Consuming christmas inside the kalahari

In his article “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari” (1969), Richard Borshay Lee tells of his three years put in living with the! Kung San Bushmen, of some of their traditions, of how they will celebrated Christmas and of how they dealt with ‘gifts’ or rather his gift to them specifically.

Lee clarifies that the local people thought him a miser because he “maintained a two-month inventory of canned goods” (p 111) which was in direct contrast to the Men “who almost never had a day’s supply of food on hand”(p 111), and it appeared he was established to correct this kind of view.

Lee produces that it “is the Tswana-Herero custom of slaughtering an ox to get his Bushmen neighbours because an annual goodwill gesture” (p 111) in Christmas. By purchasing the Xmas ox for the Bushmen’s annual party himself, Lee hoped which it would be seen as an generous (parting) gesture, a ‘thank you’ for their assistance – as in Western tradition – and maybe also the catalyst pertaining to dispelling their particular view of him being a miser.

Shelter appears to want the reader to trust that he was confused about his failure to find the (expected) appreciation from your Bushmen intended for his generosity but was instead ridiculed intended for his selection of ox with sarcastic explanations such as; “scrawny” (p 112), “old wreck”(p 111), “sack of courage and bones”(p 111), “old”(p 111), “thin”(p 111) and “sick”(p 113). Lee even more leads all of us to believe that his misunderstandings became even more profound on christmas morning when the ox was slaughtered and was found to possess a thick part of fat covering the various meats. Although Shelter indicates that he felt vindicated in the choice of ox, the derision and whining continued through the entire slaughtering procedure.

Lee publishes articles that this individual later wanted clarification and explanation coming from several of the local people and was eventually advised that the Bushmen’s sarcasm or “obligatory insults over a kill”(p 114), was their ‘custom’ and was a mechanism used to prevent sportsman from having an overpriced ego and seeing themselves as much better than anyone else.

Excellent problem with Lee’s account inasmuch as I still find it extremely challenging if certainly not impossible to trust that after spending three years coping with and learning the lives, activities and customs with the Bushmen, Shelter had hardly ever once found, heard neither heard of this ‘custom’ and I would be loathe to place more than a token quantity of faith inside the honesty and correctness of this or any various other of his writings or observations therefore.

That the Bushmen included Shelter in their customs and constructed a joke about him at his expense are inclusionary actions that will normally show an acceptance into a group and I believe Lee’s writings were self-serving in that he wanted you to believe the Bushmen experienced thought remarkably enough of him to incorporate him and treat him as they will one of their own.

I likewise believe that Shelter has used liberties with the translations of your number of discussions with various persons in order for the reader to have no doubt about what it absolutely was that Lee himself wanted to convey. I really do not believe that words and terms including; “arrogance”(p 114), “hogging”(p 112), “nevertheless”(p 114), “scrawny” (p 112), “rascal”(p 113), “braggart”(p 113), “you have always been square with us” (p 111), “sack of guts and bones”(p 111), “old wreck”(p 111), “I suppose”(p 112), “feeling as we do”(p 112), “another one pipes up”(p 113), “you must act in response in kind”(p 114), are part of the native language while Lee will allege in the quotes of conversations together with the natives. These types of quotes happen to be peppered with language that is certainly more owing to a certain category of local of the UK, not one of the Kalahari.

From my personal reading of Lee’s document, I believe it really is nothing more than a poorly veiled attempt to increase his own importance in the mind of the reader and maybe even his peers. That stuff seriously Lee has done a huge disservice to not simply himself great own believability but also to that with the profession of anthropology. How much does Lee’s content say about his observational strengths during a call if after three years he fails to be aware what definitely seems to be a very

powerful and meaningful hunting custom?

In conclusion, I acknowledge to tallying with Lee’s statement “there are no entirely generous acts”(p 114). Just about every act of gift giving is with one another attached to an expected or perhaps preconceived return or reciprocity either in manner or perhaps kind and this may be just ‘feeling good’.

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REFERENCES:

Lee, Richard Borshay

1969 “Eating Holiday in the Kalahari” reprinted within a. Podolefsky and P. Dark brown (eds. ), Applying Social Anthropology: an introduction. (1991), Mountainview: Mayfield, pp. 110-114.

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