Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word San. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word San, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say San in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word San you have here. The definition of the word San will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofSan, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
As a synonym of Bushmen introduced into ethnology from the 1960s, from Khoekhoesaan (singular saa) "foragers; people without wealth", via back-formation from Khoisan. Occasional citation as the Nama term for "Bushmen" from the 1880s.[1]
San is the plural form, used for the group collectively. Individuals are referred to as "a San man", "a San woman" etc., although when referring to individuals, reference to their specific nation is preferable (as in, "a ǃKung man" etc.).
San became popular in 1970s western anthropology as a politically correct replacement for "Bushmen", which was perceived as outdated. However, it turned out that San was a derogatory term for "foragers" used by the pastoralist Khoikhoi, while "Bushman" carried no derogatory connotations, so that experts who had been in actual contact with the group recommended the continued use of "Bushmen" (Henry Harpending). By the 2000s, it was reported that San had mostly lost its derogatory connotations in South Africa and was partly embraced as self-designation, while it continued to be perceived as an insult in parts of the central Kalahari in Namibia.[2]
^ Theophilus Hahn (1881) Tsuni-ǁGoam: The Supreme Being to the Khoi-Khoi, page 3:
The old Dutch also did not know that their so-called Hottentots formed only one branch of a wide-spread race, of which the other branch divided into ever so many tribes, differing from each other totally in language […] While the so-called Hottentots called themselves Khoikhoi (men of men, i.e. men par excellence), they called those other tribes Sā, the Sonqua of the Cape Records […] We should apply the term Hottentot to the whole race, and call the two families, each by the native name, that is the one, the Khoikhoi, the so-calle Hottentot proper; the other the Sān (Sā) or Bushmen.
^ Richard B. Lee (2012) The Dobe Ju/'Hoansi, 4th edition, Cengage Learning, page 9