ǃKung

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!Kung the construction of an arrow in the "living Ju|'hoansi -Museum" in Namibia

The ǃKung are the north-western group of the indigenous San peoples (formerly "Bushmen") in southern Africa . They live mainly in the northern Kalahari basin of Namibia . Individual local groups are also based in Botswana and Angola . The term ǃKung is the name of a subgroup, which is often used as an umbrella term by outsiders. The name of the sub-group also is in the literature Ju|'hoansi sometimes all !Kung applied.

The ethnic group is divided into three dialect groups, which are named after central locations:

  • !Kung-Ekoka (proper names: !Kung , !Ku ~ , !Xu ~ , !Hu ~ , QXU, QXU, !Xun , !Khung ) ; 2014 around 9,100 people
  • ǃKung-Gobabis (proper names: ǁAuǁEi , ǁX'auǁ'E , ǂKx'auǁ'Ei , Auen, Kaukau, Koko) ; 2014 around 7,700 people
  • ǃKung-Tsumkwe (proper names: Juǀ'hoansi , Juǀ'hoan , Ju'oasi, Xû, ǃXun , Kung, ǃXo , Zhu'oasi, Dzu'oasi, Tshumkwe, Dobe Kung, Xaixai) ; 2014 around 45,200 people

ǃKung - historically also Akung - denotes "people".

The peculiar click-loud language of the ǃKung belongs to the dialect continuum of the Ju-Khoisan languages .

ǃKung , rarely also ǃXun , historically probably also Akung , denotes "people". Traditionally, there is absolute equality between the sexes. They are traditionally organized in hordes and lived as hunters and gatherers until the 1970s . Today the ǃKung , like almost all San peoples, live in great poverty and marked by alcohol abuse .

Namibia

ǃKung (1896)

Home of the ǃKung in Namibia, who are mainly known as Juǀ'hoansi or Zuǀ'oãsi , is primarily the Nǂa-Jaqna ( Ziziphus mucronata ) area around the Omatako valley in the Otjozondjupa region . Their area covers about 9120 square kilometers and almost 3900 inhabitants. They are recognized by the state through the traditional administration of the ǃKhung . You are headed by the ǁ'Aiha , or ǂGaoxa . Since 2015 has Glony Arnold held the office.

The Juǀ'hoansi speak Juǀ'hoan (language) Juǀ'hoan .

The San peoples are considered to be the poorest ethnic group in the world. For this reason, they are supported in Namibia by a funding program that is hung up by the Prime Minister .

The people became internationally known, especially through the film series The Gods must be crazy around the ǃKung Nǃxau .

religion

The ǃKung believe in a single god by the name of Khu or Huwa . He is considered the creator and sustainer of all life. He is considered to be omniscient and also a judge who punishes people among other things through the weather. To this come the beliefs of animism and animatism .

The faith of !Kung is closely anchored to the spirits of the dead and ancestors who live immortal in heaven. This llgauwasi , for whom there is respect and fear, can come from heaven to earth and communicate with people.

The ǃKung practice shamanism to communicate with the spirit being.

The spiritual healing ( n|um ) plays a dominant role in the culture of !Kung . Every ǃKung is free to become a healer through training. About half of men and a third of women are said to be able to heal.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Note: This article contains characters from the alphabet of the Khoisan languages spoken in southern Africa . The display contains characters of the click letters ǀ , ǁ , ǂ and ǃ . For more information on the pronunciation of long or nasal vowels or certain clicks , see e.g. B. under Khoekhoegowab .

See also

literature

  • Richard Katz: Boiling Energy, Community Healing among the Kalahari Kung. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1982.
  • Richard Borshay Lee: Subsistence Ecology of ǃKung Bushmen. Berkeley 1965, dissertation from the University of California.
  • Richard Borshay Lee: The ǃKung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society (1979), Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 9 available here)
  • Richard Borshay Lee: Politics, sexual and non-sexual, in an egalitarian society. In: Politics and History in Band Societies Cambridge University Press, New York 1982, pp. 37-59.
  • Richard Borshay Lee: Art, science, or politics? The crisis in hunter-gatherer studies. In: American Anthropologist 94 , 1992, pp. 31-54.
  • Richard Borshay Lee: The Dobe Juǀʼhoansi. Thomson Learning, Wadsworth 2003.
  • Lorna Marshall: The ǃKung of Nyae Nyae. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1976.
  • Lorna Marshall: Nyae Nyae ǃKung Beliefs and Rites. Peabody Museum Monographs, No. 8, 1999.
  • Daniel Mischke: The IKung Bushmen: An indigenous people in today's Namibia. Pro Business, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-96409-022-5 .
  • Oskar Nadler: The life of the! Kung Bushmen from today's perspective. OSERNA - africana - VERLAG, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 978-3-9806392-4-8 .
  • Oskar Nadler: The arrow poisons of the! Kung Bushmen. OSERNA - africana - VERLAG, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 978-3-9806392-5-5 .
  • Gottlieb Polzer, Arnold Huber: The last stone age hunters: encounters and experiences with the last free Kung Bushmen in Namibia. Nordwest Media Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Grevesmühlen 2012, ISBN 978-3-937431-74-1 .
  • Marjorie Shostak: Nisa The Life and Words of a ǃKung Woman. , Harvard University Press, Boston 2006.
  • Elizabeth Marshall Thomas: The Old Way, A Story of the First Peopl.e New York 2006, Farrar Straus Giroux.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b P. Draper: ǃKung Women: Contrasts in Sexual Egalitarianism in Foraging and Sedentary Contexts , in: Anthropology Faculty Publications , Issue 45, 1975
  2. ↑ Hartmut Motz: Languages ​​and Peoples of the Earth - Linguistic-Ethnographic Lexicon. 1st edition, Volume 2, Projekt-Verlag Cornelius, Halle 2007, ISBN 978-3-86634-368-9 . P. 130.
  3. ↑ Keyword: Kung in: the online edition by Hartmut Motz: Languages ​​and Peoples of the Earth with more up-to-date population figures, accessed on June 4, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b Holly Peters-Golden: Culture sketches: case studies in anthropology , 6th. Edition, The McGraw-Hill, Dubuque, Iowa 2012, ISBN 978-0-07-811702-2 , OCLC 716069710 .
  5. ↑ M. Konner: Timing and Management of Birth among the ǃKung: Biocultural Interaction in Reproductive Adaptation , in: Cultural Anthropology , Edition 2, Number 1, 1987, pp. 11-28
  6. ↑ Alan Barnard: Ju / 'hoansi or! Kung , in: Bushmen Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers and their Descendants , Cambridge 2019, Cambridge University Press, pp. 118–153.
  7. ↑ N # a-Jaqna Conservancy. NACSO. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  8. ↑ Government Gazette 5818. Republic of Namibia, September 1, 2015.
  9. ^ San Development Program. Office of the Prime Minister. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  10. ^ John S. Mbiti: Concepts of God in Africa . The Camelot Press, London 1971, ISBN 978-0-281-02347-9 , p. 332.
  11. ↑ Raffaelle Pettazzoni: The All-Knowing God . Methuen & Co., London 1954, ISBN 978-0-405-10559-3 , p. 32.
  12. ^ A b L. Marshall: ǃKung Bushman Religious Beliefs , in: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute , Edition 32, No. 3, 1962, pp. 221-252