San & Khoi People

Question 1

Who were Lucy Lloyd and Wilhelm Bleek?

Answer 1

they were historians who learnt the San language and wrote down some of their stories, in Cape Town about 150 years ago.

Question 2

What is an archaeologist?

Answer 2

a person that studies human history by digging and finding old remains (objects from long ago)

Question 3

What is the Linton Panel?

Answer 3

• A piece of San rock art.
• Found on a farm in the Eastern Cape.
• The painting shows a human figure gaining great power from their main god.
• Part of it was used on the new coat of arms created after South Africa became a democracy in 1994.

Question 4

Where was the Linton Panel found?

Answer 4

on a farm called Linton in the Eastern Cape

Question 5

Where is the Linton Panel now?

Answer 5

In the South African museum in Cape Town.

Question 6

What are the human figures doing in the Coat of Arms and why is it important?

Answer 6

Greeting each other.
Important because it is a sign of unity.

Question 7

How did hunter-gatherers pass down their history?

Answer 7

They told stories and painted rock art

Question 8

Who learnt the San language and wrote down some of their stories?

Answer 8

Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd

Question 9

Where does the name San come from and what does it mean?

Answer 9

Comes from the Khoi-khoi word Saan.
It means “people without land” or “people without cattle”.

Question 10

How do we know that there were a number of San groups living in the Southern Kalahari?

Answer 10

through what archaeologists have found and San oral histor

Question 11

Who did San people (and us!) descend from? Why is this important?

Answer 11

• Homo Sapiens
• San help us to learn more about Homo Sapiens because they are the closest relation to Homo Sapiens that are still alive today.

Question 12

What cultural artefacts did hunter gathers make?

Answer 12

• ostrich egg shell beads
• ostrich egg shell ornaments
• bow and arrows
• rock art

Question 13

What did the European settlers bring with them? why were these dangerous

Answer 13

• advanced weapons: San had no defence against these
• new diseases eg. small pox: San had no immunity against these diseases

Question 14

What happened to most Khoi and San people once the European settlers came?

Answer 14

• died of diseases (brought accidentally by the settlers)
• forced off their land by the European settlers (using their weapons) and forced to join other tribes to survive.

Question 15

What is San oral history?

Answer 15

the telling of stories from generation to generation

Question 16

Why is it important that there is San oral history AND archaeological evidence about the San?

Answer 16

The two forms of evidence corroborating with each other gives more support for the idea/evidence being factual.

Question 17

How long have the San been living in Southern Africa?

Answer 17

about 11000 years

Question 18

Who were the hunters and who were the gathers in the San society?

Answer 18

Men hunted
Women gathered

Question 19

What type of weapons did the Europeans have and what did the San have?

Answer 19

Europeans: guns and bullets
San: bows and arrows and spears

Question 20

Who painted the San rock art? When did they do it?

Answer 20

the Shaman
did it after the trance dance (where he saw images of the spirit world)

Question 21

What kind of images does rock art usual show?

Answer 21

• hunting
• animals (especially ones important to them eg. eland, antelopes)
• shamans doing their trance dance

Question 22

What were San brushes made of? How do we know this?

Answer 22

• Feathers
• Thin reeds
• animal hair
  Know this because in some painting, brush stroke are visible

Question 23

How did San make paint?

Answer 23

Mixing pigment with whatever was available (water, egg, animal blood or saliva)

Often they would use herbs or animal blood to make the magic of the art more powerful

Question 24

What did the San use for the different colour pigments?

Answer 24

Red: red ochre (which was easy to find; mined)
Yellow: yellow ochre
White: white clay or bird droppings
Black: charcoal or manganese oxide

Question 25

What were etchings?

Answer 25

images that were made by scraping and chipping our pieces of rock using pieces of rock and sharpened stick

Question 26

Why is it hard for archaeologists to work out when rock art was made?

Answer 26

• Rock art does not change much with age
• Being in caves, it is protected from damage by wind and rain etc.

Question 27

Describe where San people lived.

Answer 27

in caves
camped in the open
homes out of long grass, thin branches and rocks.

Question 28

Who made the San homes?

Answer 28

Women

Question 29

Describe the life of the San people

Answer 29

1. nomadic
   • moved around/weren’t settled
   • they followed the seasons AND
   • the migration of the antelope
2. they picked plants for food
3. they knew where the plants would grow
4. they made sure the didn’t damage the environment
5. they knew where to get water
6. they used plants for medicine
7. they only hunted what they could eat (never for sport)
8. used every part of the animal (showed respect to animal for giving its life)
9. made fire by running two fire sticks together
10. they lived in caves / camped in the open / women made homes out of long grass, thin branches and rocks.

Question 30

Describe what the San people made.

Answer 30

Women: ostrich egg shell beads and ornaments
Men: bows, poisoned arrows, sharpened rocks for cutting
(used stones, animal bones & wood)

Question 31

What did the San do that showed they were environmentally conscious?

Answer 31

They never picked more plants than they needed.
They never killed more animals than they could eat.
Never wasted any part of the animal that they killed.

Question 32

What did the San use to make tools? Why not metal?

Answer 32

Used stones, animal bones & wood. Metals weren’t available to them.

Question 33

What did the San people use ostrich eggs for?

Answer 33

• to eat
• they made beads (from the shell)
• they made ornaments
• water carrier

Question 34

What was the role of the men in the San?

Answer 34

• hunting
• fishing
• making weapons (bows, arrows, spears)

Question 35

Describe the social structure of the San people.

Answer 35

There was no hierachy i.e.
everyone was treated equally; there was chief/leader;
decisions were made by the whole group together

Question 36

Describe the group of San that would live together.

Answer 36

• usually 3 or 4 families
• 15 to 40 people
• they were called a band
• the band’s territory was called a
  n!ore

Question 37

When did San people get usually married?

Answer 37

The boy (bridegroom) at about15 years old
The girl (bride) at about 9 years old