Abstract
In this contribution I exemplarily analyse two different ways of looking at the same environment, that is, the Etosha National Park in north-central Namibia. I portray the view of the western tourists visiting the area and on the other hand the perspective of the Hai||om, a San group which up to the 1950s resided within the park area and lived predominantly from hunting and gathering. It is argued that the perspectives – the spectator’s view and, following Ingold’s terminology (Ingold, 2000, p. 189), the ‘dweller’s perspective’ – are influenced by long-established cultural concepts and by the mode in which space is experienced and engaged. Both factors, the conceptualisation of and the engagement with space, are closely intertwined and have to be contextualised politically and historically in order to arrive at meaningful explanations of landscape visions and comprehension. The tourists’ view is shaped by the Western aesthetical perspective of landscapes and a broad idea of how African sceneries should look. The tourists are located outside of the environment and visual features dominate their experience. The angle of the Hai||om is one from within and is affected by their active engagement with the land. For the Hai||om the Etosha landscape is not merely scenery, but a network of paths, of social relations, and of places imbued with social identity.
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Notes
- 1.
The !Kung are another group of (former) hunter and gatherers, living in the eastern parts of north Namibia. Both – Hai||om and !Kung (as well as, e.g., !Xoon, Khwe, Naro, etc.) – are officially categorized as ‘San’.
- 2.
- 3.
This number is a rough estimation, due to difficulties involved in the census method which does not mention ethnic status and the ‘“problem’” of switching identities (see Widlok, 1999, p. 19).
- 4.
In 1958, The Game Reserve No. 2 became the Etosha Game Park and finally the Etosha National Park in 1967.
- 5.
The same holds true for the Topnaar living in the Namib Desert, see Gruntkowski, this volume.
- 6.
Open Channels, a UK- based NGO with the funding support of Comic Relief (collaborating with WIMSA, a Namibian- based NGO, and STRATA 360, a Canadian organisation responsible for the realization of the maps) has sponsored several field trips to Etosha.
- 7.
Researchers have to apply for special research permits at the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to work in the Etosha National Park. Dependent on the research focus, certain activities, such as walking around in the park, can be carried out with this permit.
- 8.
Until recently, the Etosha National Park was only accessible for tourists through two gates, the Anderson Gate in the south, close to Okaukuejo and the Lindequist Gate in the north-east, close to Namutoni. In 2003, a new gate was opened in the north (King Nehale Gate), giving additional access to visitors entering from Ovamboland.
- 9.
The museum in the Fort was closed in 2007. Another permanent exhibition with more comprehensive information about the history and the management of the park at another location replaced it.
- 10.
E.g. For example, http://www.go2africa.com/namibia/etosha/4; http://berclo.net/page95/95en-namibia.html/4; www.rehlh.com/VacationPackages/Africa/Namibia.htm/4; http://africanadrenalin.co.za/wildernesssafaris/ongava.htm./1
- 11.
Sadly, Hans Haneb died in November 2006 and Jacob |Uibeb died in June 2007, Willem Dauxab died in August 2008.
- 12.
In fact, we went several times to ||Nububes, and twice, the men had difficulties in telling me exactly where to stop. They orientate themselves on the course of the road, knowing that the path is situated behind several ‘“normal’” bends followed by a sharp right-hand bend.
- 13.
Probably different criteria than the sole appearance of the paths are needed, in particular, the course of the sun and their own movement within the landscape.
- 14.
Once, we tried to find another former historically important waterhole, situated about three kilometres away from the road. Our guide lost the right path at a crossing of several paths. He had been to the waterhole in 1994, but that time, he had the same difficulties in finding the right path. Finally we found the waterhole without returning to the crossing, walking along other paths which ran more or less in circles.
- 15.
Because belief systems were not the focus of my research, I did not analyze the data concerning belief systems including the ||gamab systematically. It seems fair to say that several ||gamab usually stay in ||Gama||aes (‘“||Gama-Nation’”, somewhere in heaven) and watch the events on earth from there. The earth and the sky are two separated entities. Furthermore the ||gamab can help people as well as harm people. There are good ||gamagu and bad ||gamagu (see also Widlok, 1999, pp. 52-–56).
- 16.
In the English language, for instance, the term was introduced as a technical term used by painters in the late 16th sixteenth century (Hirsch, 1995, p. 2; Neumann, 1998, pp. 15ff.). The contemporary popular ‘“Western landscape concept’” still contains more of the aesthetical connotations which evolved with its artistic origin than characteristics produced by scientific thought later on (see Hirsch, 1995, p. 2; Luig & von Oppen, 1997, p. 10).
- 17.
- 18.
In fact, most of the African National Parks are advertised as versions of the “Garden of Eden” – a romanticized wilderness (see Neumann, 1998, p. 18, for further references).
- 19.
Detailed descriptions of the spiritual world of the Hai||om are to be found in Wagner-Robbertz (1976), ) and Schatz (1993), but different to the information provided there, the Hai||om in Etosha talk about several //Gamagu, not just a single one. A compilation of religious characteristics in various Bushmen groups is found in Guenther (1999), providing insight into their relation to land and non-human inhabitants as well.
- 20.
For a discussion of this see Ingold (2000, pp. 40-–60). The question, in sofar as this feature can be explained exclusively by the practice of hunting and gathering or which other factors – shared with non hunter--gatherers –- might contribute to such a world view, cannot be discussed here.
- 21.
This concept of landscape is not restricted to hunter and gatherer groups;, some pastoral nomads share similar ideas (for the Himba see Bollig, 2001). Probably, the mobility of these groups is the decisive factor in shaping the concept.
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Dieckmann, U. (2009). The Spectator’s and the Dweller’s Perspectives. In: Bubenzer, O., Bollig, M. (eds) African Landscapes. Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation, vol 4. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78682-7_13
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