Bushmen+-+CA+-+SP12

1. __Components Of Culture__ Beliefs: One of the most important spirits in the Bushmen religion is the Kaggen. The Kaggen was a tricky deity that created many things for the Bushmen. Often when appearing in myths he was often acting unpredictable, usually either foolish, wise, tiresome, or helpful. The Bushmen’s religion consisted of many different rituals, for example there was rituals for a boys' first kill, girls' puberty, marriage and a trance dance. Each of these rituals meant a different thing to those that they affected. Furthermore, the modern Bushmen of the Kalahari believe in two gods: one who lives in the east and one from the west. Like the southern Bushmen they believe in spirits of the dead, but not as part of ancestor worship. Most believed that upon death, the soul went back to the great god’s house in the sky. They also believe in people called shamans. A shaman is someone who enters a trance in order to heal people they believe shamans can protect them from evil spirits and sickness, foretell the future, control the weather, ensure good hunting and generally try to look after the well being of their group.

Language: Five types of the bushmen language are known to exist, although not all are used in any single variety. The Bushmen talk in clicks a different position of the tongue while making a sucking action will make different sounds. Different click languages are spoken by different groups. The tribe of bushmen that live north of Uitspan Hunting Ranch speak two kinds, called West !Xoon and N/ohan. These two are part of the Taa language group. Taa means person or human being this is spoken by most bushmen tribes.Due to the number of people in these tribes the language has been incorporated into a endangered language category. Many organizations are trying to come together to save the language of these people.

Behaviors: The Bushmen commonly travel in little portable groups to where ever they need to, the San Bushmen communities are made out of nearly 25 men, women and children. Groups join for exchange of news and gifts, for marriage arrangements and for social occasions at certain times in the year. The San often have many rituals to celebrate various things that happen. They also put their music and dancing on display as a big part of there rituals and celebrations. The Sans were a hunter gatherer group that usually followed around their prey. They used weapons such as the Springshare probe, arrows, a quiver, bows, clubs, and spears. They carry all of these weapons in a sack called a karosse that hangs around their back. The San are a friendly, creative, and peaceful people, who never developed any weapons of war, and have lived rather peacefully with their natural environment that surrounds them for at least 20,000 years. If they were properly restored to their ancestral lands through the court. case they are dealing with, and reintegrated into the game reserves of southern Africa, the San communities could maybe once flourish again like they want it to again and they can keep their culture alive which the thrive to do.

Values: The Bushmen value their natural environment which has helped them flourish as a society before recent years. The Bushmen value things such as there peaceful nature towards others and life. They are a peaceful group of people and don’t resort to violence. They value their beliefs of shamans and the great powers that they have to cure diseases and such. The Bushmen also value the food that they hunt which they pay respect to by constructing rock paintings of the animals which let them open it to the spiritual world which was their way of giving back to the animal for they had killed it for food.

2. The impact of cultural change in this society is that hardly anybody speaks there language anymore so it’s an endangered language. Also due to technology becoming more advanced less people are inclined to join this civilization because they don’t want to have to be a hunter-gatherer group. Also another major issue why the Bushmen are going through cultural changes is because of the conditions that they live in. They essentially live at the bottom-of-the-food-chain in Africa. They live in awful and unacceptable conditions of poverty, leading to alcoholism, violence, prostitution, disease and despair. They also had much of there land taken away from them by the Botswana government. This eliminated the last of the hunter gatherer groups from the area. These are the complications that the Bushmen are going through and as a result of this they cannot continue their rich culture that has been around for nearly 200,000 years.

Sits/ Sources: 1st Primary source:Lee, Richard B., and Richard B.. Lee.The Dobe Ju/'hoansi. 2nd ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993. Print.  Page 51, figure 4-3 this is a picture of there hunting tools used to catch prey. We found it important because they use these to live off the land and they need these tools to live.

2nd Primary source: Lee, Richard B., and Richard B.. Lee.The Dobe Ju/'hoansi. 2nd ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993. Print.  Page 44, They carry all there supplies in a bag. They can use these bags called Karosses to carry fruit, weapons, and also supplies for there village.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Print Source: Lee, Richard B., and Richard B.. Lee.The Dobe Ju/'hoansi. 2nd ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993. Print. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> This print source is important because it shows various things about their group. It shows the way they live explaining specific aspects of there group ways.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Secondary Source: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_bushmen.html__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> We found this source important because it essentially shows every general cultural way of there tribe. It shows their language, behavior, values, and beliefs.