TAKING STOCK IN THE KALAHARI - ACCUMULATION AND RESISTANCE ON THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN PERIPHERY

This paper examines the relationship between patterns of accumulation, the cultural forms through which change is understood and experienced , and resistance in the Kalahari, Botswana. The paper argues that cont emporary, forms of accumulation and social differentiation constitute a break from past forms and are resulting in an uneven process of clas s formation, However, these changes can be assimilated, to a large deg ree, within existing ideological and behavioural models so that discon tinuity is not always evident, As a result the process of change is mu ted, and a minimum of conflict accompanies a major transformation. The social domains which do become contested are those in which structura l change produces a situation in which the moral grounds of the kin-ba sed community are violated. The paper acknowledges the complexities of power as well as the forces of cohesion and consensus which exist sim ultaneously in the Kalahari and in which any analysis of resistance mu st be contextualized.