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The Namibian Khwe Bushmen live in the Bwabwata National Park, where they are highly affected by the park's history and conservation activities. Following Ingold's dwelling perspective, the world comes into being because a person is continuously interacting with his/her environment. This contrasted with building, in which (wo)man constructs the world cognitively before (s)he can live in it. We apply a third notion, lodging, to refer to a situation in which people live in an essentially foreign environment. In this, many changes in the environment of the Khwe are triggered beyond their control, instead of through their interaction with their environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropology in southern Africa is conducted under a political climate charged with land and resource claims. Focusing on a recent ethnography of Namibian Haillom. I explore the implications both of asserting the difference of the anthropological "other" in these circumstances. and of choices made regarding what constitutes the identity of "the other." I celebrate publication of this monograph in a context in which anthropology increasingly is marginalised. However, I also question affirmation of a Haillom identity which may be problematic in relation to constructed ideas of indigeneity and "Bushman-ness," and the invoking of these in official discourses concerning land and institutional resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]