Environment
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| The !Kung Location |
The !Kung
population is located in isolated areas of Botswana,
Angola, and Namibia. These regions are located in Southern Africa. They refer
to themselves as the Zhun/twasi, "the real people," and are also
referred to as the !Kung San. The semi-arid region in which they live features
some trees but is mostly brush and grass-covered low hills and flat spaces.
Rainfall during the wet season varies from five to forty inches. Temperatures
during the winter are frequently below freezing, but during the summer are well
above 100F.
This harsh
environment was avoided by most outsiders, but the !Kung are able to survive by
adapting to their surroundings. They are very isolated and take on their
environment by themselves without the help of outsiders. The villages,
consisting of 10-30 people, are semi-permanent; once the water source dries up,
the band has to carry their belongings to a new site where a reliable source of
water can be located. This shortage of water in certain places creates added
stress on the !Kung people. The huts they live in are small and built of grass
with all doors facing the center, circling a large communal area where children
play, women cook, and all family life except for sleeping takes place. A fire
is burning in front of each hut at all times.
The arid region
in which they live in is generally filled with different types of grass. This
grass covers the low hills and flat plains that the !Kung live on. Also, the hills
and flat spaces are accompanied by lots of brush. The !Kung are hunter
gatherers, adapting to their semi-arid environment by gathering roots, berries,
fruits, and nuts that they gather from the desert, and from the meat provided
by the hunters. !Kung men are responsible for providing the meat, although
women might occasionally kill small mammals. Game is not plentiful and the
hunters sometimes must travel great distances. Meat is usually sparse and is
shared fairly among the group when a hunter is successful.
Climatic Adaptations
One physical
adaptation of the !Kung people are that they have developed darker skin to
combat the large amounts of sunlight they are exposed to. They have this darker
skin because the excess melanin protects the skin and absorbs more sunlight. If
they had lighter skin, they would be more prone to skin cancer and would not be
able to survive in the sun. Another physical adaptation they have developed is
the ability to sustain stamina to hunt. They have to march very far distances
to hunt big game and have developed stronger bodies to achieve this goal. It
has helped them gather more food from big games because it is usually sparse.
The !Kung have
also gained cultural adaptations that have helped them adapt to their
environment. One cultural adaptation is the use of their plants and nuts in the
environment to fuel nutrition. The !Kung have adapted their gathering skills to
find the fruits, vegetables, and nuts that best provide a healthy nutrition so
they can live better. In addition, the !Kung use their environment for their
clothing and shelters. Their clothes are made out of animal skin, their
shelters of grasses, branches and leaves of shrubs. This use of the environment
makes it possible for the !Kung to live in an arid region. Lastly, they have
developed many ways into how they gather water. Since their water sources are
scarce, the !Kung have used ostrich eggs, which can hold up to one liter of
water. Also, they get water from the roots of the shrubs in the desert and drip
the water out of the roots. These adaptations have helped the !Kung live in the
arid desert.
Language
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| A map showing dispersion of Khosan languages. |
Gender Roles
I can only
identify two specific genders in the !Kung culture, male and female genders.
One of the defining roles of the male gender is hunting. They are responsible
for hunting game and bringing their kill to the band. The !Kung women are
responsible for the majority of the food and for the care of the children. The
women do the majority of the gathering, such as gathering water, nuts, fruits,
and firewood. Both men and women are very good at foraging the edible foods
available in their environment. I think the gender roles are not very strict
because sometimes the lines are crossed. For example, some women hunt small
animals for their meat, not just the men. Also, both genders forage for edible
plants and nuts in their environment. I don’t think there are any negative repercussions
if one gender crosses over and fulfills another gender’s role. I think if the
women were to fulfill some of the men’s hunting roles, they would leave their
duties of child rearing and gathering to the men, which would make it
impossible for these to get done. It would have a negative consequence on the
society as a whole. These gender roles are taught to the young of the culture
at a very young age. The young women in the tribe are with their mothers all
the time, seeing how they forage for edible foods and watching them do their
customary duties. The men learn at a very young age from the older, wiser men
of the tribe on techniques of hunting and survival. These are very important
traits for a young one to learn because they need to have these traits
perfected for when they are older. Culture has the strongest influence on the
gender roles of the !Kung. The roles are passed on by the different generations
of the culture. But, some roles are biologically inherited for the women, such
as child rearing and managing the food. These both have a huge impact on the
way things are done in the culture. I think the cultural aspect of gender role
identity is more useful to !Kung.
After reading
the short passage about the “intersexed child,” I feel that the protagonist
would fit in relatively well in my culture. Since there is some overlap in
gender roles, it would make sense that an “intersexed” child could fulfill the
duties of both genders. They could gather food, look after children, and hunt
small animals for their meat. I think this would not be seen as normal to the
culture, but they could fit into the gender roles of the culture.
Subsistence
The !Kung
culture can be identified as being a hunter gatherer based culture for
subsistence. They forage for their food and they hunt for game to get meats.
They move from place to place based on the amount of water they have, so they
can’t be an agrarian based society. They have a unique ability of finding the
edible plants in their environment and eat them for food. There is no evidence
that they are moving towards or adapting to a new type of subsistence pattern.
They made food
items in the !Kung culture are local fruits, vegetables, nuts, and game. They
find their fruit and nuts from different types of plant producing items that
are near to them in their environment. If they move to a new place, they must
adapt to the food that is available to them. The !Kung has a remarkable skill
of finding the edible items for their diets. The men of the tribe hunt big game
and use every part of the animal for food, shelter, and other things that they
need. These items are all available year round and depend on the place the
!Kung have settled.
The
subsistence roles are split up based on gender. The men of the culture are
assigned to hunting for food and going on trips to hunt big game. They have the
responsibility of getting the meat to the tribe and making sure it is split
evenly to each tribe. The women pick the fruit and nuts from the shrubbery
around the environment. They then will prepare the food and serve it after it
has been gathered and prepared.
The general
nutritional status of the culture is that they are very healthy and have a wide
variety of nutrients. They receive adequate nutritional intake because they do
not rely on one certain crop or food. They have many different edible plants
that they can find and eat. Also, the culture eats meat from different game
that adds nutritional value to their diet. The fact that they are moving little
by little to different places makes them more fit and healthy for living on the
run.
Economic Systems
The !Kung
culture does not produce any surplus in food items. They use everything that
they forage for and hunt. They need everything that they find because they do
not grow crops on their own or import foods from big corporations. In addition,
the culture does not exhibit a specialization of labor. All the women pretty much
have the same jobs that they must fulfill to help the community. They all care
for the children, the food, and they due chores. The men all have to hunt and
gather food. It is not different based on the social level or any special
person. The !Kung does redistribute the goods that the tribe has gathered from
hunts and forages. They all just rely on the goods that they can get from the
environment and use those as needed. When a man comes back with a good kill
from hunting, he will share the kill fairly with everyone in the tribe. The
!Kung does not have any type of currency or participate in trade. They have
been kept unchanged for many years and do not benefit from the inclusion of
outsiders.
Marriage
The majority
of marriages are monogamous, normally arranged by senior members of the kinship
group. It is preferred to marry cousins, but there is a complicating
generational naming system, which can limit cousin choices by naming cousins as
siblings in certain cases. More often than
not, the first marriage of the !Kungs are arranged by the parents of the bride
and groom. The average age of marriage ranges between 12-16 for girls and 18-25
for boys. The arrangement of !Kung marriages usually begins with the mother of
the boy approaching the mother of the girl to propose a marriage. If the girl’s
family is amiable and concedes to the proposal, a formal engagement is then
secured with the conferring of Kamasi (a type of gift that is explicitly
“exchanged between the parents of” the “prospective brides and grooms”).
Thereafter, both families would frequently engage in a series of gift
exchanges, lasting over a decade-long period, prior to the actual marriage of
their children.
The
!Kung have a strict incest taboo of marriage to an immediate family member.
They are also not allowed to marry their first or second cousin. Also, they are
prohibited from marrying someone who has the same name as their parents or
siblings. The !Kung are a matrilocal
society. This means the couple lives with or near the wife’s parents. They
practice uxorilocality for the bride service period, which lasts until the
couple has produced three children or they have been together for more than ten
years. At the end of the bride service period the couple has a choice of which
clan they want to live with.
Kinship
The ǃKung
classify everyone who bears the same name as close kinsmen as if they were proper
relatives. If a ǃKung man's sister is called Kxaru (a common female name), then
all women named Kxaru are his "sisters." A ǃKung man may not sit too
close to his sisters or tell sexual jokes in their presence, and he cannot
marry them. The same rules apply to his sisters' namesakes. To the ǃKung, such
customs identify "true" and not merely metaphorical kinship. The
ǃKung believe that all namesakes are descended from the same original namesake
ancestor, and in effect they treat the status of namesake as a genealogical position,
like father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter.
There are
hereditary leaders, sometimes considered chiefs, but they have limited
authority. The chiefs have some duties such as dividing up the meat share
from a hunt, and the chief does not get more meat then anyone else. Traditionally
social order was enforced by ridicule, dispersal (forced separation) and sometimes
even execution. Infractions are now handled through district councils or
government courts. There was no formal military system. The San
peoples were generally pacifist, though minor skirmishes might occur. The
inheritance patterns do match the descent lines for this culture. The Eskimo
(Inuit) kinship system is how the !Kung follow naming patterns in their
culture. They use terms such as brother, sister, father, and mother for each
individual.
Social Organization
The !Kung
culture is generally egalitarian except for the chief of the clan. The chief
has some very important roles and leadership opportunities for the clan he
represents. Not all the members have equal social power, as seen by the chief.
There is really no mobility in this culture, except if a man moves into the
role of the chief. They are classified as a chief through hereditary leadership
and are passed on the power by the generation before them.
Political Structure
The
!Kung tribes practice an egalitarian political organization. Politically, each
tribe has an uncentralized political system where each member of the tribe is
equally in line with the next citizen. Each !Kung tribe has their own sense of
political structure and wealth is determined by the tribe according to the
amount of meat and food the hunters and gatherers bring in and distribute to
the tribe. There are no set leaders in the !Kung society and everyone works for
each other. Their core value of modesty allow for this equality among tribe
members.
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| An !Kung elder. |
If
there is ever a necessity to make a major decision among the tribe, the tribe
gathers together and discusses the matter, then makes a decision as a whole.
Everyone in the tribe must agree with a decision in order for the tribe to act.
However, the wisdom of the elders is highly resourceful to the tribe because
that is all they have to offer to the tribe.
The Role
of Violence
One
role of violence that plays an important part in the !Kung culture is the
hunting aspect of their culture. Men are trained to hunt at a young age and
carry out the hunting duties of big game for the tribe. This is a very positive
thing for the tribe, as it is a major source of food that they need to keep
their bodies healthy. Another role of violence in the !Kung culture is the fact
that European settlers have been interacting in their culture. This has had a
negative effect on the !Kung. These settlers have even been killing the !Kung
for sport, which is very sad to see for this culture.
Religion
!Kung are
traditionally tribal religionists and are very closed to Christianity.
They believe celestial bodies (sun, moon, morning star, and the southern cross)
are symbols of divinity. They believe the praying mantis is a divine
messenger and when one is seen, diviners try to determine the current message. Other
animals also have spiritual significance for them. They also believe that
dancing near a sacred fire will give them the power to heal. Their
spiritual leaders are diviners and healers. They believe ancestors are
involved in curing rituals, but they do not revere the dead as the Bantu
peoples do. This practicing of religion is very important to the !Kung
culture. I believe they would not be
able to live without their religion, as they would not be able to seek guidance
from their divine believers.
Art
The !Kung culture express their art in the form of rock
paintings and beadwork. Although the true meaning and origin of these rock
paintings is subject to interpretation, many have agreed that they originated
from the !Kung because of the close ties to !Kung culture depicted within them.
These paintings portray many important aspects of !Kung life, such as the
hunting of the eland antelope and the ritual curing dance known as the “trance dance.”
Probably the most important art form of the !Kung is their beadwork.
Constructed by women, these beads are made from ostrich eggshells. These beads
are presented and famed during the “trance dance.”
The !Kung use music as a way of expressing their appreciation of
their God. The !Kung say that the songs are given to them by the great God and
that they contain n/um, “a mystical potency capable of curing that is
also found within medicine men and fire. The repetitive clapping and stomping,
and the rhythmic quality of the song has an almost hypnotic effect, which leads
the men into a trance-like state.
The !Kung have dance called the “trance dance” that is very
sacred to them as a form of art. They use the dance as a way of curing the
sick, and it is done very frequently. Once they enter this trance, they may run
about in a frenzy, laying their hands on each person to draw out the illness
and “fling it beyond the reaches of the clearing.” This art form of dance is
considered to be directly tied to God and healing powers, concepts within the
superstructure of !Kung culture.
Conclusion
The !Kung have been living a culture that has not changed for
many years. The outside world, specifically European settlers, has interfered
in a very negative sense. They have killed the !Kung people for sport and have
disrupted their natural way of life to the point where some of the culture has
died. I feel like the !Kung culture is not thriving or near extinct, but in the
middle of the pack. I think they are able to stay alive because of their
trusted rituals and unique ability to find resources in their environment. I
think they might have trouble finding water in the future as the total amount
of water goes down. This culture has not been influential at all in the modern
culture that I can find.
Bibliography
http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~epsadm03/kung.html
http://ksuanth.wetpaint.com/page/!Kung+Art
