Gender Roles

Traditions are important to many people and this includes the !Kung tribe. This can be seen in the way girls and boys are treated differently, girls have a celebration for their first menstruation. This is used as a time to show the end of childhood and beginning of adolescence. Which is the third stage of life to them. The boys learn from a young age they are the providers for their future family. The men are the ones who do all the hunting, they are responsible for making sure their family can live the best life possible. Although this is all true men and women roles are very interchangeable both being able to be performed by either gender, they have good equality in this sense. (Shostak and Nisa 2000).

Another way the boys and girls are different is in how they choose their life partner, the women of the !Kung tribe have little to no say into this topic, men on the other hand basically choose who their daughter is eligible to marry, and once this happens since the girls are usually married very young (usually before menstrual cycle begins) the husband is usually expected to help raise the daughter/wife, also the males are to not have sex with their wife until after her first menstrual cycle  and because of this many men do have other partners during this stage of the girls life. Girls' first time having sex is often times traumatic.(Shostak and Nisa 2000). A girl's job once she has her family is to take care/watch over the kids while her husband is out hunting and also planting and gathering the little things she can. Most kids just hangout all day they are not expected to do much.

If the women are unhappy and feel that they are not being paid enough attention to by their husbands they will do a few different things, one thing they do is they threaten suicide, another is they will runaway for the night and comeback once found by tribe. These things are rare but do happen and result in the tribe knowing the way the girl is feeling. (Shostak and Nisa 2000).

When girls go through their first menstruation it is a big celebration for everybody except her, the women of the tribe gather and dance and sing while the girl lays in a hut with her face cover, she is to not be seen by any men of the tribe during this time, during the dancing and singing which the women do outside of the hut the men are sitting a little ways away watching. (Shostak and Nisa 2000). This is very different from when the boys have their initiation because theirs takes place far away from where the women can hear or see them. This celebration last the entire menstruation and at the end the girl is washed and brought out of the hut. This does not represent the girls entrance into adulthood only the end of the adolescence stages. (Shostak and Nisa 2000). If the girl has postponed sexual relations she will soon be pushed into becoming sexually active whether she likes it or not.

Shostak, Marjorie, and Nisa, eds. 2000 Nisa, the Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, Cambridge Mass. Harvard University Press. (Retrived from eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) on October 27, 2015.)

The Society of the !Kung

The !Kung people traditionally tend to live in small nomadic villages, ranging in size from 10-30 people. This means they travel in bands. Their substance strategy is foraging. They see everyone as having a duty to the tribe, whether it's hunting for meat or gathering fruits, and as a result they think everyone is important, not one gender being better than the other. They will share the resources evenly between each other, even in times of drought. However, when a child is born in a time of famine or drought, they will let the child die rather than waste resources on them. There are rarely any conflicts between neighboring tribes, mainly because they all make sure to stay far away from each other.

In more recent times, however, the !Kung have taken up cattle ranching and horticulture. They no longer hunt and gather, and they definitely don’t migrate any more. While before they had troubles finding water in the wilds, they now have troubles finding enough water for themselves and their cattle. The cattle also eat up a lot of the sparse vegetation, so wild animals can no longer live on those lands. Now that they can earn money from the rest of the world for working, the men are valued more than the women.

Despite being in bands, the !Kung are a chiefdom, which means villages have a chieftain. However, they have very limited power, similar to a Big Man. Because of their small sizes, their laws are in forced by ridiculing and shunning anyone who doesn’t follow them. When a problem does arise, rather than have the leader solve it, the whole community comes together to either solve the problem or remove it, giving them a unique conflict resolution method. There is little importance to the leader, since the tribe is mostly about working together rather than listening to one person.

Because of their lack of a true leader, the !Kung have had problems in the modern world. During the colonial times, it was easy to oppress them as there was no one person to defend them. In more modern times, The !Kung are finding they are losing more and more rights in the governments eyes, and are getting smaller and smaller lands to call theirs. Because of their lack of political identity in the local government, they are losing their cultural identity.

Social-Shadow Tripod. 2005. Cultural Analysis: !Kung San. Retrieved September 20, 2015 (http://social-shadow.tripod.com/index.html)

Hunting

Hunting could take days of tracking, attacking, and following a wounded animal. The !Kung had rituals to prevent arrogance amongst male hunters. When a man killed an animal, he would not take it directly into their village, but would leave the body and return as if he was unsuccessful. I found this to be an extremely odd way of hunting. An older man would inquire about his hunt and remark upon his failure, at which the hunter must avoid credit and accept humility even though he had made a kill. Through a long process, eventually, likely the next day, a group would say, "see if some small animal was nicked by an arrow." 

What confused me is that how would they know it was “nicked” if he said he was just unsuccessful. When the animal is found then the hunter may be rewarded the kill. Also, the kill may not belong to him, but to the person who gave him arrows. This shows almost as teamwork when it comes to actually getting the kill is how I see it. Another interesting fact is that the !Kung people have a very interesting and different language of communication while hunting. The system they use is no where near the same language they would use to speak to one another.

The !Kung people hunt large Kudu and Eland with small bows. Another interesting fact I saw was that they use poison from the larvae of a type of beetle living in their village i find it extremely smart that without any medical technology, they can find out that a certain larvae is poisonous. Also, by converting their knowledge of knowing that it is poisonous, they use that to put on the end of their barbed arrow while hunting. So, even if the shot is in a bad spot, the poison will soon reach the body through the blood stream to take down the large Kudu or Eland.

The large Eland of the South African bush is the most prized kill when it comes to hunting. The Eland is the most prized not just because of the fact that they are Africa's largest antelope, but because they have the most fat. Therefore, teenage men get extremely excited about their kills of the great Eland that the word will spread quickly along the town or village to create respect.

John Marshall. 19.53. "!Kung Bushmen Hunting Equipment - Preview" You Tube Web site. Retrieved November 2, 2015. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQJRw-LvxU8)

New World Encyclopedia. 2013. "Bushmen" Retrieved on November 2, 2015 (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bushmen)

Beliefs of the !Kung

 When it comes to the !Kung, they strongly believe that the spiritual world is apart of all aspects of their life. To them, the spiritual world determines their health, death, as well as the abundance of food and water. the !Kung have many restrictions about the dead. They believe that the ghosts cause them injury or even death. It is against the rules for them to mention the name of the person. who has died for reasons of health and. Even if a Person of the tribes die, they will move a away from place, because they believe that when you die your spirt stays in that once lace. So as a sign of respect they move away to let them have peace.

The !Kung rituals provide a community bonding experience as well as serve as medical services to the community. The spiritual leaders in the !Kung are considered diviners and healers. The healer uses spells to both heal and communicate with their ancestors. Dancing and ceremonial smoking are the only type of religious ceremonies that the !Kung have. They believe that their ancestors are involved in curing ritual. For example, "the healing dance". this dance happens annually, as a way to rid star sickness Around the fire, woman of the tribe will clap and sing to keep the healers safe.While the men will dance around the fire. Then thy will start in a trance like state, and will begin to cry. which is believed to be the evil spirit leaving the body of the men.

Religion is also a very important aspect of the !kung. They do believe in the traditional religions mainly Christianity. they also believe in symbols of religion, like we believe in the cross, but our cross is basically compared to the healers, who talk to the dead. the healers are very important because it bring the community of the tribe together. This happens because the entertainment is religion, it lets them rely on each other also for success and survival in the rituals, for example the woman support the male healers. so they can perform the rituals properly.

Animals also play a big part in religion, .a preying mantis is seen as evil to the tribe because they belong to the greater god, so the kung fear the mantis, as well as millipedes are seen to work with the greater god in the eyes of the tribe. So they are also avoided because if a person harms or kills one of those animals it is believed that they will die because of it, or the harvest will be ruined


N.p. n.d. "!Kung - Cultural Anthropology @ KSU." !Kung - Cultural Anthropology @ KSU.

N.p. n.d. “!Kung San: Religion.” !Kung San: Religion.

Marriage and How It Changes

Marriage is an ever changing concept in the !Kung tribes. Men and women alike can decide whether to marry, divorce, or accept multiple wives. Each factor changes the dynamics of both the couple and the families involved. Marriage negotiations often starts between two families with children of marrying age, which is between twenty and thirty for men but sixteen or seventeen for women. It use to be between ten and twelve but as their culture as a whole has changed so have their traditions for marriage. Arranged marriages are never done with first of kin, even first cousins; marriages are also often done between people from varying geographic areas (Shostak and Nisa 2000). Husbands and wives must also meet specific requirements that each family desires. Favorable traits for men are being unmarried, mildly young, having excellent gathering and hunting skills, a family friend, and accepting of the responsibilities bestowed on him by his new family. A wife's favorable traits are being young, industrious, and fertile. After negotiations and the ceremony are finished and if the bride is still young the husband will move into his wife's village until she is old enough to move away. This can cause the husband's family to compete with the wife's for the couple's attention and resources (Shostak and Nisa 2000). These changes from the bride living with her parents to moving in with her new husband can be traumatic, especially if she is still perceived as a child by herself or her tribe. But a !Kung girl must menstruate, marry, and bear children before she may be considered a "woman." The change in status allows for her to have more influence in her community as well as the families she's involved with (Shostak and Nisa 2000).

Menstruation is a key part in the woman's changing status but also a strong way to increase bonds with other women. This part of a woman's life has its own rituals surrounding it and if they are not followed correctly then the girl could be subject to the immediate termination of the ceremony and humiliation. The ceremony requires the girl to remain motionless and silent until other women of the tribe find her. They then place her in a hut, cover her, and don't allow her to talk to anyone until her cycle is over; that is because the first menstruation is viewed as a spiritual vision. The women who have already passed through the cycle dance outside the hut in joy that another girl is transforming and joining their ranks. However if the girl is seen by a man before her cycle is complete she will be subjected to her belongings taken away and her head shaved (Shostak and Nisa 2000).

The marriage ceremony is modest and gifts are exchanged before it even takes place; the ceremony itself includes building a hut for the new couple, festivities, a night solely for the bride and groom, and marriage oil rubbed on them by their mothers. If the woman was hesitate about marrying the man and still feels that the marriage is incompatible she may divorce him if there is a group consensus between her and her family. Since there is no legal procedure divorce runs rather smoothly. Property isn't shared and the children often stay with the mother. The newly eligible man and women would then look for new spouses and continue with their lives (Shostak and Nisa 2000). If the dissatisfied wife doesn't find support for the divorce she may threaten suicide with poison arrows or running into the bush. By voicing her emotions so strongly the divorce usually occurs soon after (Shostak and Nisa 2000).

A major reason for divorce is when a man takes multiple wives. When a man searches for a second or third wife he must often include his first wife in the discussion. If not, it could lead to quarrels between the individuals and force one or more of the wives to divorce the husband due to sexual or emotional jealousy. A first wife may feel insecure sharing her husband especially when she is young. However a wife may even propose a polygamous marriage if she feels herself aging and requires more help with chores like gathering water or tending to the children. A senior wife has more control over the newer wives but the junior wives have no control over the first wife. With all the changes the occur intragenerational-  within a person's lifetime- it is no wonder that customs and traditions of the !Kung are always changing (Shostak and Nisa 2000).

Shostak, Marjorie, and Nisa, eds. 2000. Nisa, the Life and Words of a !Kung Woman. Cambridge Mass. Harvard University Press. (Retrieved from eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) on October 10, 2015.)