Unstable Households in a Stable Kalahari Community in Botswana

Diachronie research at Kutse, a recently sedentary Kalahari community, demonstrates the dynamic processes inherent during the shift from nomadism to sedentism. Observations indicate that sharing networks, and friendships that structure such networks, organize spatial patterning and camp interaction. Sedentism and aggregation combine to create tensions surrounding sharing that lead to violence and the need for a community‐wide sanctioned arbitrator. Without such a mediator of disputes the community cannot remain aggregated. Once political leaders or mediators arise, the emphasis on extreme egalitarianism changes. The Kutse community nucleus has dispersed as a result of resource depletion and, more importantly, social concerns. The conspicuous lack of architectural or spatial differentiation at Kutse is a reflection of the community's strongly egalitarian emphasis.