Hunters among farmers: The !Xun of Ekoka, by Akira Takada

Hunters among farmers: The !Xun of Ekoka, by Akira Takada. University of Namibia Press (UNAM Press). 2nd edition. Windhoek, Namibia 2022. ISBN 9789991642673 / ISBN 978-99916-42-67-3

Hunters among farmers: The !Xun of Ekoka, by Akira Takada. This is the second edtion dating from 2022.

I am honoured to have the opportunity to complete the second edition of this book, which is the outcome of my wonderful experiences in Namibia. I am particularly grateful that the second edition is published by the University of Namibia Press, a leading publisher of scholarly research and innovation in southern Africa, which makes this book more accessible for Namibian readers. I cordially thank Kyoto University Press and Trans Pacific Press, who published the first edition of this book - Narratives on San ethnicity: The cultural and ecological foundations of life world among the IXun of north-central Namibia ~ for their cooperation and understanding of the importance of the second edition being produced by a distinguished Namibian publisher. Although the basic structure remains the same in this second edition as that of the first edition, I refined the text to be less technical and to contain more information about land-related issues in north-central Namibia. These changes are intended to make the book more interesting and accessible for Namibian readers. Moreover, I added several sketches that I had drawn during my field research. These sketches vividly remind me of my delightful memories from that time. Furthermore, I believe that they will help readers relive some of my wonderful experiences with my dearest friends. I am particularly grateful to the anonymous reviewer of the draft of the second edition for providing me with thoughtful comments and suggestions. His/her deep areal and scholarly knowledge greatly inspired me and improved the book. I also wish to thank Ndapewa Fenny Nakanyete and Romie Nghitevelekwa who offered me important information and encouraged my work. Fenny also contributed to the second edition of this book with a wonderful and lively Foreword. Jill Kinahan, Naitsikile Iizyenda, Annapaula Vakamuena, and David Barraclough made professional and invaluable contributions to the editing process. Claudia Schadeberg, through the Rock Art Research Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand, generously allowed images taken by her husband, photographer Jürgen Schadeberg, to appear in Chapter 2 to explain graphically the healing ritual of the trance dance. The society and people of north-central Namibia have undergone a number of changes since the publication of the first edition of this book in 2015. [...] In addition to funding from a number of sources that financed my research trips to Namibia and the publication of the first edition of this book, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) 'Natural and cultural history of landscape formation in contact zones between hunter-gatherers and agro-pastoralists in Africa (Project No. 16H02726 headed by Akira Takada); and the JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 'Development of Intersubjective Recognition (Project No. 17KT0057 headed by Akira Takada)5 that enabled me to conduct a follow-up study in north-central Namibia and to finance the editorial works for publishing the second edition. I carried out these research projects with the kind permission of the Government of Namibia. A book is not compiled in a day. I cordially thank Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Koln, Asakura Shoten, the Japanese Journal of Cultural Anthropology, Kaiseisha Press, and the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University, for permission to develop arguments originally presented in earlier publications. These arguments were the basis of Chapters 1 and 5 written for this book. [...]

This is an excerpt from Hunters among farmers: The !Xun of Ekoka, by Akira Takada.

Title: Hunters among farmers
Subtitle: The !Xun of Ekoka
Author: Akira Takada
Publisher: University of Namibia Press (UNAM Press)
2nd edition. Windhoek, Namibia 2022
ISBN 9789991642673 / ISBN 978-99916-42-67-3
Softcover, 15 x 23 cm, 261 pages, several b/w photographs