SOS Bushmen

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas was 19 years old when she moved to Africa with her parents, who went there to study the Bushmen of the Kalahari.

That was in 1950, and the Bushmen were considered one of the last hunter-gatherer societies in the world. The experience was to influence Thomas' entire life.

She became an anthropologist and author, and wrote about the Bushmen in her 1959 book "The Harmless People," which has never gone out of print. She's written other books on a wide range of topics as well, including "The Hidden Life of Dogs."

Thomas' latest book is another look, 50 years later, at the Bushmen. It's called "The Old Way: A Story of the First People" (Picador, $15).

Q: Would you call this book a sequel? What is different about it compared to the first book you wrote about Bushmen of the Kalahari??

A: It is not a sequel. It is a revisit. It re-examines our experience of the 1950s in the light of what has been learned since that time. We now have much more knowledge of human origins, animal behavior, archaeology, ecology, DNA studies, linguistic studies, etc., and I have tried to apply some of that knowledge to what we saw. No one knew at that time, for example, that our population probably descended from Bushmen, sometimes called The First People.

Q: How much time did you spend on location for this book? What was that like, compared to when you were there as a teen?

A: I was there for about 3 years but the rest of my family was there much longer - my brother was to spend most of his life working in that area in an effort to improve the life of the Bushmen after the Old Way was gone. Hence, the "location" for this book has vanished. The Old Way has gone from the planet, or it has vanished as far as human beings are concerned. There is no place on Earth today in which people live in the Old Way. Animals do, however. Meanwhile, I have been back to Namibia a few times, and find it much changed, of course.

Q: How did you end up living in Africa as a teen? How did that experience influence your work and life?

A: My parents went on a series of expeditions (organized by them and sponsored by the Peabody Museum of Harvard and the Smithsonian Institutions) to study the Bushmen. My brother and I went too, of course. Since then, I have seen life and the world through the lens of the Kalahari. The experience influenced all my work.

Q: What do you think we can learn from a society like that of the Bushmen?

A: We can learn a great deal about ourselves, needless to say, since the Bushmen lived the life that brought us from the rainforest to the Neolithic farms. We lived for 150,000 years as hunter- gatherers, and the lifestyle formed us.

Q: What are the elements you look for in deciding whether a topic can be a book for you?

A: I don't pick from an array of topics. I write about things that I feel are burning to be written about.

Q: How did you end up in New Hampshire? Why did you settle there?

A: End up? Am not sure I have ended up as yet. I live in a house my parents built when they had a farm here. The house was part of their farm, and was built in 1931. I feel very rooted here, and work for my community. I was elected three times to the Selectboard (the governing body after Town Meeting) and serve in other ways as well.