2020 Volume 84 Issue 4 Pages 443-462
Studies in cognitive anthropology address the difficult problems of how to examine knowledge that is not expressed explicitly, how to identify those to whom folk knowledge is indigenous, and the question of whether we are really able to understand others. The anthropology of interaction approach offers a promising solution to these problems. However, it has not sufficiently examined how gesture and other semiotic resources distributed in the environment are used for organizing wider interactions. This paper examines the wayfinding practices of the Gǀui/Gǁana, two closely-related groups of the San. It is focused on indexicality in the uses of proximal and distal demonstratives, as well as those of deictic and depicting gestures, while the Gǀui/Gǁana move in the bush and hunt in dry valleys. This paper discusses the process by which the Gǀui/Gǁana deepen their engagement with the environment through involving various people in a number of culturally distinctive social situations.
