by small groups of hunter-gatherers who adapted their way of living to survive. These were Khoisans.And this term paper is all about Khoisans . Khoisan is the name by which the lighter skinned indigenous peoples of southern Africa, the Khoi(Hottentots) and the San (Bushmen) .These people dominated the sub-continent for millennia before the appearance of the Nguni and other black people. . When the colonists arrived, these people became known as the Hottentots and the Bushmen, terms which eventually took on racial meanings in the late 19th and 20th centuries. While many different groups developed among the Khoisans, each with their own names,languages and dialects, they generally shared common patterns of kinship, territorial organization, rituals and religious beliefs. As you would expect, the introduction of European colonization impacted these people in important ways. Many of them lost control over their lands, many were killed in wars, many died from diseases such as smallpox, and many of the survivors were drawn in to colonial society as servants, laborers, and industrial workers.Some were able to maintain some level of independence and live on the land in traditional ways, but by the mid-20th century there were only a few groups left dependent on hunting and gathering for the livelihood, and many descendants who had assimilated into much of South African society.I found one description of the Khoisan as follows:"(They have) short, slight bodies, small hands and feet andyellow-brown skin that wrinkle early. The women tend tostore fat in their buttocks and have sharply hollowed backs.They move in small clans, each with its clearly defined territory. The women gather wild melons such as tsamma - a source of food and water, roots a...
