Lesson 1: How we obtain information from hunter-gatherers and shepherds

Image 1.1: A San woman from Botswana

Lesson 1 How we obtain information from hunter-gatherers and shepherds

Define

Hunter: a person who kills animals for their meat and skins Shepherd: a person who keeps cattle and looks after them Stone Age: thousands of years ago when people made objects from stone

Core content

The first people who lived in Southern Africa were hunter-gatherers. The men usually hunted animals for food and the women collected roots, nuts and berries for food. These people are known as the San. We can get information about them from different sources.

We distinguish between three types of sources:

Primary sources Secondary sources Tertiary sources

A primary source, among others, is a book written by a San person (the person writes down their personal experiences), so we get the information directly from the person who was there.

A secondary source, for example, is when someone reads the book and then writes a report with their own interpretation of the book and we obtain information about the San in this way.

A tertiary source, for example, is when a person uses the secondary source to obtain more information to also write a book, report or some other kind of publication. We therefore obtain information that does not come directly from someone who was actually present.

The San came to live in Southern Africa 10 000 years ago. They are the people whom we refer to in the ‘Later Stone Age’. The Stone Age refers to the period when people made tools from stone.

The San were hunters, which means they hunted wild animals for food. After them, the Khoikhoi moved into Southern Africa but they had a different way of living. They were shepherds who kept livestock and looked after their animals.

Later during the term, we will learn more about the San and the Khoikhoi. For now, it is important that you know how we obtained the information about these people. We obtained the information from stories, objects, paintings and books. We call these sources.

Image 1.2: A spearhead made from stone. The San used similar spearheads for hunting.