Dobe Ju/’hoansi by Richard B. Lee Book Analysis

In the book, Dobe Ju/’hoansi written by Richard B. Lee, Lee writes about a small group of Ju/’hoansi people. Lee was in this field for nearly fifty years working to learn and experience the culture of Ju/’hoansi people and their many values. As Lee visited them through the years, he got to see the changes of the Ju/’hoansi people firsthand on. Throughout the book, Lee focuses on a few values that are important to the Ju/’hoansi way of livelihood, ideas, customs, and behaviors that he had seen through the years that he has visited. For me, the most important value to them was a cultural change, considering how they live and do things seem to be older to more modern people.  

The Ju are seen as lower rank than the other group (the Herero and the Tswana) that lives around the area as they are advancements to how they use their resources. Even if that were different, they still hunted and gathered resources together and sometimes in agreement with the other group with the idea of changing some way in their culture. Since the 1900s, they started using iron tools, working with cooking utensils, smoking tobacco, raising livestock, and planting crops (Lee, 2012, page 155). It was easy for them to accept more ways of using tools and utensils as using them can make their life easier in more than one way. For raising livestock and planting crops they might night have to do many things in this area as farmers so many of them are choosing to work for the Herero and Tswana instead.  

Traditionally, the Ju is more of a foraging society but with the coming of the Tawana and Herero people, they quickly modify to be to fix in with them more. As I say many did so by working for them as some of them are unsuccessful when they are doing things alone but the number of independent Ju people choosing to work is very low. Nonetheless, there can be changes in culture by seeing that there are more Ju people that are doing different things now. Thus, they might not get to see their family members less because they are required to take care of a daily task that is given to them by their employer. The children are pressed into service at a younger age and lose touch with a traditional and carefree childhood. The children are forced into gender roles, where men somewhat regain mobility, but women are housebound therefore creating gender inequality. Before there were changes happening both women and men might have seen each other’s as equal and not seen what the difference their gender has to do with anything. With these changes happening it created tension between neighbors.  

The first opening of school was seen as another change in culture. In their culture, there was never a thing like this before, but the children gain new knowledge such as reading and writing at these places they call a school. Traditionally they would communicate through speech and hxaro accordingly achieve news way for them to communicate. There are worries for the kids as the school is near a drinking area as kids can learn unnecessary skills and behavior when close or see violence every day. The families still want schooling to be part of their children's lives even if there are negative factors for the reason that the world is always developing.  

In the end, the Ju understands the negative and positive consequences of changing their cultural habits that are necessary for their survival. There has always been a need for change culture for survival but through changes, new knowledge comes with it. It’s difficult to conclude whether the change was a great idea for the Ju/’hoansi society.