Video Assignment: “The Gods Must Be Crazy”
Stephanie Mata
November 30, 2010
Kate and Xi both live in opposite worlds, one lives in a society that is generally busy with people and is mostly made up with great advanced technology while the other community is very calm with great respect for the earth, people, and creatures around them. Xi was part of The Bushmen community and they mainly believed that taking more of their surroundings than needed to survive were very wrongful things do to. Therefore, they were very appreciative for what they were given on this earth and had a use for almost everything that benefited them for survival and happiness. The Bushmen were of the Hunter-Gatherer Society meaning that one would not rely on domestic resources to obtain edible food, plants, and even animals but they would use their own tools and advantages to attain such things.
In the movie, a glass coke bottle was thrown out of an airplane and fell on the village of the Bushmen. They then believed that it was a sign/gift from the gods and at first had much usage to the people easing their work, but then it caused anger and hate towards each other. Many of the violence in these types of societies are caused mostly by grudges (i.e. usage of Coke bottle) rather than for money, territorial, or economical beneficiary reasons like the civilization where Kate resides, in the Post Industrial Society. This type of society is mostly based on economy and going through series of changes in industrialization. For instance, in the film, Kate was working in a business type of industry where there are phones are ringing and business men in their suits holding their papers angrily. The people in the city have many different aspects of life than Xi and the Bushmen, their environments are both completely different, one filled with highways and the other filled with animals to gather for feasting for the family which is abnormal to those who go to the shopping center a few blocks away in their new vehicle. The lifestyle of the Bushmen has some similarities to those of the city however, without the economical greed for power.
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The Kalahari Desert is known for its very warm climate with exotic animals and people in it. Located on the plateau of South Africa, the Kalahari Desert is very vast and is made up of different species of animals, plants, and even homo-sapiens. There are numerous areas that are covered in the red sand without any permanent surface water; this causes it to be harder for humans and animals alike to survive in such weather. The Bushmen of the Kalahari would have to travel miles on foot to get water for them and their families, it would be such a struggle for them to obtain such a thing with the wild life creatures and the sun slowing them down in the process.
It is observed that the Bushmen are generally happy people; they do not take advantage of what they are given and are very appreciative of what they receive. The environment of the Kalahari Desert allows the Bushmen to hunt and gather for their food with bows and arrows. For example, the men would go out to and hunt an animal like a deer or antelope for their families to eat while the women prepare the meals, generally cooking, cleaning and tending for their children. The women would also gather exotic berries, plants, fruits, and nuts found in the desert for consumption or medical reasons like herbs and such.
By tradition, the people of Botswana generally live in groups which contain a large amount of family members. Using the branches of trees and grass, they would make temporary huts that are planted in a semi-circle that are closely together so that they would not be separated from their families and be easily hunted by the dangers of the Desert.
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Culturally there are many different aspects and features that the Bushmen and the city people share and differ from, not just the locations and environments themselves, but how they adapt to them as well. There are several ways that they connect and communicate with each other socially. For example you have language. The people in the city all spoke English in a very proper form. The Bushmen has a language that is conjoined with clicks and words to express what emotion they are trying to point out in the sentence.
There is also the Money and economy that is universally different between Xi’s and Kate’s environment. In the Kalahari Desert, the Bushmen do not use money and find it useless to them because they need not the use of trade. Yet in the modern society, that is what their world is based on and is needed to do almost anything to survive. The Bushmen also had to work for what they had received, but they would acquire it directly while the city people would have to have an occupation almost having to do nothing to do with what they desire and obtain the object by trade.
In the Film, Kate was assigned to become a teacher to educate the children of the Bushmen with more knowledge, like how to read, write and other skills to have a more developed and broad opinion on things and the outside world. Before the Americans stepped into the lives of the Southern Africans, there was no branches of education because to them it was unnecessary, they would have the things that they needed to survive and that was good enough for them, just to live and have to people around them to be happy with like their families and friends. It was thought as to be less of a worry and to really enjoy the nature and the life around them.
Cultural Relative is the view that moral or ethical systems, which vary from culture to culture, are all equally valid and no one system is really “better” than any other. Therefore is it based on that idea that there is no ultimate standard of good and evil. The rudeness in the footage in interpreted as cultural relative because of the tolerance of deviation between the different social groups. Being in different environments, where there are completely different rules, structure and fabrication, changes how one looks at the social group and even their own.
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Xi and Kate had a Social interaction where Xi encountered Kate when she was changing, she thought it was very rude to watch her dress because she is a woman and Xi is a man. However, Xi did not find it strange because in his culture, the women there do not wear as many layers of clothes as Kate does, they barley wear anything at all just like the men, wearing nothing to cover up their chest area and only a cloth around the bottom half of the body. Another encounter that they had was when Kate was trying to speak to Xi, he did not understand her so she walked away and Xi found it to be rude. This is because their cultures are different. Where Kate comes from, if you don’t respond to what one is saying that is considered as rude. Xi and Kate had considered each other as doing something that was “wrong”. However, there is no right and wrong because what is wrong to someone may be morally right to another depending on where they came from and what their culture consists of.
The terms Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are both Germen and can roughly be translated to “Community” and “Association”. The community that Xi lived in was a Gemeinschaft because of the small, rural, and tightly knit society that the Bushmen live in. They are individuals that moderate the division of labor, have strong relationships with their families by always staying and traveling together, and are very religious. Their beliefs are basically what they base their whole life around. Unlike America and the busy city people, they do have religion; however they still go on by their lives. For example, this man lives in a Gesellschaft community; therefore he has larger association around the businesses going around him rather than himself. Workers who do daily labors that can make them lose self interest because what their main goal is to make money and to be able to support the household. Therefore that can lead to forgetting of self morals and religion
The community that Xi lived in was a Hunter-Gatherer Society. Even though there are a few members due to the weather trying to adapt to the environment and lack of sources, they still lived efficiently. Their reliance on the natural environment is what makes them a part of the hunter-gatherer society. It is very similar to the modern family that we have now in the city. The man goes out and comes back with things to help the family survive and in the Bushmen’s case; they go out and hunt their own animals using bows and arrows made from the environment around them. Therefore they have no need of money and trade because everything that they need is right where they reside. Also the like the average American family, the women would prepare the meal and tend for the children.
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Culture Shock is the difficulty people have adjusting to a new culture that is very much different than their own. Only 600 miles down south from Botswana, there was a city that was filled with concrete and excess, these are two very different worlds but not that far away from each other.
When Kate, Andrew and M’pudi had encountered Xi when he was traveling, it was almost an instant culture shock. There were things that they did not know exist, for example, Andrew had learned that you can create very forceful objects by just using the power and knowledge with nature. He had learned from Xi how to make poisonous, silent and deadly arrows by using the poison from a different animal. Xi had also learned that people have different morals than others and different rules. He didn’t even know about the other existing world.
The diffusion between the characters was mostly based own personal beliefs. Their cultures have a vast variety in difference, from the language, clothes, family, religion and money. One were to look at each other with such strangeness because they are abnormal to what they are used to seeing and the type of habitat that they live in. That is why when Xi and Kate had encountered each other it was very strange and “alien-like” for the both of them. Language at first was a barrier; however with the help of someone who used to live among them, they had better communication skills and had learned about each other’s lifestyle.
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From time to time, Xi would engage in deviant behavior and crime; however he was not aware that what he was doing was wrong. There was a time in the movie where Xi had gotten put into prison for doing what he’s been doing all his life, hunting. In the life of a Bushmen, nobody owns anything, not even animals. The Bushmen don’t feel the need to have total possession towards objects, because to them, what is put on this earth is for everyone. Xi was simply doing what he’s been doing on a regular basis, when he is hungry, he hunts, however the people did not like it because where they live, it is wrong to kill an animal that does not belong to you.
The Social Constructionist in this case is Xi, how he was taught to hunt for his own food, and the people who put him in prison knew this however they did not take it into consideration of that his natural habits. For example, if someone were to smoke inside a building they would get into trouble with the authority, however what if the person was from a different county and didn’t know about the policy? That’s very similar to Xi’s situation, he was very innocent in what he did but to the eyes of another he had committed a harmful crime. Therefore with his and the Bushmen’s morals staying with Xi, he had suggested that everyone does that as well because he was not yet to become exposed to the world of the other social group.
“The Gods Must Be Crazy” does a very fine job in allowing the culture of the simple, average American to be seen from the Bushman’s point of view from the action of the Characters Xi, Kate and Andrew. Xi reacts to the actions of Kate and Andrew very curious and cautiously because he is not aware of their language or what they are doing. In the film the, the narrator portrays what is going on in the footage by speaking for Xi, like when Xi approached the first vehicle that he saw, the narrator stated that to Xi, it looked like an unfamiliar animal. Xi would run away scared, almost like an animal approaching something that they have never seen before. The film also allows you to see the culture from a different point of view from even having the characters accommodate one another. The ways that they are dressed in comparison from Andrew to Xi are obviously different. Xi’s general outfit is all hand-made from animal skin because that is what they are given to create things to survive. On the other hand, Andrew’s and Kate’s outfits were of cotton and machine made, this also made Xi very curious as to how they obtained such material. For example, in the scene where Kate is putting on a dress, Xi looks at it with such wonder as to how it was made because he has never seen that type of clothing before; in fact he thought that it looked almost close to being spider webs.
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The Sociological Imagination allows one to see and recognize the relationship between large scale social forces and the actions of individuals. What this has to do with the film is that Kate, Xi and Andrew were all in the phase of the Sociological Imagination just by seeing their different cultures and comparing it to their own, from the simple features for survival, like food, clothing and shelter.
All together, the film honestly was a great learning experience. There is such diversity in the world and it was great seeing the life of our human on the other side of the earth in a comedic way. In watching this film I had acquired much information and knowledge about the Bushmen and what happens when two people from two complete opposite societies collide. When Andrew had met up with Xi and helped him out, throughout the movie their friendship and understanding of each other were developing. They obviously had respect for their cultures and were mostly interesting in learning the ways of how they live. For example how Xi learned how to drive a motor vehicle and Andrew learned how to shoot and make deadly arrows to benefit and help protect the children being captured.
America is one of the greediest countries that I’ve yet to know, with its money, power and acquisitiveness. Not all the people who live in this society agree with the way of how we live, dumping oil into the water, creating more parking spots where trees used to be, that’s not that way I would like to live life and I’m sure many others agree. I can say that I respect the Bushman, for still continuing in what they believe in, just taking what they have, using it and sharing it. I envy them a bit too because when you listen to their music and see what they do, is just mostly of positive energy, with no worries just caring and loving of what you have for the world and the people around you. You don’t see that here, I turn around and there are hungry people on the streets, air pollution and increases of divorces. That’s not that world that I’d like to live in, however that’s what we created, a corporate society.
Works Cited
“The Gods Must Be Crazy” Dir. Jaime Uys. Perf. N!xau, Marius Weyers, and Sandra
Prinsloo. 1980. Ster Kinekor Pictures.
“The Bushmen Survival International”2010.
Richard T. Schaefer: Sociology: A brief Introduction 2004. DePaul University. Print
