people who have nothing"), San (in the Khoe language, "people who pick up from the...

One last face.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Life in the Kalahari has changed in many ways, but for the San, family life is still the most important thing.