Researching the San, San/ding the research

Abstract

Bureaucratic mechanisms adopted in universities which favour high publication output at the expense of inter-disciplinary collaboration translate into myopic vision within disciplines. Competition for limited resources often leads to academics clearly demarcating and jealously guarding their respective fields in order to justify their line of inquiry and, in the current economic climate, to emphasise the necessity of funding. This article argues for trans-disciplinary collaboration, using the field of 'Bushman studies' as a focal point. Trans-disciplinary researches around a single topic should be viewed as different components of an interlocking system. Myopic disciplinary vision should be cast aside in favour of more holistic approaches that incorporate multiple (and sometimes contradictory) viewpoints, to arrive at a more nuanced and realistic estimation of a particular field of inquiry.