The rapid disappearance of societies like the Maya is an outstanding mystery of anthropology. The study of cultural disappearances now (or recently) in progress is one approach to the solution of this mystery. The transformation of the Kalahari !Kung (also known as the African Bushmen) has been presented in this context (Yellen, 1990).

2.1 Background

The !Kung, until recently, lived by hunting and gathering. They were one of the last surviving epipaleolithic societies. Originally the aborigines of southern Africa, their territory was gradually reduced to the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. In the early 1970s they abruptly abandoned their traditional ways and adopted the iron age culture of their Bantu neighbors, with domesticated crops and animals. This catastrophic bifurcation took place under the gaze of academic anthropologists, and has been extensively documented. What particularly interests us here is the rapidity of the transformation, and the associated reduction of social synergy which may be seen in the ethnography. Indeed we may regard this event as a model synergy catastrophe.

2.2 Before 1970

The chief characteristics of late stone age culture are stone tools, hunting and gathering, and a nomadic lifestyle. Besides these characteristics, the !Kung enjoyed a state of high synergy. This was manifest in the sharing of food and lodging in camps, and in the layout of the camps. As shown in Fig. 1, Left, the camp plan of the paleolithic !Kung was a close-drawn circle of huts with entryways facing inward, and the hearths outside the entryways. These hearths were nuclei of open and intimate social activity and economic exchange for the entire group.

2.3 After 1975

Within a few years, the Kalahari !Kung adopted the iron age culture of the encroaching Bantu immigrants. New tools and small farms replaced nomadic hunting and gathering to a large extent. The camps became permanent settlements. The plan of the camps changed to a looser circle, with the entryways facing outwards, as shown in Fig. 2, Right. The hearths were moved into the entryways. Openness and sharing gave way to privacy and hoarding. The distance between huts increased. (Compare Poston, 1979) Storage in locked trunks and sheds became common.