Locating the Hadzabe People in the Wilderness

There exists a close relationship between the use of a personal name as the means of individuating a single person and highlighting that person’s ties to an entire culture. Many aspects of the Hadzabe’s entire culture are reported as having been eroded by the influences of other major ethnic groups (including Datooga, Isanzu, Iraqw, and Sukuma) in the Lake Eyasi area, as well as by Christian missionaries and by the sedentarization programs of the Government of Tanzania. Despite these major impacts, Hadzabe local names still exhibit affiliations to their indigenous foraging lifestyle, associating them individually with features of their physical landscapes and with regional flora and fauna, as well as with historical circumstances and events occurring at the time of their birth. A new-born infant is always featured as the main protagonist in the family, and these remembrances of indigenous culture still prevail in the naming of newly born children in Hadzabe society.