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Paper short abstract:

Hunter-gatherer societies have been known as societies without history. However, in the context of political trends, their societies themselves are reconstructing their past (memories of being a minority) and making their future (bonds made with a sense of we-ness that reflects their identities).

Paper long abstract:

The San, known as the hunting and gathering society in Botswana, is the collective name for dozens of family groups that speak Khoisan languages. This study analyzes how they are evocatively connected as "the San", triggered by the death of a family member or companion.

In the past, the San’s residential area changed every few weeks in search of food. However, the Botswana government implemented the Remote Area Development Program from 1970s to modernize the San. It was recommended that the San not live a nomadic life, but stay in the settlements and live a settled life.

It is forbidden to enter their former living areas. For example, in 2022, the issue of the government's ban on burying the bodies of the elderly where was once their living area, because it is now a government-controlled area, was brought to court. The San do not have formulated beliefs about an afterlife, but in this trial the San argue that the land is their "ancestral land."

They understand the loss of their families as overlapping with the loss of their former way of life and death. The San themselves are forming a sense of "we-ness" that reflects their collective identity as the San, at variance with the Botswana state's policy of making the San "nationals" who have benefited from its development programs.