San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert - A House That Could be Built Without Metal Tools

What is the first house? Where and when did people start to build? Were caves our first shelter...or nests?

In the centre of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana a few San hunter-gathering bushmen still live a fairly traditional way of life. While this may be thought of as primitive technology, this is actually a sophisticated house, ecological and organic in its design and perfectly adapted to the climate and culture of the bushmen. An egalitarian society in which men and women work and share equally the huts are arranged around a central hearth around which the family mostly sleep, but we learn that not only are the huts for living in, but a young bushman girl when she comes of age will be kept inside the hut for three whole weeks to teach her that she must not play with the boys. An old bushman lady tells us the story.

Is this the oldest house in the world? The huts are only a few months old, but the design may go back four million years? How can this be possible? A few thoughts about where architecture all began.

Thank you so much to the wonderful open-hearted and wise-beyond-words San bushmen for sharing their skills with me.

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