The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures

Zimbabwe: 1,200 • Namibia: 27,000 • South Africa: 10,000 • Botswana: 63,500

They are for the most part indistinguishable from the Khoekhoe or their Bantu-speaking neighbours. Nevertheless, a San culture did once exist and, among some groups, still exists. It centred on the band, which might comprise several families (totaling between 25 and 60 persons).

The elementary family within the band is composed of husband, wife, and their dependent children, but it is occasionally enlarged by polygynous marriage. Often all band members are related. Considerable interaction through trade, visiting, and particularly marriage may take place between bands; and kinship, both real and fictional, has wide ramifications, thus facilitating the frequent movement of people from band to band, so that the composition of any particular band may fluctuate considerably in time. Each band is an autonomous, somewhat leaderless unit within its own territory, and in most bands influence rather than authority is exercised in particular situations by skilled hunters or older men.