BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA SHEET

eports, however, is that by Metz et al. (1971) documenting clearly that rapid
acculturation may lead to serious deterioration of health and nutritional
status and suggesting that dietary deficiencies may have resulted initially
(historically) after the shift from hunting-gathering to agrarian food pro­
duction.
Complementing these cultural and medical-nutritional accounts of Bushman
hunter-gatherers are reports providing nutritional data on the composition of
wild plants used by these Kalahari peoples. Story (1958) presents information
on more than seventy species (Table 4) while subsequent work by Wehmeyer (1966;
1971) and Wehmeyer et al. (1969) includes information on six important wild
foods and suggests that they be examined closely for potential economic/nutritional
reward: Sclerocarya caffra (high in ascorbic acid and protein), Ricinodendron
rautanenii (high in ascorbic acid and protein), Adansonia digita:.ta (high in
ascorbic acid and protein), Bauhinia esculenta (high in protein), Carissa
marcocarpa (high in ascorbic acid), and Vigna dinteri (high in calories) (Table
5). Augmenting these reports is the important paper by Lee (1973) on mongongo
(Ricinodendron rautanenii) and its dietary role in !Kung Bushman diet -- a role
that casts serious doubt on the validity of the theme "Man the Hunter" and ele­
vates t'e important roles played by "Woman the Gatherer".
Elsewhere in East Africa researchers have investigated the dietary role
of wild plants in ot' hunter-gatherer societies. Newman (1970; 1975) con­
ducted basic research on the wild plants used by Sandawe hunters (Table 6), a
topic also reviewed by Porter (1979, p. 70). In addition to identifying the
basic wild staples of Sandawe, Newman noted important "famine" foods, plants
consumed on: ing drought or periods of social distress that provide impor­
8.