The Kung Bushmen are a centerpiece of the ancient world

The Kung Bushmen are the indigenous tribe of the Kalahari Desert. They are a nomadic, primitive culture and the oldest known to man. The Kung Bushmen’s culture is said to be about a 100,000 years old. Being a very nonviolent, isolated people have made the Bushmen one of the most mysterious cultures in existence. Yet, isolation has alienated the Bushmen from the entire world, leaving them oblivious to the evolution of modern man.

The Bushmen are a short people with yellowish brown skin, which is known to wrinkle at a young age. Their life expectancy is not long; the Bushmen only live for about forty to fifty years. If a Bushmen lives for more than sixty years, he/she is highly respected because reaching this age is highly unlikely.

The religious practices of the Bushmen

The Bushmen use a method of trance to channel spirits and cure diseases; they are the equivalent of shaman. The Bushmen are said to welcome the state of the trance with a rhythmic dance, therefore releasing the sickness. It is also believed that these shaman channel spirits of elders who have passed on, and sometimes, the Bushmen seek the spirit of animals in trance. Although, these beliefs are strange to everyday society, the Bushmen’s power of healing has been highly regarded. For the Bushmen do not experience most of the ailments of societal man. The shamans are very superstitious in nature. If an elder dies in a certain area, the superstitious shamans will never inhabit that area again.

Its takes a village to raise a child

The women of the Bushmen culture are highly regarded for their methods of motherhood. They are said to keep the children with them constantly. These strong women gather food and cook, even when pregnant. Even though, the birth of a child is not celebrated as in the Western culture, the female Bushmen are said to be inseparable from their children, until the age of four. It is a part of Bushmen female culture to carry children on their back, using a rope or piece of fabric as a brace. In addition, these phenomenal women go right back to work after childbirth. Even though men are dominant in some aspects of their culture, the Bushmen women’s opinion takes precedence when it comes to issues of food gathering, cooking, and raising children.

Bushmen hunting skills

Being a nomadic people, the Bushmen are very skilled in hunting and very strategic in managing resources. The men use spears and arrows to hunt. The speeds at which the Bushmen shoot arrows are, at times, compared to bullets. Being as though, the Bushmen live in a desert climate; food is sometimes scarce due to drought. Yet, the nomadic activity of these people has afforded them the ability to move quickly, especially when natural resources are almost depleted. When moving, the Bushmen have to be careful not to run into other Bushmen clans. A clan can occupy about 20,000 miles of land, and if there are no neighboring clans, the territory can be larger. Even though the other clans speak Bantu and are native to the Kalahari, they do not speak the same dialect, and can only communicate on basic levels. These other clans are sometimes violent and do not always welcome fellow Bushmen tribes.

Recent trials of the Bushmen

In recent times, the Kalahari has been taken over by Westerners, and the Bushmen’s territory has been turned into a tourist reserve. Their homes were removed and the Bushmen were taken to government camps. This makes it difficult for the Bushmen to carry on their primitive way of life, because hunting is prohibited, causing a culture shock to most Bushmen. The Bushmen’s inexperience in modern day society has left them victim to alcoholism and the AIDS virus. Even though the Bushmen were allowed to take over their once native land, they have returned to the Kalahari with new world problems.

In essence, the Bushmen are not just a people, but a natural resource in the sense that they have been around since the beginning of time. In a world where natural resources are depleted constantly, it is amazing that the Bushmen are still around. This factor gives hope to mankind, and brings new light to the meaning of basic. It also shows a world of people who have survived, blissfully ignorant of the Western world’s culture.