Hxaro and Sharing

Image via WikipediaHxaro is a cultural aspect of the San. It basically involves the creation of obligation as a means of insuring against the future.

Understanding the San way of life provides ethnographic insight into the Late Stone Age cultures in southern Africa. This means that a potential understanding of how people lived in the last 2000 years can be gained.

Hxaro is interesting - especially when considered in light of gift giving within the Roman Empire. The mechanics around hxaro, involve the manufacture of a gift which is then handed to a specifically chosen person. The gift is usually something decorative or practical - not food. The gift may be kept and used by the recipient or passed on to someone else. When a hxaro gift is passed on it forms a chain of responsibility with the subsequent recipients inheriting an obligation to the original giver. The partners in hxaro may allow the relationship to drop or may foster it. Dropping a hxaro partner becomes more difficult once a chain has been established.

In choosing a hxaro partner, the environmental factors are considered. Having a wide range of potential partners means that there is more scope when some difficulty arises within the environment. When the region cannot support a tribe or family group they manufacture gifts to take to their established hxaro partners in other regions. As the relationship is birectional, the hxaro process has the effect of sharing the risk.

Gifts in Roman times were primarily used as a means of gaining support for illicit practices and other general bribery. It's quite refreshing to come across a practice that is mutually beneficial as well as establishing an obligation for both partners.