In this culture, staring at someone for too long is rude, asking questions of each other displays distrust, and drawing attention to oneself and becoming an object of jealousy is avoided at all costs because they live off of the barren Kalahari desert and do not have the sources to fight with one another. The Bushmen share what little they have, and wars would wreck their culture. Even with all of these restrictions, the Bushmen find ways to communicate personally with one another.One way is through their "mood songs". These songs contain no words, but are hummed to express the composer's emotion. One such song mentioned in "A Harmless People" is "Bitter Melons", used to express his disappointment and resentment of being treated badly by his people because, when they were in a circle passing a pipe around, they gave it to him last although he really wanted to smoke. This song was hummed and the words "bitter melons" were sung from time to time.
In their stories, the heroes are tiny jackals who barely sneak away from their enemies while the lions are always hurt, much like the roadrunner and the coyote on Looney Tunes. They see themselves as being inferior to the other nations because of what the gods did, so non-Bushmen are the lions.
To end, here's this video from "The Gods must be Crazy". Although it is probably not historically accurate, it is pretty funny! It even shows some eloquence in the Bushmen language, as the character talks long and hard to the monkey. Enjoy!
Information from Elizabeth Thomas's The Harmless People
Jenna, great post! I'm guessing that you're taking anthropology with Dr. Crandall? After reading a book about the Bushmen called The Harmless People, your post has really helped me to better understand more about what we're studying. I think it's really interesting to examine how European presence in the Kalahari and Western influence has really affected the culture in many negative ways. Not only is poverty, homicide, and alcoholism now widespread in the area, but much of the folk knowledge, which has been treasured by the Bushmen for centuries, is now lost.
ReplyDeleteThe same thing happened to the Native Americans over here, with very close similarities in many ways.
ReplyDeleteJenna, that was a really interesting post. I love how you can tell the philosophical ideas of this people by their stories! That example about the Jackal/lion stories and how it relates to their view of their own place in the world is really fascinating. I think it shows that they believe they can still have self-respect by making use of their skills and intelligence, even if the gods were supposed to have decreed them a lesser people.
Hey, Jenna. Do you know how long ago this culture (and their language) originated?
ReplyDeleteYeah it is amazing that such a diversely centered culture has been able to remain untouched for so long. Especially with the huge changes most of Africa's societies are going through in the modern age as far as westernizing and what not. I, as Alicia, am also interested in how long this culture has been around for!
ReplyDeleteMy brother John served his mission in South Africa and he learned a little bit of the Xhosa language. He tried to teach me a little of it but I wasn't very good. He spent some time with Bushman people. I will call him and see if he has any good stories! I found it interesting that their folk stories reflect on their cultural views and identity.
ReplyDeleteMarc, no I am not in that class but two of my room mates are! That came in really handy with this. Also Andrew and Alicia, the bushmen are thought to have lived in the Kalahari desert for aproximately 2000 years, as they have found some cave paintings from around that time that may have been made by them.
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