The Ju Hoansi People

The San have been represented by the media as a primitive group living in untouched area. We see this a lot in news, articles and films. The film titled “the gods must be crazy” which portrayed the San as people who have never seen a bottle of coca cola is a good example . However, one may ask this question : “how can a “primitive” group that is “untouched by civilization” feature in a movie?” In 1980s the San took part in making a film. This is one of the top things that come into mind when we think of “civilization”. Yet the youtube video shown above which was published in 2012 still portrayed the San as “the classic stone age people”.

As Richard Lee highlights , the San specifically the Ju’ Hoansi have been a recognized human race
This term is problematic because it has some racist and sexist connotations. It is similar to calling someone “indian” (Lee 2013:9). The word is self explanatory as it means “bush” and “men” put together. In the video shown in the beginning, the word “bushmen” is the only word used to describe the San and that is the name that we find in the media often. This name implies that the san a ”lost” race with no structural organization. However, in his research, Lee found that the Ju’Hoansi are have well organized structure like any other culture. That being said, anthropologists urge us to use the San’s proper names such as the Dobe Ju’Hoansi instead of “bushmen”(Lee
Although, the San still have some traditions that are passed on to other generations such as having a wide knowledge of hundreds of species of plants and animals that are edible and those that are harmful, their culture cannot be compared to an authentic stone age culture. Therefore, it is important to understand that the San culture is just a different culture from ours that contributes to the diversity of the world. Rather than continuing to romanticize the San people, learning about them would give us a better view of their culture and this would help us to appreciate it