“A Time When Bushmen Could Choose” by Isabelle Jensen

When referencing the past, many people think of it as simpler times and become nostalgic. For the Bushmen or San people, their past is a time of less oppression and more happiness. The San have lived in southern Africa for thousands of years and are one of the longest lasting cultures. Modern-day civilization has changed their lives, from the traditional society that lacked objects to forced modern living. In the comic mockumentary film, The Gods Must Be Crazy, the Bushmen tribe was entirely separated from the rest of the country. Although they are called Bushmen, in general they prefer to be called the San so for this essay they will be referred to as such. The San people had not seen white people or anyone not in their tribe. They had no man-made tools, only what nature had given them. They had no concept of being materialistic. Everything in the tribe is shared within their kind, peaceful social community. The movie focuses on the tribe of San that live in Botswana. The movie was released in 1980 before the Botswanan government began its removal of the San people. The main San, Xi, was lucky enough to be able to keep his culture, but in the years since then, it has become harder and harder for San to keep their lives and traditions due to government intervention and their removal from their land.

In the film, a pilot threw a Coke bottle out of the sky and it fell into the deserts of Botswana. The San found it, thinking it was a gift from the gods. They had never seen anything like it and found many ways to use this new object: to cure thongs and snakeskin, make music, and make labor easier (Uys 0:08). This was the first time they had an object they could not reproduce and still needed. Greed infiltrated the tribe. “Anger, jealousy, hate, and violence,” emotions they had never felt before, were suddenly abundant (Uys 0:10). Xi was angry with the gods and blamed them for creating issues and chaos within his tribe.  He looked toward the sky and shouted “Take back your thing! We don’t want it!” (Uys 0:12). He threw it into the sky but it just came back down. It hit his daughter in the head causing even more disturbance. Xi buried it to try to keep it away from his tribe who felt shame for having acted poorly. It was found again by some of the children of the tribe. Upset that the “Evil Thing” had reappeared in their lives, the tribe discussed what to do. Xi decided it did not belong on the earth. He was to walk to the “end of the earth and throw it off” (Uys 0:14). He was incredibly dedicated to saving his people from an object that created such negative outcomes.

Xi made the choice to get rid of something that could help him just because of its emotional effect. In western society, anything that can make things easier or more fun is valued no matter what it does to our emotional health. We let objects become important despite the fact that they disturb our reality. Even if we do not fully accept the change, we do not walk miles to stop it from happening. For example, there are lots of social media apps that make many people feel terrible about themselves, but they keep using them just the same. The purity of the San culture helps them recognize what is truly hurting them. Xi had the ability to save his people from the outside world.

          

Xi goes on a journey in which he meets a lot of people and sees parts of the modern world. He meets whites for the first time, and he thinks they are gods (Uys 0:55). He tries to give them the bottle, but the white people have no idea what is going on so they do not take it. The one non-San who spoke San told him to “throw it away yourself” (Uys 0:58). Xi has many adventures such as learning to drive and helping save the children from terrorists. He meets many people who are kind to him and have advanced tools. After disposing of the bottle, he goes back to his tribe. He does not try to bring back any of the new things he saw. He values his culture and chooses it over western society. Unfortunately, in modern times, not all San are so lucky to have a choice.

In 1961, the San of Botswana were given a reserve to live on called the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CRS 2). It was made to protect the San way of life. Then in 1978 the government launched the Remote Area Dwellers Program which provided water and social services to the San and created new settlements (CRS 2). The San people were given some help but were mostly able to keep their culture intact. When Jamie Uys made the movie in 1980, the San had their own land and some help when they needed it. The San were supported by the government and did not have to change their lives for western society. However, this “protection” did not last long.

In 1982, diamonds were found on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) (CRS 2). This was the first indicator of a mass relocation. Many San were told to leave the place their family had been in for generations due to the diamond mines (Survival International). The Botswana government named New Xade as a new place for the San people to live in (“Chronology for San Bushmen in Botswana”). It was a permanent settlement in which the government heavily encouraged the San to lead a “settled life by building schools, clinics, and providing potable water” (“Chronology for San Bushmen in Botswana”). The lack of edible plants and a hunting ban made it almost impossible for San people to continue their lifestyle (Tarvainen). The Botswana government also gave those that moved some money and cows to encourage settling (Tarvainen). The government decided diamonds were more important than culture. They chose greed but the San did not get a choice. 

The removal happened fairly quickly but forcefully. By 1997, 1,739 San had been relocated to New Xade (CRS 2).  In 2001, 689 San lived in the Reserve and in 2002 only 17 San did (CRS 3). However, more than 200 San snuck back onto the reserve in 2002.  The government argued that the removal was necessary to protect the land and that they have the San’s best interests in mind (CRS 3). There are claims of armed police and threats of violence to clear the settlements (Blair). Police officers who came to remove the San people told them to “leave as volunteers” and those who did not leave the police would “end up killing” them (Blair). Government agents would also threaten arson (CRS 3). The Botswana government maintains that it has not “employed force, coercion, or threats during its relocation of the San” (CRS 3).  They claim to be helping the San people to develop “socio-economic practices of the larger contemporary society” (CRS 3). In reality, this translates to trying to erase the culture of the San. According to the government, many of the San are no longer traditional anyway and use guns and cars to hunt but there is no evidence of this at any frequency on the reserve (CRS 3). A law was passed that made it illegal to hunt without a permit but the government refused to issue permits to San people making it impossible to live their traditional lives (Survival International). More than 50 San were arrested for hunting to feed their families (Survival International). The San people took it to the courts. The high courts ruled that it was unconstitutional to remove the San from their land and to require hunting permits but nothing has been done to enforce this ruling (Survival International). The Botswana government wants to look like they are helping but they are not. They will find any excuse to profit of the San’s land and will try to save their image in the process. They would rather discredit the San than admit what they are doing. 

Forcing the San people to lead different lives has not gone well. The San refer to New Xade the “Place of Death” (CRS 4). In New Xade, there are incredibly high rates of alcoholism, unemployment, crime, and HIV/AIDS (CRS 4). Botswana gave the San people cows in the hope they would settle but never taught them how to take care of them. The cows got sick and no one in New Xade knew how to keep them healthy (Fihlani). Many San people have gone back to the reserve despite the government’s strong push against it. In 2002, the government sealed all San water storage structures in the CKGR and banned NGOs from giving food or water to San on the reserve (CRS 4). Most San people just want to go back to their old life just like Xi did.

Modern-day San cannot return to their old life the same way Xi did. Just like him, they were unhappy with western influence but had nowhere to run safely back to. Xi saw the world and went back to his culture and his people. Many San people are trying to do the same thing but the diamond mines, destruction of water storage, and arrests stop them. Unfortunately, the more time passes, the more cultures are destroyed and corrupted by modern society. The real-life story is the extreme of the movie. The bottle in the movie ruined the peace of the community but diamonds and greed in real life destroyed the community entirely. Compared to modern-day San people, Xi and his tribe were lucky. Xi had a home to go back to instead of being forced to live a life he did not want. Those forced to live in a modern way are now suffering from disease, addiction, and joblessness. In the “Price of Happiness is Actually Free,” Brendan Kaston explains that Xi’s choice to return home was about the progress of the modern world versus happiness of his tribe (Kaston). Xi chose happiness. Since the mid-80s, the San have not had a choice. For them, going to the modern world is not progress. The San cannot adjust to settling and the new world they face so they make no progress and only have difficulty. 

The San people deserve to have their own choice between modern and traditional. A life or progress or a life of happiness is the choice they must make. Forcing people into one way of life just to profit from the diamonds is selfish and detrimental to the San. Xi was lucky that no one tried to change him or keep him away from his culture. He could go back to a less stressful life of fewer problems and less progress. His choice is what most San would do if they could. The struggles that San people have gone through since the movie was made are unlike anything Xi and his tribe could have imagined. His choice was not life or death unlike the choices of today. Like Xi, the San could go back but they risk arrest. The time period before the diamonds was an easier time for the Sans people. The greed of modern society and a money-hungry government made their lives incredibly difficult. The San could not choose and could not escape it. The greed of the government forced them into a life they did not want. Xi could choose, unlike many others. He saw the greed and could escape it. The San after the movie were not so lucky. 

Works Cited

Blair, David. “Bushmen Forced out of Desert after Living off Land for Thousands of 

Years.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 29 Oct. 2005, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/botswana/1501756/Bushmen-forced-out-of-desert-after-living-off-land-for-thousands-of-years.html.

CRS. Botswana: The Bushmen (San) Rights Case. 19 Oct. 2004, 

www.everycrsreport.com/files/20041019_RS21956_f2cf957fe6dfe3116c9c0f0a29b7824fa4670390.pdf.

Fihlani, Pumza. “Botswana Bushmen: Modern Life Is Destroying Us.” BBC News, BBC, 

7 Jan. 2014, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-24821867.

Kaston, Brendan. “The Price of Happiness Is Actually Free by Brendan Kaston.” The 

Price of Happiness Is Actually Free by Brendan Kaston, Taking Giant Steps, 2 Nov. 2018, giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-price-of-happiness-is-actually-free.html.

Survival International. “Bushmen.” Bushmen - Survival International, 

www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/bushmen.

Tarvainen, Sinikka. “Bushmen Removed from Kalahari Land.” IOL News, 11 Nov. 2016, 

www.iol.co.za/news/africa/bushmen-removed-from-kalahari-land-1793301.

United Nations. “Chronology for San Bushmen in Botswana.” Refworld, 2004, 

www.refworld.org/docid/469f386e88.html.

Uys, Jamie, director. The Gods Must Be Crazy. New Realm, 1980.

“To Conform or Be Cast Out: A Story on Finding True Happiness” by Lauren Cohen

People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.

---Unknown

What would have happened had our ancestors not chosen to progress forward and make life easier? Would we be more carefree, like the Bushmen in Jamie Uys’ 1980 film, The Gods Must Be Crazy? Unfortunately, there is no empirical way to answer the question. However, what can be answered is how the decision to progress forward has shaped the society that we have come to know. Our lives are very similar to the urbanites in Uys’ movie. While we have been walking the path of progress, fitting ourselves into a daily schedule and a select set of social norms, we have forgotten one of the most important things in life: happiness. Unlike the Bushmen, it is rare for a member of our society to feel joyous well-being. Should it happen to someone, that individual is often judged as selfish, their felicity in question. If the only thing we care about is conformity and keeping busy, we may lose sight of the gifts that contentedness and love can bring.

Uys expands on the difference between the Bushmen and Western society by depicting Kate Thompson following the same exact routine every. As the voice-over reminds us, Western society expects its citizens to “adapt and readapt himself to every day and every hour of the day to his self-created environment” (Uys 06:25). Because humankind chose to force their natural surroundings to adapt to their own needs, they now have to readapt their lives to fit into what they have made. Life consists of waking up, going to work or school, going back home, eating dinner, doing homework, and then going to sleep, with some other activities and chores plugged in here and there every now and then. This type of a life is the typical day-to-day circumstances that just about every person leads. It is how Kate Thompson lives, given that she has a conventional job as a journalist. The problem is that these individuals are not necessarily enjoying their quality of life, at least not like the Bushmen.

In the Kalahari Desert, the Bushmen have adapted their lives to nature, as opposed to making nature adapt to their lives like Western civilization. The Bushmen rely on the resources found within the natural surroundings around them for survival. Competition does not exist; there is no sense of ownership and no bitterness. As the narrator puts it, “they must be the most contented people in the world” (Uys 02:46). They feel blessed for everything they have, and believe that the gods have given them everything they will ever need. Their lives are peaceful. That is, however, until Xi finds an empty Coca-Cola bottle that “fell out” of the sky.

Because of their strong belief that the gods send them essential needs, the Bushmen take the Coke bottle as a gift. They, then, learn how to use it for many different tasks and adapt it into their everyday lives; it becomes a snake skin smoother, a pounder for food, “ a musical instrument, a patternmaker, a fire starter, a cooking utensil, and, most of all, an object of bitter controversy” (Ebert, par. 2). Despite never having felt anger, hatred, or jealousy before, the Coke bottle invokes these exact emotions. Tension builds, anger arises, the feeling of ownership develops, and, worst of all, violence breaks out. After the tribe realizes how the bottle has changed them, they unanimously decide that it is best to get rid of the so-called “evil” bottle. So, Xi takes a journey to the “end of the earth” to “throw it off” (Uys 15:03). Making this sort of decision is not necessarily an easy one; that is, to most Western people. However, the Bushmen value their love and happiness over having life made easier for them.

That the Bushmen came to the decision to rid themselves of the Coke bottle so quickly shows how vastly different, and in a sense wiser, they are than their Western society counterparts. Had those in the cities been faced with a similar issue, that of having a single object to share in order to make life easier, all hell would have broken loose. When one thinks of it, that event reflects exactly what happened hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago when Western civilization chose to make life “easier” while natives, like the Bushmen, chose to value love and true happiness amongst each other. “Xi understands that his people have two choices . . . progress or happiness. Our ancestors chose the former, and the world has expanded . . . Xi and his tribe make the opposite choice” (Kaston, par. 2). Our ancestors chose to make their lives “easier” by inventing things, creating governmental systems, and implementing different forms of employment. However, having all these elegant social structures have made life harder rather than easier. Competition was created, rich versus poor ideals formed, tension built over time, and life as we know it has gotten to the point of there being more hate and jealousy than love. This is not the case with the Bushmen; they care for each other, and make sure that every individual is safe and satisfied. So, where did we go wrong?

We failed to ensure that our emotional well-being was stable. We put so much pressure and care into making our physical lives better that we never considered the emotional repercussions. Modern society has become so fixated on the idea of improvement and conformity that we are more stressed and depressed than ever. Just like Kate in Uys’ movie, we are being put into normal jobs that will make us money but that also bring us despair. The only difference is that we are scared to do anything about it. Kate takes a leap of faith and decides to completely change her life by becoming a teacher for children in Botswana after learning about the position through her journalism job (Uys 25:58). Not many people in today’s society would even give that idea a second chance, let alone go through with it. Unfortunately, we have become programmed to adapt to the world around us. But Kate changed the programming when she realized that it was off course. The main issue with our society’s programming is that we are forcing a world to adapt to us, yet are never truly satisfied with the changes.

Competition exists in just about every area of life. From the social ladder to economic classes to the expensive items we buy on a daily basis, competition stems from the idea that there always needs to be a new advancement in technology. With this constant change, there is next to no room for us as a society to learn and adapt to our new surroundings. With each new iPhone or new version of Amazon’s Alexa or new autopilot car, like the Tesla, that comes out, society grows ever-desperate trying to get these new pieces of technology in their hands. The problem with this is that not everyone has the availability to get it. But we make it important to have these new toys and if one does not have it, they are automatically seen as less than. Our self-value is based around the items that we can or cannot have. We will consider ourselves to be less than those who can afford the next new and improved “magic power devices” (KP). This need to adapt and conform to societal standards has threatened us, yet we have not even noticed it. 

The main focus of society’s worries and fears is judgment and standing out. It is one of society’s (most specifically our generation’s) main illnesses (Picciano, par. 2). We are so scared of being different that we will conform to whatever society deems appropriate, regardless if we disagree with it or not. This is especially seen within teens. It has become common for “teenagers [to] conform to anything and everything to avoid standing out in the fear of being judged or exiled by their peers, even if they do not agree to the beliefs of the clique they have chosen to fit into” (Bhatia, par. 3). They will do anything in their power to fit in and not be seen as an outsider. This is the type of behavior that leads to the landing of “normal” jobs and living the typical daily lives seen within The Gods Must Be Crazy. We thrive on the idea that we need to be like everyone else and live a “full” life, which is filled with next to no downtime set aside for personal care or growth. The lives that we, and those “urbanites” in the movie, chose to live has turned into this “Normative Social Influence: the idea that we comply in order to fuel our need to be liked or belong” (Green 05:55). Psychologically speaking, we want nothing more than to be seen as normal and follow whatever the current trend is in society. This sort of behavior is nothing new, as psychologists have been experimenting with the idea of conformity for over 60 years.

Solomon Asch, a social psychologist, conducted an experiment about conformity back in the 1950s. The experiment consisted of putting a participant in the same room as seven other “participants” (men who worked with Asch on the experiment) and finding out whether or not the real participant would conform to the answer that the other seven already agreed on. The participants had to distinguish which comparison line matched that of the “target” line that Asch presented to them. What Asch found was that, “On average, about one third (32%) of the participants who were placed in this situation went along and conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials” (McLeod, par. 11). Asch discovered through this experiment that “People conform for two main reasons: because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are (informational influence)” (McLeod, par. 16). Despite knowing that the answer was wrong, the men did not want to be seen as the “outsider,” so they went along with the incorrect answer. It is this constant need and desire to be like everyone else that we have lost a very important aspect to living a decent life: happiness and love.

There is this so called “happiness famine” (Morrill, par. 5) in society and it has caused us to lack empathy and love for each other. Most importantly, it has caused us to lose happiness for not only others, but ourselves. We are constantly wanting new “toys” and crave getting the newest technological device. So, when we are unable to get them, we become unhappy with ourselves, and after a while, it leads to self-hatred. Along with this, we force ourselves to follow the “rules” that society has laid out for us: go to school, get a degree, get a 9-5 job that will pay good money, get married, have kids, buy a big house, be rich, and boom, we have the “perfect” life. The problem, however, is that there is no such thing as a perfect life and because of that, we will never be truly happy or satisfied with where we are in life. 

We have let this concept of a perfect life consume us. It has gotten to a point where “stress consumes the population as everyone scrabbles for that house with the picket fence which they never truly get to enjoy because work is always hanging over them” (Morrill, par. 5). Because this is what society says we should have, we feel horrible when we are unable to have it. Unlike the Bushmen, we stress ourselves out trying to get the “perfect” life that an imperfect society has carved out. What this has caused is a dramatic shift in emotional and mental health, and causes distance between us and our loved ones. We live believing that “modern society equals fullness with meaning so if schedules are always booked then life must be wonderful” (Morrill, par. 7). A majority of the time, we never have time for one another, so we tend to not know what it means to love or to be happy. It has gotten to a toxic point where because of this societal pressure to be like everyone else and to have a full schedule, our mental health has worsened as a whole. This is especially true within teenagers.

Teens are being crushed under the weight of needing good grades, having a perfect social life, getting enough personal time for themselves, and, worse of all, not being seen as an “outsider.” In Rush’s 1982 song, “Subdivisions,” Neil Peart wrote, “Subdivisions in the high school halls, in the shopping malls; conform or be cast out. Subdivisions in the basement bars, in the backs of cars; be cool or be cast out” (Rush). Peart was referencing how society has created these so-called subdivisions in every aspect of life. This is especially true for students in high school. There are numerous social groups that students get placed into, and if one is to be placed in the “wrong” one, they are automatically cast out and deemed unworthy. This is the experience that I had growing up, not only in high school, but throughout my entire school life.

I was not like the “typical” girl, nor did I fit in any mold that society (specifically the one I grew up in) had premade for the different types of teenagers. This “typical,” ideal girl is the popular, outgoing, kind, friendly, party girl with an ever so slight edge. I, on the other hand, was the shy, overly nice, nerd, who loved the “wrong” music, and was obsessed with theater. I was the outsider and people thought that made me really weird, and for some time, I thought the same thing. This, then, led to my mental health becoming severely worse than it already was, resulting in an extreme case of anxiety and a very mild case of depression. But I am not the only one who goes through this. Mental illness is being diagnosed more than ever and it all stems from the society we live in, most specifically, the lives we have forced ourselves to live.

Because we want the job that makes good money, we get ones that are not necessarily what we dreamed for and end up dreading going to work. We no longer pursue dreams and are scared to work outside of the limits that society has set for us. However, we can live a life that we want and desire. The only thing it takes is stepping outside of that social norm. Take Andrew Steyn, for instance. He has a job that requires him to analyze animal excrement, yet he is content and happy. He is a scientist, one who is proud of where he is in life. Another example is when Kate makes the move to the Kalahari. It is instantly recognized that she is more content being with her students than trapped in the cubicle she used to work within. If we were to follow in their footsteps, maybe we would learn true happiness again.

In order for our society to grow and help the growing mental health crisis, we need to come together again to break these societal norms. As a person who is doing her best to break those social norms, I know how scary it is. I went from wanting to be a physical therapist to a geneticist to being a filmmaker. I may have to struggle in order to live my dream life and will have to work my butt off to make money, but I am okay with that. I would rather be happy living a life doing something I love, something that may mean sacrificing a larger paycheck, as opposed to a life where I am unhappy, stressed, and despise my job.

If we are to have a society that loves and is filled with happiness again, like the Bushmen, we need first allow ourselves to open up and learn what we want in life. With this, we will find true happiness within ourselves. This will, then, spread to each other and we will have a society filled with love and respect and kindness. It is a hard thing to accept but, “until our culture can choose peace of mind over higher productivity, we will never self-actualize like the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert” (Kaston, par. 7). The moment we as a society prioritize ourselves and those around us is the moment that we will truly grow. But until that happens, we will be stuck in the harsh conditions of Western civilization. The real question is, who will be the one to step up first and break down the walls society has built around us?

Works Cited

Bhatia, Jill. “Teens struggle to combat conformity.” Daily Records, AsburyPark, 15 Feb. 2017 https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/opinion/letters/2017/02/15/teens-struggle-combat-conformity/97896120/ 

Ebert, Roger. “The Gods Must Be Crazy” RogerEbert.com, Roger Ebert,  1 Jan. 1981. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-gods-must-be-crazy-1981 

Gordon, Paul Kirpal. Various class Discussions

Green, Hank, director. Social Influence: Crash Course Psychology #38. YouTube, YouTube, 11 Nov. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=UGxGDdQnC1Y. 

Kaston, Brandan. “The Price of Happiness is Actually Free” Taking Giant Steps, 2 Nov. 2018, https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-price-of-happiness-is-actually-free.html 

McLeod, Saul. “Solomon Asch - Conformity Experiment.” Simply Psychology, Simply Psychology, 28 Dec. 2018, www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html. 

Morrill, Morgan. “The Ironic Hospitality of the Kalahari Desert” Taking Giant Steps, 14 Mar. 2018, https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-ironic-hospitality-of-kalahari.html 

Picciano, Kelsey. “Just Another Loose Brick in the Wall” Taking Giant Steps, 16 July. 2016, https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/search?q=just+another+loose+brick+in+the+wall

Rush, “Subdivisions”, Signals, Terry Brown, Le Studio, Quebec, 1982

The Gods Must be Crazy. Directed by Jamie Uys, performances by N!xau, Marius Weyers, and Sandra Prinsloo. 20^th Century Fox., 13 July. 1984. 123Movies

The Uplifting Effects of Unfamiliarity in Walkabout & The Gods Must Be Crazy by Grace Langella

When the act of change is thought about by humans, it tends to be linked to many negative emotions and actions. This tendency for humans to directly correlate change with negativity results from all of the stress and anxiety that overcomes them once put into situations of unfamiliarity. Because of the disoriented feelings we get once exposed to something new, humans keep themselves tied to a monotonous lifestyle that holds them back from experiencing a new way of living. Although being fixed on a rigid way of life brings feelings of comfort and safety for humans, there is an importance that needs to be shed on breaking away from a repetitive lifestyle in order to understand the valuable disparateness that exists in the world. When exposed to differences that break them out of their comfort zone, humans tend to experience culture shock, for they have no idea how to behave in situations that are new and uncommon to them. Because of how easily people crack under the pressures of unfamiliarity, we are able to see how fragile homeostasis really is and how much one’s energy can drop as a result. In both Jamie Uy’s The Gods Must be Crazy and Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout, we are able to see the fragility of homeostasis and the drastic impact it can have on one’s life; whether one comes from an isolated, indigenous community or Western society, an abrupt change can be traumatic to survival and cooperation between members of a society.

For the Kalahari Bushmen, cooperating with one another is never an issue; living in apartheid South Africa, everyone goes about their day as they please, making sure to maintain a sense of peace and community. Contrary to Western civilization, the Kalahari Bushmen aim to keep their society simple by refraining from focusing on technological advancements and things that can disrupt the serenity in which they live. In order to show the great contrast between societies and draw a satirical depiction of Western civilization, Jamie Uys incorporates a voiceover in the beginning of the film, which comments on the need for people living in Western society to reinvent themselves every fifteen minutes (Uys, 10:03). By commenting on this ridiculous way of life, Uys makes it clear that Western society follows a structure that is needlessly strict, restraining humans from reaching a point in their life that is well balanced and valuable.

In The Gods Must be Crazy, Jamie Uys paints a picture of a civilization that is perfectly balanced and valuable for everyone that is part of it. Although the Bushmen’s prestigious society seems to be indestructible, their ideal lifestyle gets turned upside down and ruined once an unfamiliar object arrives and dominates the way that people behave. As a Coke bottle falls from the sky, it is seen as an “ubiquitous byproduct of the civilized world [that] becomes both a tool and an object of jealousy when a Xhosa-speaking Bushman, Xi, discovers it and brings it to his tribe” (Gottwald, par. 2). Once Xi brings the Coke bottle into his society, an immediate outbreak occurs and people that once lived “collectively, enjoying and praising nature,” begin to turn on each other and create disharmony in their once tranquil society (Eshetu, par. 3). At first, the Bushmen look at the Coke bottle in confusion, unsure of what to do with such an unfamiliar object; however, they eventually realize how great of an impact it can have on their everyday lifestyle, which causes their behavior to change and the fragility of homeostasis to be exemplified. The people within Xi’s society become filled with jealousy, anger, and violence because “for the first time in their lives, here was a thing that could not be shared because there was only one of it [...] a thing they never needed before became a necessity” (Uys, 10:28). Using the Coke bottle to “represent something so vast and unique as civilized society,” Uys makes it evident that anything that comes from Western civilization, even something as insignificant as a Coke bottle, has the ability to poison any balance and social dynamic that once existed in the Bushman’s society (Antoine, par. 4).

Another situation that Uys includes in his film to exemplify the negativity of Western civilization when compared to indigenous life is Kate’s experience as she moves from a civilized lifestyle to a more natural one. While living in Western society, Kate spends her time as a writer for a city newspaper; in doing so, she finds herself “letting social norms control her and what she writes about” because “instead of writing about something that peaks her curiosity, she is limited by convention to write about topics that are ‘sweet and light’” (Spellman, par. 5). After realizing that she is bigger than the bounds that limit her in Western society, Kate moves to South Africa where she finds her unique intelligence to be a factor of progression rather than regression in society. Upon her arrival into the Bushman civilization, Kate is taken in with open arms and praised for her willingness to educate and expand their ways of thinking—completely contrasting the experience she had while living in Western civilization. By having Kate’s experiences be drastically different in the two societies, it shows how harmful Western civilization really is. In Western society, Kate aimed for making a change by expressing herself through her writing but was so constricted by the limits of society that she was forced to quit. 

Being constricted by the limits of society is something that people living in Western culture experience every day; however, it does not seem to bother them because they are brainwashed into thinking that living such a limited life is completely normal. Viewers are able to see the consequences of this mindless acceptance through The Girl and her little brother in Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout as they venture into the Outback and find themselves in need to connect with nature. Because The Girl and The Boy have grown up “in a world where they learned proper etiquette, were taught to get educated to ensure future employment, and were given food instead of having to hunt for it,” they find themselves completely lost the moment they are put into an unfamiliar situation and forced to adapt (Bellesheim, par. 2).

As time elapses and The Girl and The Boy meet an Aboriginal who is willing to help them survive, their lack of knowledge and inexperience of other cultures is exemplified even further when The Girl is unaware of the language barrier that exists between her and the Aboriginal as she attempts to ask him for water. Viewers are also able to see the inexperience of The Girl and Boy the moment that The Girl comments on her brother’s appearance, exclaiming, “You must look after your blazer. It’s got to last. We don’t want people thinking we’re a couple of tramps” (Roeg, 34:28). The Girl’s exorbitant concern about the way her brother looks in the middle of the Australian Outback, as they are barely surviving and getting through each day, goes to show how poorly Western civilization prepared them for times where they would be exposed to a new way of living that is completely different from anything they have ever experienced before.

When people are exposed to something that they have never experienced before, there tends to be various ways in which it is handled. For the Kalahari Bushman, the exposure to a foreign object, such as the Coke bottle, initially caused chaos throughout society; however, once they realized that the bottle was not worth the trouble it was causing, Xi walked to the end of the Earth to throw the bottle in the sea and allow his society to go back to living in tranquility. 

Although the return to homeostasis was easy for the Kalahari Bushmen, it was not as easy for The Girl as she returned home from the Outback and realized everything she left behind will never be attainable for her ever again. As Roeg displays The Girl grown up with her husband as he speaks about his promotion at work, viewers are able to see her in another world, ignoring everything he says, as she thinks back on her time in the Outback where life was much simpler and filled with happiness. Looking at how different both situations of aberration resolve, it becomes evident that real living is being one with nature through a more simplistic way of thinking; however, the only way humans will be able to understand this is by testing limits, experiencing culture shock, and comprehending the fragility of homeostasis.

Works Cited

Antoine, Myrtchena. “What Do You Do with Trash: A Review of WALKABOUT & THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY.” Taking Giant Steps, 2017, https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2017/03/what-do-you-do-with-trash-review-of.html.

Bellesheim, Allison. “Walkabout: Where the Wild Things Are.” Taking Giant Steps, 2017,

https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2017/02/walkabout-where-wild-things-are-by.html.

Eshetu, Hanna. “Pursuit to Restore Serenity.” Taking Giant Steps, 2018, https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2018/11/pursuit-to-restore-serenity-by-hanna.html.

Gottwald, Benny. “Putting Masculinity on the Chopping Block.” Taking Giant Steps, 2018, https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2018/02/putting-masculinity-on-chopping-block.html.

Roeg, Nicolas. Walkabout. Perf. Jenny Agutter, David Gulpilil, and Luc Roeg. Twentieth Century Fox, 1971. Film.

Spellman, Jennie. “The Dark Side of Civilization.” Taking Giant Steps, 2018, https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-dark-side-of-civilization-by-jennie.html.

Uys, Jamie, Director, writer and director. The Gods Must be Crazy.

Artificial Nature: Civilized Man’s Downfall; A Look into “The Gods Must Be Crazy” by Ashley Orellana-Melendez

It is also rarer to find happiness in a man surrounded by the miracles of technology, than among people living in the desert of the jungle and who by the standards of our society would be considered destitute and out of touch.

                                                                 ‑--Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian adventurer

In the eighteenth century, Britain gave birth to the Industrial Revolution and swept the world off its primitive feet. A wave of technology and innovative ideas began to flow all throughout Europe and shortly thereafter in America. Communities that were once rural and agrarian became industrial and urban. Over time, the culmination of inventions gave rise to a by-product we call the ‘civilized’ world. In this tech-savvy society, man sees no need to concern himself with the consequences of his creations or the footprint that he leaves behind, proving that the manufactured world is the epitome of “ignorance is bliss.” As humankind continues to progress towards technological expansion, it becomes less human-centered, putting the welfare of man on the back burner. In recent years, the masses have willingly paid this price in order to reap the “benefits” of modern-day commodities. This vicious cycle continues to run so long as our ‘stuff’ fulfills its purpose: making life easy while keeping us content. But in a society that seems to have lost touch with the natural, how do we know for certain that our happiness is true as opposed to distorted? And if our emotions are false, how can we claim that the Western way of life is superior to the lifestyles we have deemed primitive and savage?

Jamie Uys’ The Gods Must Be Crazy confronts us with these inquiries from the get-go by presenting us with a lifestyle that is opposite to our own. The film opens with a compilation of shots, introducing viewers to Sub-Saharan African wildlife. The camera shifts from gazelles to lions and from giraffes to elephants, all coexisting, to demonstrate that a certain degree of harmony does exists somewhere: in nature. The tranquility that is evoked by the scenic views is backed by an even more serene soundtrack, leaving viewers in awe of Mother Nature’s majestic creations. This peaceful opener invites us as the audience to let down our guards and embark on a blissful safari ride. As we continue to make our way through the Kalahari, we come across a group of “pretty, dainty, small, and graceful” (Uys, 00:01:17) people: the Bushmen. While we observe the primitive beings, a third-party narrator cuts in to enlighten us. In his Nat Geo Wild voice, the narrator says, “They must be the most contented people in the world. They have no crime, no punishment, no violence, no laws, no police, judges, rulers, or buses. They believe that the Gods put only good and useful things on the Earth for them to use. In this world of theirs nothing is evil” (Uys, 00:02:42). Taking note of the peace and overwhelming sense of joy that exists within this community, viewers are left feeling slightly jealous of the Bushmen. This insight is followed by a rundown of the tribe’s daily activities, to further educate the audience on the “savage” way of life. The elders dig for roots and tubers while the children gather berries. Some hunt for meat, while others makeshift tools out of the resources surrounding them. At the end of the day, they all come together to tell stories and play unorthodox games in order to pass the time. The Bushmen live a simple lifestyle, meeting the conditions of their gentle world.

While this existence may seem lackluster and archaic to civilized man, it proves to be much more fulfilling and superior to the Western way of life. As Uys demonstrates in the first half of the opening scene, the Bushmen relish in their stress-free lives. They are not subservient to the constraints of societal pressures nor the construct of time. Instead of becoming a ‘snob-ciety,’ this group of people accepts what the natural world offers them. Thus, their only real worry is to gather enough food to feed their family. Since everyone, including the young and the elderly, pitches in, this hearty task becomes a leisurely family activity. In Western society, however, this task is overcomplicated and treated like a dire chore. Our ‘civilized’ world has proclaimed that man knows better than nature. So instead of doing like the Bushmen, we have created a culture in which one must possess stuff in order to survive. As a result, we put a tremendous amount of pressure on ourselves to get a well-paying job so that we can partake in acts such as purchasing genetically modified “food” or buying the latest iPhone. The self-manufactured dismay does not stop here though. Not only have we created a middleman to hinder us from fulfilling basic necessities such as alimenting ourselves, but along the way we have also constructed stressors and anxieties to warp our mental states. The Bushmen, on the other hand, have never been exposed to the manufactured world, so their physical and emotional health are better for it.

To further demonstrate the ways in which the norms of modern society affect our well-being, Uys juxtaposes the calm primitive lifestyle of indigenous peoples against the fast-paced world of technology. The audience is transported 600 miles south of the Kalahari, where the script is flipped and viewers are introduced to modern day civilization. The narration in this half of the opening scene satirically emphasizes the impracticality of our creations. In a condescending tone, the narrator says, “Civilized man refused to adapt himself to his environment, instead he adapted his environment to suit him. So, he built cities, roads, vehicles, machinery, and he put out power lines to run these labor-saving devices. But somehow he didn’t know when to stop. The more he improved his surroundings to make life easier, the more complicated he made it” (Uys, 00:06:00). This narration serves as a wake-up call for the audience. As Uys makes the point that we have created more problems for ourselves by trying to evade the natural, viewers are prompted to have an “aha” moment. It is here that we realize that there is a direct relationship between our commodities and our troubles: the more stuff we have, the more suffering we endure. 

However, despite this fact, we cannot seem to stop making and obtaining manufactured goods. This inability to halt the innovation of unnecessary products is known as the Diderot Effect. It is brought about when one grows to need a particular kind of material possession: “Obtaining new stuff creates a spiral of consumption which leads one to acquire more new things. As a result, we end up buying and producing things that our previous selves never needed to feel happy or fulfilled” (Clear, par. 7). The Gods Must Be Crazy captures the essence of the Diderot Effect through a series of clips, showcasing a few of civilized man’s many inventions. Viewers become overwhelmed by the multitude of snippets---everything from speeding cars to skyscrapers and assembly lines to computers---in a manner that causes viewers to feel as though they are drowning in chaos. The splicing of these clips and the narrator’s tone are deliberately combined to show us that our current lifestyle is absurd.

In “#FirstWorldProblems: Looking at THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY,” Maggy Pollicino points out the faults of Western society. She declares our need for material ‘stuff’ as the foremost problem in our modern society. “When a thing appears, or is invented for convenience, after a couple of generations, people cannot fathom getting by without it… the excessive use of ‘stuff’ has become the true first world problem” (Pollicino, par. 3). However, in recent years this so-called “first world problem” is quickly turning into an epidemic. A study conducted by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements estimates that by 2030 85% of the world’s population will be living in developed countries (“Urbanization: Facts and Figures,” par. 1). This means that in eleven years the vast majority of our population will live in manufactured societies. This statistic alone is cause for concern given our current state of affairs. Modern man is evidence that the more material goods one has at their disposal, the more out of touch one becomes. Our species is not yet emotionally intelligent enough to utilize technology without letting it pollute our soul. Emotional intelligence is described as the ability to be “more aware of our emotions and what they are signaling to us” (Handel, par. 9), meaning that emotions play a vital role in guiding our choices and decision-making. 

Unfortunately for us, we tend to confuse the rush of dopamine that we experience when using modern day technology with real joy. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that is associated with the brain’s pleasure and reward system. This chemical brings about positive feelings based on certain actions (Fader, par. 6). In our ‘civilized’ society, actions such as tapping away on an app and or shopping online, have induced the release of dopamine. On the flip side, not partaking in acts like these can lead to a significant drop in one’s overall mood. In an article published by The New York Times, columnist David Brooks wrote, “Tech companies understand what causes dopamine surges in the brain and they lace their products with ‘hijacking techniques’ that lure us in and create compulsion loops” (par. 7). Evidently, we are not in control of our emotions; our ‘stuff’ is. Lacking the sense of emotional intelligence needed to uncloak false joy, we have allowed our society to get hooked on tech.

Uys subtly parallels this hijacking of emotions in The Gods Must Be Crazy. After a pilot chucks an infamous Coca-Cola bottle out of his plane, it lands in the wilderness of the Kalahari. Xi, a member of the Bushmen tribe, comes across the glorious bottle as he makes his way back home. Believing that the Gods had sent the bottle, Xi decides to take it to the village with him. Being resourceful people, the Bushmen find many uses for the bottle. One bushman uses the bottle to cure snakeskin while another plays music on it. “Every day they’d discover a new use for the thing… it was the most useful thing the Gods have ever given them, a real labor-saving device” (Uys, 00:09:56). All was well until man everyone suddenly needed it. Individuals began to take the bottle from each other and fights broke out over this piece of glass. The once peaceful and content people of the Kalahari were now violent beings, overcome with anger and jealousy. Just like advanced technology promotes fake happiness in modern man, the Coca-Cola bottle stirred up destructive sentiments in the Bushmen. Acknowledging this fact, Xi takes it upon himself to get rid of the bottle. He journeys to the end of the earth and throws the glass container away before it has the chance to further damage his family’s well-being.

The relationship between humans and manufactured products is toxic. Not only has our society come to depend on the artificial, but it has become obsessed. As a result, our souls are becoming rotten. However, it is important to note that technology itself is not evil. The ways in which we interact our ‘stuff,’ on the other hand, is evil. We must seek to become as filled with agency and emotional intelligence as Xi. In order to save our society from destruction, the civilized must learn from the “savage.”  

Works Cited

Brooks, David. “How Evil Is Tech?” The New York Times, 20 Nov. 2017. Web.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/opinion/how-evil-is-tech.html

Clear, James. “The Diderot Effect: Why We Want Things We Don’t Need — And What to Do About It”. Web.

https://jamesclear.com/diderot-effect

Fader, Sarah. “What Is Dopamine And How Does It Affect The Brain And The Body?” BetterHelp, 2 Jan. 2019. Web.

https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/medication/what-does-dopamine-do-in-the-brain-and-what-is-its-function/

Handel, Steven. “The 4 Fundamental Pillars of Emotional Intelligence.” The Emotion Machine, 1 Apr. 2013. Web.

https://www.theemotionmachine.com/the-4-fundamental-pillars-of-emotional-intelligence/

Pollicino, Maggy. “#FirstWorldProblems: Looking at THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY”.           14 Oct. 2017.

The Gods Must Be Crazy. Directed by Jamie Uys, performances by N!xau, Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo, and Louw Verwey, 20th Century Fox, 1984.

“Urbanization: Facts and Figures.” United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat). 2001. Web.

https://www.un.org/ga/Istanbul+5/bg10.htm