!Kung

…but groups such as the !Kung build light-framed shelters of sticks and saplings covered with grass. Other hunter-gatherers, such as the Hadza of Tanzania, live in dry savanna territory, which contains a wide range of game animals. Their domed dwellings of tied branches are given a thick thatch in winter.…

Nomadic women of the !Kung, a group of the San people of southern Africa, use no contraceptives but have a mean interval between births of 44 months and an average of four or five deliveries in a fertile lifetime. Modern methods of birth control substitute for the control over…

…of two San groups, the !Kung and the |Gui, seem to be similar, in that both groups believe in two supernatural beings, one of which is the creator of the world and of living things whereas the other has lesser powers but is partly an agent of sickness and death.…

Of these latter peoples, the Kung (!Kung), !xong, and G/wi tribes (the “! ” and “/” representing click sounds) were intensively studied. While each group was distinct, the G/wi of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve can be considered an example of the traditional San hunter-gatherer way of life.

The tone system of the !Kung people is tetratonic. It may manifest itself, however, in three different versions with different intervals, leading, as in the first of the tunings shown below, to a semitone interval (shown as F–E). Because the melodic and harmonic results of these particular tunings are unique,…