description Richard Borshay Lee Overview
Richard Borshay Lee is a Canadian anthropologist whose research on hunter-gatherer societies has centered on the Ju/'hoansi of the Kalahari, whose members were often called !Kung in older ethnographic literature. His ethnographic work examined subsistence, labor, social equality, exchange, and relations between men and women in a foraging economy. The Dobe Ju/'hoansi and The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society document the social organization and material life of the communities he studied.
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Who are the Ju/'hoansi studied by Richard Borshay Lee?
The Ju/'hoansi are a San-speaking people of the Kalahari whose communities were often labeled !Kung in older ethnographic literature. Lee studied their subsistence, labor, social equality, kinship, and political relationships. [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Borshay_Lee)
What is The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society?
It is Richard Borshay Lee's major ethnographic study of Ju/'hoansi life, published in 1979. The book examines how food gathering, hunting, gender, work, and social obligations shaped a foraging society. [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Borshay_Lee)
What did Lee's Kalahari research challenge?
Lee's work challenged the idea that hunter-gatherers could be understood simply as people living in constant scarcity. His research showed how food sharing, labor arrangements, social equality, and knowledge of the environment structured Ju/'hoansi life.
Why did Richard Borshay Lee study labor as well as food?
Lee treated subsistence as a social process involving who works, who receives food, and how obligations are negotiated. That approach made labor, gender, sharing, and political equality central parts of his ethnography rather than treating hunting as an isolated technical activity.
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