What the Ju/’hoansi can tell us about group decision-making

The article argues that Ju/'hoansi and G/wi hunter-gatherer bands reached good group decisions through consensus, avoiding both groupthink and fragmentation. It describes the Dilemma of the Deserted Husband, which George Silberbauer observed in the late 1950s, where a band resolved a months-long dispute by accepting a polyandrous marriage proposed by a "lateral thinker." Megan Biesele's observations in the 1970s show the Ju/'hoansi keeping leadership temporary, withholding ideas from attribution, and avoiding votes, which they see as polarising.