Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: The first part of the term “Bushman” has been variously explained as referring to bush-covered country, or to bushes as refuge from enemies, as cover from which to attack man or beast, or as dwelling places. The word boes is neither Afrikaans nor Dutch, and is probably a phonological adaptation. Several San ethnonyms mean “bush men” or “bush people”. The term San, a contraction of Sanqua, earlier Sonqua, has been explained as “gatherers”, “outcasts, pariahs”, “servants, subjects”, “aborigines or settlers”, and “those who sit and rest”. Van Riebeeck’s addition of the explanations Vismans (“fish men”), struyckroovers (“bandits”, literally “bushrobbers”) and Berghvolck (“mountain people”) to various mentions of Souqua, Soaqua and similar words, prompts the possibility of translations.
Author: Peter Raper
Institution: University of the Free State
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1551937207