Foraging Returns of !Kung Adults and Children: Why Didn't !Kung Children Forage?

Abstract

Children of the hunting and gathering !Kung San seldom foraged, especially during the long dry season. In contrast, children of Hadza foragers in Tanzania often forage, in both wet and dry seasons. Because we have argued that the economic dependence of !Kung children has important consequences, we must try to understand why they did not forage. Experimental data on foraging by !Kung adults and children show that children would have had to walk far from dry season camps to acquire much food. Interviews suggest that !Kung children risk getting lost if they wander unsupervised into the bush. Thus, foraging without adult company was a poor option for !Kung children. Foraging with adults might have been a better strategy. We calculate the benefits to a !Kung mother if her oldest child accompanied her to the nut groves. Because of the high processing costs, a child's work time was most profitably spent at home cracking nuts.