An effort of this size and duration, fieldwork spread over more than 15 years, data processing, analyzing, writing spread over another decade, depends on the help and support of many individuals and institutions. UCLA rescued me from the bleak economic prospects of the U.K. in the early 1980s, and although I came to realize that the efforts of many future colleagues were involved, Michael McGuire's leadership and guidance was instrumental.

As described in the introduction, Lars Smith, who began research among the Hadza while a graduate student at Harvard, was the key to my beginning to work among the Hadza. Numerous Hadza knew and liked Lars and were happy to receive some more friendly attention from someone he introduced to them. Tanzania in the 1980s was an almost impossible place to do anything. However, Lars had the skills and was willing to pass them on. He even had two prepared field assistants to offer. One of them, Gudo Mahiya, became vital to my demography project. His understanding of our project, and our wish for direct evidence grew rapidly. His quiet, unobtrusive manner was perfect for helping me interview women as well as men. Gudo also became an expert helper for Bonny Sands’ language research, and encouraged by Jeanette Hanby and assisted by Jeanette and Bonny, he collected and recorded a number of traditional Hadza stories. These were assembled into a small booklet. By sending copies to Mangola (usually by hand with Frank Marlowe) for Gudo to sell to tourists, we were, for a while, able to provide Gudo with a useful pension after my fieldwork ended.

Permission for research in Tanzania was given by the Commission on Science and Technology. I am grateful to the commission and its officers for facilitating permissions and trouble-free passage through regional, district, and local levels of government. The fieldwork was supported by grants from National Science Foundation (BNS 8507859, BNS 8807436, DBS 9216088, SBR 9514214), and from UCLA Academic Senate Research Fund, and The Swan Fund. Another field visit was supported from a grant to Professor Peter Ladefoged to help him find some Hadza to collaborate in his phonetic studies. My 2000 visit was supported by funds raised by Annette Wagner to make her film of the Hadza.