Culture of the KhoiSan
Rock Art
http://www.stanford.edu/~jbaugh/saw/...ry/RockArt.JPG
http://www.tourismnorthwest.co.za/ma...rt_bushmen.jpg
http://fotosa.ru/stock_photo/Animals/p_66845.jpg
http://www.thinkingthreads.com/rock_art_gallery.html
http://www.vilasart.co.uk/images/lis.../Fisherman.jpg
http://www.palmswift.com/images/bush...t-grafitti.jpg
http://www.discovercapetown.com/images/bushman%201.jpg
SPECIMENS OF BUSHMAN FOLKLORE
BY
W. H. I. BLEEK AND L. C. LLOYD
The Mantis Assumes The Form Of A Hartebeest
!Gaunu-Tsaxau (The Son Of The Mantis), The Baboons, And The Mantis
The Story Of The Leopard Tortoise.
The Children Are Sent To Throw The Sleeping Sun Into The Sky.
The Origin Of Death; Preceded By A Prayer Addressed To The Young Moon.
The Moon Is Not To Be Looked At When Game Has Been Shot.
The Girl Of The Early Race, Who Made Stars.
The Great Star, !Gaunu, Which, Singing, Named The Stars.
What The Stars Say, And A Prayer To A Star.
!Ko-G!nuing-Tara, Wife Of The Dawn's-Heart Star, Jupiter.
The Son Of The Wind.
The Wind.
#Kaga'Ra And !Haunu, Who Fought Each Other With Lightning.
The Hyena's Revenge. First Version.
The Hyena's Revenge. Second Version.
The Lion Jealous Of The Voice Of The Ostrich.
The Resurrection Of The Ostrich.
The Vultures, Their Elder Sister, And Her Husband.
Ddi-Xerreten, The Lioness, And The Children.
THE ORIGIN OF DEATH; PRECEDED BY A PRAYER ADDRESSED TO THE YOUNG MOON.
We, when the Moon has newly returned alive, when another person has shown us the Moon, we look towards the place at which the other has shown us the Moon, and, when we look thither, we perceive the Moon, and when we perceive it, we shut our eyes with our hands, we exclaim: "!kabbi-a yonder! Take my face yonder! Thou shalt give me thy face yonder! Thou shalt take my face yonder! That which does not feel pleasant. Thou shalt give me thy face,--(with) which thou, when thou hast died, thou dost again, living return, when we did not perceive thee, thou dost again lying down come,--that I may also resemble thee. For, the joy yonder, thou dost always possess it yonder, that is, that thou art wont again to return alive, when we did not perceive thee; while the hare told thee about it, that thou shouldst do thus. Thou didst formerly say, that we should also again return alive, when we died."
The hare was the one who thus did. He spoke, he said, that he would not be silent, for, his mother would not again living return; for his mother was altogether dead. Therefore, he would cry greatly for his mother.
The Moon replying, said to the hare about it that the hare should leave off crying; for, his mother was not altogether dead. For, his mother meant that she would again living return. The hare replying, said that he was not willing to be silent; for, he know that his mother would not again return alive. For, she was altogether dead.
And the Moon became angry about it, that the hare[1] spoke thus, while he did not assent to him (the Moon). And he hit with his fist, cleaving the hare's mouth; and while he hit the hare's mouth with his fist, he exclaimed: "This person, his mouth which is here, his mouth shall altogether be like this, even -when he is a hare;[2] he shall always bear a scar on his niouth; he shall spring away, he shall do-doubling (?) come back. The dogs shall chase him; they shall, when they have caught him, they shall grasping tear him to pieces,[3] he shall altogether die.
"And they who are men, they shall altogether dying go away, when they die.[4] For, he was not
[1. It was a young male hare, the narrator explained.
2. The hare had also been a person; but, the Moon cursed him, ordering that he should altogether become a hare.
3. Or, bite, tearing him to pieces.
4. The people shall, when they die, they shall altogether dying go away; while they do not again living return. For the hare was the one who thus spoke; he said that his mother would not again living return.]
willing to agree with me, when I told him about it, that he should not cry for his mother; for, his mother would again live; he said to me, that, his mother would not again living return. Therefore, he shall altogether become a hare. And the people, they shall altogether die. For, he was the one who said that his mother would not again living return. I said to him about it, that they (the people) should also be like me; that which I do; that I, when I am dead, I again living return. He contradicted me, when I had told him about it."
Therefore, our mothers said to me, that the hare was formerly a man; when he had acted in this manner, then it was that the Moon cursed him, that he should altogether become a hare. Our mothers told me, that, the hare has human flesh at his ||katten-ttu[1]; therefore, we, when we have killed a hare, when we intend to eat the hare, we take out the "biltong flesh"[2] yonder, which is human flesh, we leave it; while we feel that he who is the hare, his flesh it is not. For, flesh (belonging to) the time when he formerly was a man, it is.
Therefore, our mothers were not willing for us to eat that small piece of meat; while they felt that it is this piece of meat with which the hare was formerly a man. Our mothers said to us about it, did we not feel that our stomachs were uneasy if we
[1. The meaning of ||katten-ttu is not yet clear; and the endeavors to obtain a hare, that it might be exactly ascertained from the Bushmen which piece of meat was meant, were unsuccesful. The ttu at the end of the word shows that some sort of hollow of the human body is indicated.
Since these sheets have gone to press, Dr. J.N.W. Loubser, to whom I had applied for information regarding this particular piece of meat, was so good as to send me the following lines, accompanied by a diagram, which unfortunately it was already too late for me to include in the illustrations for this volume:--
"As regards the 'biltong flesh', I have often watched my mother cutting biltong, and know that each leg of beef contains really only one real biltong, i.e. the piece of flesh need not be cut into the usual oblong shape, bat has this a priori. In other words, it is a muscle of this form. From my anatomical knowledge I can only find it to correspond to the museulus bicelis femoris of the man. It will therefore be a muscle sitting rather high up the thigh (B of Figure)."
2. The narrator explained |kwaii to be "biltong flesh " (i.e., lean meat that can be cut into strips and sun-dried, making "biltong").]
ate that little piece of meat, while we felt that it was human flesh; it is not hare's flesh; for, flesh which is still in the hare it is; while it feels that the hare was formerly a man. Therefore, it is still in the hare; while the hare's doings are those on account of which the Moon cursed us; that we should altogether die. For, we should, when we died, we should have again living returned; the hare was the one who did not assent to the Moon, when the Moon was willing to talk to him about it; he contradicted the Moon.
Therefore, the Moon spoke, he said: "Ye who are people, ye shall, when ye die, altogether dying vanish away. For, I said, that, ye should, when ye died, ye should again arise, ye should not altogether die. For, I, when I am dead, I again living return. I had intended, that, ye who are men, ye should also resemble me (and) do the things that I do; that I do not altogether dying go away. Ye, who are men, are those who did this deed; therefore, I had thought that I (would) give you joy. The hare, when I intended to tell him about it,--while I felt that I knew that the hare's mother had not really died, for, she slept,--the hare was the one who said to me, that his mother did not sleep; for, his mother had altogether died. These were the things that I became angry about; while I had thought that the hare would say: 'Yes; my mother is asleep.'"
For, on account of these things, he (the Moon) became angry with the hare; that the hare should have spoken in this manner, while the hare did not say: "Yes, my mother lies sleeping; she will presently arise." If the hare had assented to the Moon, then, we who are people, we should have resembled the Moon; for, the Moon had formerly said, that we should not altogether die. The hare's doings were those on account of which the Moon cursed us, and we die altogether; on account of the story which the hare was the one who told him. That story is the one on account of which we altogether die (and) go away; on account of the hare's doings; when he was the one who did not assent to the Moon; when the Moon intended to tell him about it; he contradicted the Moon, when the Moon intended to tell him about it.
The Moon spoke, saying that he (the hare) should lie upon a bare place; vermin should be those who were biting him, at the place where he was lying; he should not inhabit the bushes; for, he should lie upon a bare place; while he did not lie under a tree. He should be lying upon a bare place. Therefore, the hare is used, when he springs up, he goes along shaking his head; while he shakes out, making to fall the vermin from his head, in which the vermin had been hanging; while he feels that the vermin hung abundantly in his head. Therefore, he shakes his head, so that the other vermin may fall out for him.
(This, among the different versions of the Moon and Hare story called "The Origin of Death", has been selected on account of the prayer to the young Moon with which it begins.)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/sbf/
Early Inhabitants of Kalahari Region of Sub-Saharan Africa
The Bushmen, early inhabitants of Africa, believe that they will be punished by God if they misuse the environment. In their long history there is no evidence that the Khoisan have ever needlessly exploited nature and some experts have actually described them as the worlds greatest conservationists.
The Khoisan were dispersed over an area stretching from Walvis Bay in Namibia to the Zambezi Valley and then southward into South Africa, as far as the coastal town of today's Port Elizabeth. Having run foul of other black tribes and white colonialists over the decades, the Khoisan are now mostly concentrated in the Kalahari in Namibia and Botswana, and number between 30 000 and 55 000 people.
Physical Characteristics and Language
The San are small people with yellow-brown skin and small hands and feet. Culturally they are divided into the hunter gatherer San (or Bushmen) and the pastoral Khoi (formerly known as Hottentots). The Khoisan languages are famous for their click consonants.
Bushman Way of Life
Bushman or Khoisan way of life was very simple, they would live in small family groups with no leader or chief. The older members of the tribe gave advice and taught the children anything they needed to know. They had a nomadic lifestyle and depended on nature to survive.
The bushman groups, however did not wander aimlessly or relentlessly to pursue herds of antelope. Instead, they followed a carefully planned annual route that took them to different areas of plant food, as season by season, these foods ripened.
The Khoisan bushmen are known for their legendary ability to track game and for their endurance and stamina on the hunt. The men would hunt by tracking an animal footprint in the ground and darting the animal with a poisoned arrow. Arrows were made or stone or bone and poison would be either snake, scorpion or spider venom or be made from poisonous roots, bark or berries.
The Khoisan bushmen also dug holes near the larger rivers where the game came to drink, in the center of which was planted a sharp-pointed stake. The traps were covered with branches which resulted in the animals walking over the pit and falling onto the stake.
For catching small animals such as hares, guinea fowls or small antelope, snares made of twisted gut or fiber from plants were used. Whatever was caught would be taken back to the camp and shared with everyone, the rest of the meat was dried. No part of the animal was wasted. The skin would be used for loin cloths and karosses (cloaks made of hide), the fat would be rubbed on their bodies and the bones used for decoration or to construct new weapons.
The San women and children would scour the desert for plants, berries, bulbs, insects, wild melons or roots which would be dug out of the earth with a digging stick. The women were to gather sticks for fires and make a rough shelter if there were no caves.
The hallmark of the Khoisan bushman social attitudes is their utter belief in co-operation within the family, between clans and within nature itself. Their customs are geared to exclude anything that causes personal antagonism. There was and still is, therefore, no ownership of property.
Bushman Art, Crafts, Paintings
The Bushmen are well known for their dancing and music and their ability to mimic birds and animals. Their rock art paintings have stood the test of time. These beautiful paintings and etchings can be seen in rock shelters and caves all over southern Africa.
The techniques they employed by these San artists are largely unknown. The few painters actually encountered by Europeans used about ten differently colored paints which they kept in small gourds hanging from their waists.
The ingredients varied with the locality but in general, charcoal provided the black, white came from kaolin or bird droppings, and red came from iron-oxide or weathered hematite. The mixing medium was a speciality of each artist. Some chose to use animal fat, others resins, milk or rock salts. The brushes were soft bones, teased-out twigs, feathers or other natural fibers.
The Khoisan traditional way of life is gradually going extinct although many attempts have been made to preserve their unique lifestyle and ways. Tourists can see the way they lived at the Etosha Game Reserve in Namibia, to a small extent they still live a traditional lifestyle in Botswana.
http://cultural-anthropology.suite10...outhern_africa
The Khoisan languages
The Khoisan languages (also known as the Khoesan or Khoesaan languages) are the click languages of Africa, which do not belong to other language families. They include languages indigenous to southern and eastern Africa, though some, such as the Khoi languages, appear to have moved to their current locations not long before the Bantu expansion.[1] In southern Africa their speakers are the Khoi and Bushmen (Saan), in east Africa the Sandawe and Hadza. Many people were exposed to a Khoisan language through the actor Nǃxau in the 1980 film The Gods Must Be Crazy.
Prior to the Bantu expansion, it is likely that Khoisan languages, or languages like them, were spread throughout southern and eastern Africa. They are currently restricted to the Kalahari Desert, primarily in Namibia and Botswana, and to the Rift Valley in central Tanzania.[2]
Most of the languages are endangered, and several are moribund or extinct. Most have no written record. The only widespread Khoisan language is Nama of Namibia, with a quarter of a million speakers; Sandawe in Tanzania is second in number with about 40,000, some monolingual; and the Juu language cluster of the northern Kalahari is spoken by some 30,000 people.
Hadza
Main article: Hadza language
With about 800 speakers in Tanzania, Hadza appears to be unrelated to any other language; genetically, the Hadza people are unrelated to the Khoisan peoples of Southern Africa, and their closest relatives may be among the Pygmies of Central Africa.
[edit]Sandawe
Main article: Sandawe language
There is some indication that Sandawe (about 40,000 speakers in Tanzania) may be related to the Khoe-Kwadi family, such as a congruent pronominal system and some good Swadesh-list matches, but not enough to establish regular sound correspondences. The Sandawe are not related to the Hadza, despite their proximity.
[edit]Khoe
Main article: Khoe languages
The Khoe family is both the most numerous and diverse family of Khoisan languages, with seven living languages and over a quarter million speakers. Although little data is available, proto-Kwadi-Khoe reconstructions have been made for pronouns and some basic vocabulary. However, the Kwadi connection is not accepted by all Khoesanists.
? Kwadi-Khoe
Kwadi. Extinct, Angola.
Khoe
Khoekhoe This branch appears to have been affected by the Juu-Tuu sprachbund.
Nama (270,000 speakers. Ethnonyms Khoekhoen, Nama, Damara. A dialect cluster including ǂAakhoe and Haiǁom)
Eini (Extinct.)
South Khoekhoe
Korana (6+ speakers. Moribund.)
Xiri (90 speakers. Moribund. A dialect cluster.)
Tshu-Khwe (or Kalahari) Many of these languages have undergone partial click loss.
East Tshu-Khwe (East Kalahari)
Shua (6000 speakers. A dialect cluster including Deti, Tsʼixa, ǀXaise, and Gandi)
Tsoa (7300 speakers. A dialect cluster including Cire Cire and Kua)
West Tshu-Khwe (West Kalahari)
Kxoe (9000 speakers. A dialect cluster including ǁAni and Buga)
Naro (14,000 speakers. A dialect cluster.)
Gǁana-Gǀwi (4500 speakers. A dialect cluster including Gǁana, Gǀwi, and ǂHaba)
A Haiǁom language is listed in most Khoisan references. A century ago the Haiǁom people spoke a Ju dialect, probably close to ǃKung, but they now speak a divergent dialect of Nama. Thus their language is variously said to be extinct or to have 18,000 speakers, to be Ju or to be Khoe. (Their numbers have been included under Nama above.) They are known as the Saa by the Nama, and this is the source of the word San.
[edit]Tuu
Main article: Tuu languages
The Tuu family consists of two language clusters, which are related to each other at about the distance of Khoekhoe and Tshukhwe within Khoe. They are typologically very similar to the Juu languages (below), but have not been demonstrated to be related to them genealogically. (The similarities may be an areal feature.)
Tuu
Taa
ǃX (4200 speakers. A dialect cluster.)
Lower Nossob (Two dialects, ǀʼAuni and ǀHaasi. Extinct.)
ǃKwi
Nǁng (A dialect cluster. Moribund, with 8 Nǀu speakers.)
ǀXam (A dialect cluster. Extinct.)
ǂUngkue (A dialect cluster. Extinct.)
ǁXegwi (Extinct.)
[edit]Juu-ǂHoan
Main article: Juu-ǂHoan languages
The Juu-ǂHoan family is a distant relationship, only recently proposed, that is being increasingly accepted.
Juu-ǂHoan
ǂH (200 speakers, Botswana. Moribund.)
Juu (also ǃKung, formerly Northern Khoisan) is a single dialect cluster. (~45,000 speakers.) Well known dialects are ǃKung (ǃXũũ), Juǀʼhoan, and ǂKxʼauǁʼein.
[edit]Other "Click Languages"
Further information: Click consonant
Not all languages using clicks as phonemes are considered Khoisan. Most are neighboring Bantu languages in southern Africa: the Nguni languages Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi, Phuthi, and Ndebele; Sotho; Yeyi in Botswana; and Mbukushu, Kwangali, and Gciriku in the Caprivi Strip. Of these, Xhosa, Zulu, and Yeyi have intricate systems of click consonants; the others, despite the click in the name Gciriku, more rudimentary ones. There is also the South Cushitic language Dahalo in Kenya, which has dental clicks in a few score words, and an extinct northern Australian ritual language called Damin, which had only nasal clicks.
The Bantu languages adopted the use of clicks from neighboring, displaced, or absorbed Khoisan populations, often through intermarriage, while the Dahalo are thought to have retained clicks from an earlier language when they shifted to speaking a Cushitic language; if so, the pre-Dahalo language may have been something like Hadza or Sandawe. Damin is an invented ritual language, and has nothing to do with Khoisan.
"Click Language" and the San Bushmen people
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c246fZ-7z1w
Ancient bushmen langauge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCjm1Jv29pE
ANCIENT KALAHARI BUSHMAN TRIBAL SONG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a6gShIToSQ
Khoikhoi mythology
This is a summary of some of the gods, heroes and monsters that appear in the beliefs of the Khoikhoi, an ethnic group from southern Africa.
Gods and heroes
"Tsui" redirects here. For the surname, see Xu (surname).
Tsui Goab (|Kaang, |Kaggen, Khub, Nanub) was the supreme being, the celestial god of the Khoikhoi. An alternative Khoikhoi sky god was Utixo, also known by Xhosa.
Gaunab, Gunab, or Gamab - god or spirit of evil. He is also a god of fate and death. He fought with Tsui Goab and eventually was defeated by him.
Heitsi-eibib (Kabip) - was a mythical ancestor hero. One of the most famous heroes, he was the offspring of a cow and some magical grass that the cow ate. He was a legendary hunter, sorcerer and warrior, who most notably killed the Ga-gorib (see below). He was also a life-death-rebirth figure, dying and resurrecting himself on numerous occasions; his funeral cairns are located in many locations in southern Africa. He is worshiped as a god of the hunt.
[edit]Monsters
[edit]Aigamuxa/Aigamuchab
Aigamuxa, a man-eating, dune-dwelling creature that is mostly human-looking, except that it has eyes on the instep of its feet. In order to see, it has to go down on its hands and knees and lift its one foot in the air. This is a problem when the creature chases prey, because it has to run blind. Some sources claim the creature resembles an ogre.
[edit]Ga-gorib
Ga-gorib, a legendary monster who sat by a deep hole in the ground and dared passers-by to throw rocks at him. The rocks would bounce off and kill the passer-by, who then fell into the hole. When the hero Heitsi-eibib encountered Ga-gorib, he declined the monster's dare. When Ga-gorib was not looking, Heitsi-eibib threw a stone at the monster and hit it below its ear, causing it to fall in its own pit.
In an alternate version of this story, Ga-gorib chased Heitsi-eibib around the hole until the hero slipped and fell inside. Heitsi-eibib eventually escaped and, after a struggle, was able to push the monster into the pit.
Gorib is "the spotted one" (meaning leopard, cheetah, or leguaan) in Central Khoisan languages, so the Ga-gorib probably has some connection with this formidable species. The element "ga-" remains to be explained. Possibly, it is a negative, "not-a-leopard", not only on comparative morphological grounds, but also because its adversary Heitsi-eibib has many symbolic connotations of the leopard, such as rain, stars and speckledness.
[edit]Hai-uri
Hai-uri, an agile, jumping creature who is partially-invisible and has only one side to its body (one arm and one leg). It eats humans and is comparable to the Tikdoshe of the Zulu people and the Chiruwi of Central Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoikhoi_mythology
Hoodia Gordonii
Habitat: Hoodia Gordonii grows primarily in the Kalahari desert of South Africa and also in Botswana, Namibia, and Angola.
Description:Hoodia is often mistaken for a cactus because of the resemblance but it is actually a succulent plant. Hoodia gordonii can grow up to 50 cm in height and it has fleshy, ribbed and thorny stems. It emits foul smell similar to rotten flesh to attract flies to the flowers to aid with pollination. The flowers that hoodia gordonii produces are purple and it can take up to five years for them to appear and then and only then can the plant be harvested. Because it takes such a long time until the plant can be harvested and it's scarceness, the commercial products made from it tend to be expensive.
Plant Parts Used The fleshy part of the stem. The bushmen of the Kalahari desert, also known by the name "khoi-San", used hoodia gordonii for thousands of years to ward of hunger and thirst while hunting and looking for food. The active ingredient in hoodia cordonii is called p57, a steroidal glycoside, and it is this ingredient that is thought to suppress appetite.
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