Anthropological Research

Given the range occupied by these groups and the interest in the Okavango Delta, there has been surprisingly little anthropological or other long-term social and/or cultural research among these peoples. Some research was done in Botswana from the 1940's to the 1970's by Tom Larson among the Hambukushu and Wayeyi and H-J Heinz among the Xanekwe and Bugakwe. Since 1990 I have been conducting research on family composition, children's activities and socialization into systems of learning and knowledge, traditional and modern economic patterns, and the effects of economic development and integration into national level political, economic, and social institutions among people from all five ethnic groups in two villages.

Want to read about the Okavango Delta Peoples?

• The Okavango Delta Peoples by John Bock and Sara E. Johnson
• Economic Development and Cultural Change among the Okavango Delta Peoples by John Bock

Other articles and book chapters by Bock and Johnson

• Bock, J. 2004. What makes a competent adult forager? In: B. Hewlett and M. Lamb, eds. Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine. In press.
• Bock, J. 2004. Farming, Foraging, and Children’s Play in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. In: A. Pellegrini and P.K. Smith, eds. The Nature of Play:Great Apes and Humans. New York: Guilford. In press.
• Bock, J. and Johnson, S.E. 2004. Subsistence Ecology and Play among the Okavango Delta Peoples of Botswana. Human Nature 15(1) 63-81.
• Bock, J. 2002. Learning, Life History, and Productivity: Children's lives in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Human Nature 13(2): 161-198.
• Bock, J. 2002. Evolutionary Demography and Intrahousehold Time Allocation: Schooling and children's labor among the Okavango Delta Peoples of Botswana. American Journal of Human Biology 14(2) 206-221.
• Bock, J. and Johnson, S.E. 2002. The Okavango Delta Peoples of Botswana. In R.K. Hitchcock and A.J. Osborne, eds. Endangered Peoples of Africa and the Middle East. New York: Greenwood Press. 151-169.
• Bock, J. and Johnson, S.E. 2002. Male Migration, Remittances, and Child Outcome among the Okavango Delta Peoples of Botswana. In C.S. Tamis-LeMonda and N. Cabrera, eds. Handbook of Father Involvement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. Pp. 308-335.
• Bock, J. 1999. Evolutionary Approaches to Population: Implications for research and policy. Population and Environment 21(2): 193-222.
• Bock, J. 1993. Okavango Delta Peoples of Botswana. In M. Miller, ed. State of the Peoples. Boston: Beacon Press. Pp. 174-175.

Support for my research among the Okavango Delta Peoples has come from the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the James A. Swan Fund of the Pitt Rivers Museum of the University of Oxford, the University of New Mexico, and Australian National University, as well as a number of corporate and private donors. I am currently a professor in the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton. You can help fund research among the Okavango Delta Peoples as they experience the dramatic effects of rapid economic and social change. Your contribution in the form of a donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Please contact me if you are interested.

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