From dwelling to lodging in the Nyae Nyae Conservancy, Namibia: The meaning of the changes brought about by conservation and tourism in the Ju/’hoansi’s environment

Abstract

Following Ingold’s dwelling perspective, the world comes into being because an organism/person is continuously interacting with his/her environment, through bodily activity. Dwelling is contrasted with building, in which (wo)man constructs the world cognitively before (s)he can live in it. Here I use a third notion, namely lodging, to refer to a situation in which people live in an essentially foreign environment. Under the influence of a Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme, the environment of the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen hunter-gatherers of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy in Namibia is now changing severely towards conservation and tourism. In this paper I use various case situations to show how the environment has become ever more dominant and the people have no option but to adapt. I argue that many such changes in the environment of the Ju/’hoansi are triggered beyond their control, instead of through their interaction with their environment, in such a way that the Ju/’hoansi are more often lodging than dwelling. This reveals the transformation of the cultural understanding the people have of their environment, of their interaction with it (and with the various actors and stakeholders) and with each other.