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A Comparison of Kua (Botswana) and Hadza (Tanzania) Bow and Arrow Hunting

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Projectile Technology

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology ((IDCA))

Abstract

In this chapter I summarize some of the technological, organizational, and environmental factors that are likely to influence the design, manufacture, and use of bow-hunting equipment by two groups of contemporary hunter-gatherers in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, I consider the Kua of the eastern Kalahari in Botswana, and the Hadza who live to the southeast of Lake Eyasi of northern Tanzania (Figure 1). The observations reported here were made in the context of a larger ethnoarchaeological research project directed at understanding the nature of variability in faunal assemblages from hunter-gatherer camps (Bartram 1993a, 1993b, 1995; Bartram, Kroll, and Bunn 1991; Bunn 1993; Bunn, Bartram, and Kroll 1988, 1991). Although the larger project has been conducted with specific zooarchae-ological goals, I feel that some of the observations offered here about how these two groups employ bow and arrow technology will be of interest to archaeologists concerned with understanding projectile technologies in their contexts of use.

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Bartram, L.E. (1997). A Comparison of Kua (Botswana) and Hadza (Tanzania) Bow and Arrow Hunting. In: Knecht, H. (eds) Projectile Technology. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1851-2_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1851-2_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-1853-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-1851-2

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