!Kung* is technically the name of a language group used by some San. It is sometimes used as a name for these people, and that is the sense I used it in when I wrote this node.

A group of (formerly) nomadic hunter-gatherer who live in the Kalahari Desert of Africa. They are famous in anthropological circles because they are (were) one of the few hunting and gathering societies left uncontaminated by westerners. They are also of interest because they have an egalitarian society, and because they are members of a racial group called the khoi-san.

They are also famous, at least in America, because they were the subject of the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy.

They are also called the San, Sonqua, Kung, Ju/'hoansi, Bosjemans and Bushmen. (Bushmen is not PC). San is the most general of these terms, the !Kung being only one sub-group of the San, but the !Kung are the most famous of the San, and so they are often used as synonyms.

Related Stuff: Num, !Kia
Also: Khoi, Hottentots (a nearby group of native Africans).

Political stuff: The kung have (had) no form of government. They lived in small traveling groups in the middle of wide open spaces, with little or no competition for resources. Warfare (raiding parties) is limited small scale, and carried out without the aid of any government. There are no chieftains or headmen. The men are not superior to the women, nor vice versa. There are healers, but the position is open to anyone who wants to learn (although it is more common for the males to be healers), healers hold no mysterious powers, and have no added power over anyone because of their position. An individual from an older generation will usually have 'authority' over younger individuals because of their age, but it is not enforced. Because of this, the !Kung are sometimes used as an example of a functional and long lasting anarchical system.

They have a gift economy, meaning that instead of using money or bartering, they give gifts. Since the !Kung are hunter-gatherers, they do not have much use of material possessions. The few things they carry with them can be manufactured by the individuals that use them, making formal trade unnecessary. Gifts are traded regularly (shell jewelry {made from ostrich eggshells, not shell fish}, arrows, etc.), but are of no real economic value -- instead, they form and cement social bonds. The one area where gift giving is important is meat. Only the men hunt large game, and a large kill is an important source of protein (although not the only source -- Mongongo nuts also help). Because these kills are somewhat infrequent, and because a large animal will give more food than a family needs, meat is given away to those in need. The meat is not distributed primarily on bases of need; the best and most meat goes to the hunters and their family, but there are specific gift relationships that allow a kill to spread throughout the group.

Where can I read more?!

Glad you asked. Here are some books that are worth reading. I'm sure that there are a lot more, but these I know are good.

The Dobe Ju/'hoansi by Richard B. Lee. A standard ethnography.

Boiling Energy by Richard Katz. The !Kung have frequent healing dances, where the dancers are possessed by a force known as num. These dances are the primary sources of healing, and are important social events. Read all about it here.

Nisa, The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman by Marjorie Shostak. Good biography. Also, a good description of what it's like for an anthropologist working in the field.

*The ! stands for an alveopalatal click. The !Kung language has a whole set of clicks and pops in it -- for example a Dental click (/), an Aveolar click, an Alveopalatal click (!), and a Lateral click (//). It also has a Glottal stop('), and a Glottal flap (").