Ethnicity, Hunter-Gatherers, and the "Other"

As the world continues to shrink owing to globalization, the need to understand the diversity of culturally distinct societies and their interactions with neighboring groups becomes greater than ever. Susan Kent has invited an international team of experts to present their insights into how one type of society, African hunter-gatherers, has managed to survive long past the first contact between foragers, farmers, and pastoralists.

The contributors explore many issues, including culture change, trade, tribute, inter-group relations, autonomy, dependence, and differential contact histories and rates of change. They consider why the association of hunter-gatherers with non-hunter-gatherers has sometimes led to trade between autonomous societies and in other cases has led to assimilation.

Ethnicity, Hunter-Gatherers, and the "Other" illuminates both past and present foraging societies by presenting new data and reinterpreting previously collected data within the framework of inter-group interactions.Susan Kent was an eminent scholar and professor of sociology at Old Dominion University. In 1999 she received the Charles O. and Elisabeth C. Burgess Faculty Research and Creativity Award, and in May 2000 was named an eminent scholar for her long and consistent record of outstanding scholarly publications and her national and international reputation in the field of anthropology.International experts illuminate foraging societies with their insights into African hunter-gatherers and first contact between foragers and farmers.