_om_
09-11-2001, 12:08 AM
Ok, so this anthropologist, Richard Borshay Lee decides to do some fieldwork in Africa among the
!Kung Bushmen (yes, that's how you spell it in english). They are hunter-gatherer folks, and this is precisely what Lee wanted to study about them. So, while he's chillin' in Africa for a few years, Lee can't give any of his 2-month supply of food to the !Kung or even help them get food because it would fuck up his study. The
!Kung know he's got a storehouse of food and they naturally get a little peeved that he won't share.
Anyway, Lee is nearing the end of his fieldwork, and decides that he'll partake in the Christmas custom the !Kung have (The missionaries brought Christmas to them. The !Kung say its 'praise for the white-man's god chief'. They see it as a time to pig out on their traditional Christmas ox and dance). Lee decides he'll buy the biggest fattest ox for the !Kung. So one day he buys the ox for roughly 56 bucks. It's the hugest ox he could get. Pretty soon, word gets around town that Lee bought an ox for christmas.
Some of the townsfolk confront him about it asking him if he indeed did buy that particular ox. And he proudly says "Yes"
The !Kung got completey irritated saying it was the scrawniest, boniest ox he could have possibly gotten. Lee is completely baffled by this.
Lee goes around the town asking everyone if this ox was a bad choice. Everyone's like "Yep. You've been living with us HOW long and you can't even pick out a good fat ox? We want fat! We want grease that will turn clear when we cook it. We want to have diarrhea the next day. We want it to be ALL FAT". Then they start giving Lee shit saying that there's no way that ox will be able to feed the tribe and that people are going to get hurt because people will complain. A war will surely break out.
Lee is still completely shocked and can't understand why they think he made a bad choice.
So christmas rolls around, Lee is in a shitty mood, and finally they come to the ceremony to slaughter the ox. After its killed, they have to make certain cuts to determine how much fat the ox has. A good fat ox has a good one inch of fat on its chest. When the !Kung make this cut, they find at least 2 inches of fat. The ox is a sheer bucket of lard.. exactly what the !Kung wanted.
So Lee says "HAH! SEE?? I WAS RIGHT!!" and goes apeshit. The !Kung are like "are you kidding us? This ox is skin and bones!" and then they bust out laughing.
They made a total fool of Lee. They were joking the whole time.
So Lee confronts the town's elders about it asking why everyone was trying to pull one over him. He thought it might have had something to do with him not sharing his food for all those years. Maybe the !Kung were just bitter. The elders wholeheartedly disagreed.
Here's the account between Lee and the !Kung:
"But", I asked "why insult a man after he has gone to all that trouble to track and kill an animal and when he is going to share the meat with you so that your children will have something to eat?"
"Arrogance", was his cryptic answer.
"Arrogance?"
"Yes, when a young man kills much meat he comes to think of himself as a chief or a big man, and he thinks of the rest of us as his servants or inferiors. We can't accept this. We refuse one who boasts, for someday his pride will make him kill somebody. So we always speak of his meat as worthless. This way we cool his heart and make him gentle."
How rad is that.
Makes you reflect on who the primitive ones are, don't it.
Om1
!Kung Bushmen (yes, that's how you spell it in english). They are hunter-gatherer folks, and this is precisely what Lee wanted to study about them. So, while he's chillin' in Africa for a few years, Lee can't give any of his 2-month supply of food to the !Kung or even help them get food because it would fuck up his study. The
!Kung know he's got a storehouse of food and they naturally get a little peeved that he won't share.
Anyway, Lee is nearing the end of his fieldwork, and decides that he'll partake in the Christmas custom the !Kung have (The missionaries brought Christmas to them. The !Kung say its 'praise for the white-man's god chief'. They see it as a time to pig out on their traditional Christmas ox and dance). Lee decides he'll buy the biggest fattest ox for the !Kung. So one day he buys the ox for roughly 56 bucks. It's the hugest ox he could get. Pretty soon, word gets around town that Lee bought an ox for christmas.
Some of the townsfolk confront him about it asking him if he indeed did buy that particular ox. And he proudly says "Yes"
The !Kung got completey irritated saying it was the scrawniest, boniest ox he could have possibly gotten. Lee is completely baffled by this.
Lee goes around the town asking everyone if this ox was a bad choice. Everyone's like "Yep. You've been living with us HOW long and you can't even pick out a good fat ox? We want fat! We want grease that will turn clear when we cook it. We want to have diarrhea the next day. We want it to be ALL FAT". Then they start giving Lee shit saying that there's no way that ox will be able to feed the tribe and that people are going to get hurt because people will complain. A war will surely break out.
Lee is still completely shocked and can't understand why they think he made a bad choice.
So christmas rolls around, Lee is in a shitty mood, and finally they come to the ceremony to slaughter the ox. After its killed, they have to make certain cuts to determine how much fat the ox has. A good fat ox has a good one inch of fat on its chest. When the !Kung make this cut, they find at least 2 inches of fat. The ox is a sheer bucket of lard.. exactly what the !Kung wanted.
So Lee says "HAH! SEE?? I WAS RIGHT!!" and goes apeshit. The !Kung are like "are you kidding us? This ox is skin and bones!" and then they bust out laughing.
They made a total fool of Lee. They were joking the whole time.
So Lee confronts the town's elders about it asking why everyone was trying to pull one over him. He thought it might have had something to do with him not sharing his food for all those years. Maybe the !Kung were just bitter. The elders wholeheartedly disagreed.
Here's the account between Lee and the !Kung:
"But", I asked "why insult a man after he has gone to all that trouble to track and kill an animal and when he is going to share the meat with you so that your children will have something to eat?"
"Arrogance", was his cryptic answer.
"Arrogance?"
"Yes, when a young man kills much meat he comes to think of himself as a chief or a big man, and he thinks of the rest of us as his servants or inferiors. We can't accept this. We refuse one who boasts, for someday his pride will make him kill somebody. So we always speak of his meat as worthless. This way we cool his heart and make him gentle."
How rad is that.
Makes you reflect on who the primitive ones are, don't it.
Om1