Following the article ‘Eating Christmas’ by Richard Borshay Lee

              Have you ever read the article Eating Christmas by Richard Borshay Lee? After reading this article I found myself utterly intrigued by the society of people he describes. They are completely different than what we consider ‘modern’ culture and embrace negativity within their lives because it helps to keep them humble in a way that will prevent a person from feeling superior to others. The Bushmen people of the Kalahari are truly remarkable in the way they represent themselves and take care of one another. They survived on very little food and were simply thankful they at least had clean water. They would criticize each other when one caaught big game and ridicule the effort put into it. They do this, not because they are trying to be mean or make each other feel bad, but to enforce humility because in a place like theirs, a life like theirs, they cannot afford to have someone feel more superior than the others. It could cause arguments, fights, or a war among the people. They ridicule each other for their own safety and to ensure that everyone coexists peacefully together. This is their way of creating an organic solidarity, a collective consciousness resting on the need a society’s members have for each other (1).  No one gets upset over these trivial remarks and everyone knows how to retort back or agree when it is needed. They exist with one simple rule, mechanical solidarity, in which all individuals perform the same tasks (1). In this way, no one feels more superior or inferior to anyone else. These people would be considered Gemeinschaft, a small community in which people have similar backgrounds and life experiences (1). It is because they are a small community of people and their ways of living are so unique that they must learn to work together in a way that we would consider ‘abnormal’.

            When this article, Eating Christmas, was written the Bushmen people relied on each other to hunt for game and take care of one another. Often times they couldn’t find much to eat and if a reporter came in, such as Richard Borshay Lee, they would feel that they were holding out on them. Their thought process was this, “Why should they come onto our land and live well, eat well while we can scarcely find food to feed ourselves?” I believe in the article Richard speaks of sharing on occasion, but if he got upset with them (and often times he did) he would refuse to give them anything. In one way, the Bushmen people disliked him because of this. But, at the same time they would not kick him out or get angry with him for fear of losing the food that they so needed, that at times he granted.

            After reading Richard’s article I started to do my own research on these people. As it turns out, most of them no longer live on their reservation and the one’s that do are not permitted to hunt. They are given government provided shares of food and if they are caught trying to hunt they get arrested and beaten. People invaded the Kalahari when they discovered diamonds in the reserve. They kicked the Bushmen out of their homes, which they then destroyed, closed down their school and health post and destroyed their only water supply. The ones who did not return to the reserve after this intrusion now live in resettlement camps on the outskirts of their original land. Many of them now suffer from alcoholism, boredom, depression, TB, and HIV/AIDS (2). Their unique societies and way of living are gradually being destroyed. They were even being refused access of their old borehole, water hole. To top off this atrocity that is being done to them, the government has created new boreholes for the wildlife only, while the Bushmen are suffering from dehydration. While the people of this land are searching for new water supplies and trying to dig up new boreholes of their own, visitors are sipping martinis at a swimming pool in a nearby camp.

            These are the indigenous people of southern Africa we are talking about here. They have been stripped of any rights that they originally had to their land and if caught disobeying the law set down they are arrested and beaten, often times killed. There are over 100, 000 Bushmen still living today but they are just barely getting by with the rations they are given and the little water supply they have found. I find this to be absolutely disdainful in my opinion and someone needs to do something about this. On the second article I read they were trying to collect money for the Bushmen people and writing letters to their government. However, I find this to be a worthless pursuit. Bushmen don’t need money, what will they buy except a ticket out of there? And the Kalahari government certainly isn’t going to listen to our inquiries when they won’t even take proper care of their own people. I don’t know what should be done. But, these people are being mistreated and abused and I see no reason why they should be.

References:

1. Richard T. Shaeffer (2012). Sociology. New York, New York: William Glass. 

2. Stephen Corry (2004). The Bushmen. Retrieved from http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/bushmen