Eating Christmas in the Kalahari
Abstraction
Richard Borshay Lee was a societal anthropologist that had lived with and studied the southern Tswana folk. In “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari” Richard Borshay Lee introduces us to some really utile techniques in societal scientific discipline. What he decided to make was take portion in an ox Christmas celebration. Mr. Lee felt he had to give a gift because the tribal community thought he was a miser, this was due to the fact the Mr. Lee had been at that place for rather some clip and ne’er shared his nutrient. Being Christmas and both sides believing in this religious vacation, he felt obligated to portion. Ultimately, his beliefs does non co-occur with the! Kung people and we witness the power of socialising agents.
Even though Mr. Lee had lived with and was engaged in every portion of the! Kung people’s lives, he was still an foreigner and foreigner to the society. It seems after Mr. Lee decided to go to the ox Christmas festival, he felt it would be a nice gesture to purchase an ox to eat at the jubilation. Among the! Kungs, the slaughtering of an ox is a usage. After taking the ox to convey to the festival, the Bushmen started kicking and naming the ox old and scraggy. To Mr. Lee, the ox looked large, fat and perfect for the Christmas jubilation and the reaction of the! Kung Bushmen people leave him really insulted. His feelings and how he perceived the Bushmen’s reaction was probably founded on his ain civilization, where people are supposed to appreciate other people’s generousness no affair the result. But to the Bushmen, giving an ox was no more than what they normally do every twenty-four hours, and was nil particular. After confer withing with cultural experts, Mr. Lee discovers the native’s point of view. In the! kung’s civilization, things such as gifts and generousness are appreciated. However, it is non easy shown and ever behind closed doors. Their cultural belief is that it will do more injury to praise any single even for a occupation good done. They believe by hiking someone’s self-importance it will finally swell his pride to the point where he may kill person. The! Kung’s endurance is based on their consciousness of the environment around them and how people act and think in the society. This I think would be a good thing every bit long as people were non taken for granted.
Why did the! kung people’s abuse bother Mr. Lee so extensively? I feel the anthropologist thought he had gone through so much to take, and purchase the ox for the! Kungs merely to be ridiculed for his attempts. Lee eventually received the message of what the! Kungs were seeking to set out, and this was the construct that there is some motor behind every gift and somehow, somehow the gift will be repaid. However, I must differ with this construct and disagree with the! Kungs.
This is supported by the fact, every twenty-four hours I see many charitable Acts of the Apostless, and the people that are giving, have no purpose of having congratulations or anything in return. There are many cultural regulations about gift giving in our society. Gifts in our society are given in jubilations and particular occasions. Normally in our society, the sum spent on the gift is based on the rarity or the size of the event taking topographic point. Mr. Lee’s views brought on by his ain cultural beliefs, left him experiencing inadequate and insulted. But to the! Kungs, it was an mundane happening and reaction.
To understand the! kungs is to understand and accept people of different civilizations. This is dually noted in the above paragraphs. The! Kungs who live in the Kalahari were raised rather otherwise than person who grew up in the society we live in today. In accepting gifts in our state, we ever say thank you and how much we appreciate it. This congratulations gives us a feeling of haughtiness knowing that the receiving system truly likes our gift. In different civilizations there are different guidelines. The people of the! kung folk think severely of persons that show arrogance. To extinguish these features in the kids, they were raised to mock and do merriment of others while making things such as hunting and feasible activities. And by stating Mr. Lee that his ox was scraggy and old, they were finally making him a enormous favour harmonizing to their cultural beliefs. As in contrast to our beliefs that features such as bulling and mocking is really incorrect. However sometimes in our society we see arrogance as a negative quality but it is non ever discouraged in the same mode.
Agents of Socialization was a strong influence in the article that Mr. Lee wrote. The feeling of being insulted merely came from his ain insufficiencies and the manner he was taught in his society. His position while being among the folk was less than in his ain society and besides contributed to his feelings. His cultural values were really different than that of the! Kung people, and in clip he came to understand and accept their attitudes learned as a societal group. He realized that even though it was a jubilation known to people of his civilization, it could besides prolong a portion of the! Kung folk. This is a certification of another case of how different societies of people distinguish themselves from one another with certain imposts and differences, and how they conduct themselves socially.
Mentions
Scavetta, Charlene ( February 22, 2009 ) . “ Eating Christmas in the Kalahari ” , Richard Borshay Lee. . retrieved 9/23/2014, from Athropology 1001 Web Site: hypertext transfer protocol: //scavettacharlene.blogspot.com/2009/02/eating-christmas-in-kalahari-richard.html
ThatPresence ( December 2005 ) . Eating Christmas in the Kalahari. retrieved 9/23/2014, from StudyMode.com Web Site: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.studymode.com/essays/Eating-Christmas-In-The-Kalahari-74594.html
Ontaneda, Ana ( February 22, 2009 ) . Eating Christmas in the Kalahari. retrieved 9/23/2014, from anthropology Web Site: hypertext transfer protocol: //unam0ur.blogspot.com/2009/02/ana-ontaneda-february-22-2009-ant-1001.html
