Running Head: KALAHARI: BASIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIOLOGY

Christmas in the Kalahari: Basic Concepts of Sociology

Cameron Fisher
Ivy Tech (Indianapolis)

Abstract
This paper will explore how Richard Boshay Lee a anthropologist who explored Kalahari and
wanted to learn about the hunting and gathering economy of the !Kung without disturbing the
people who live there. Here Richard Boshay Lee discovers many cultural differences in
expectation of what expectable food is. This is Gemeinschaft where the interactions with the

Running Head: KALAHARI: BASIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIOLOGY

people of Kalahari valued criticizing hunters of fat cows to eat because of social status norms
that they practiced. While talking to other seasoned individuals of the Kalahari he learns that
there is an entirely different game at play. The bushman of the Kalahari are accustomed to harsh
criticism because it helps to make a hunter humble. In the end he learns that his cow was just fine
and that he was just playing a different cultural game. Through his account we can see that the
society he described shows that these basic concepts of sociology were valid in the exotic
societies of South Africa.

Eating Christmas in the Kalahari a 1969 article by Richard Borshay Lee who is a
professor of anthropology from the University of Toronto. He has extensively studied African
culture. He went to the Kalahari Desert to study the Tswana tribes of South Africa during
Christmas time. He wanted to study the economy of the !Kung Bushman where it is customary to
trade ox, marriages and trance dancing with feasts for several days. Lee thought that it would
be nice to purchase a cow for the Tswana people as a gift. He was wealthy in their eyes and he
would give them small gifts of tobacco and supplies. However this didnt convince the Tswana
people that he was generous. He had to do something else.
For Lee he thought that cow would be a nice gift of appreciation. So he went to search
for a nice cow that he thought would feed the 150 or so Bushman that were around him. So he

Running Head: KALAHARI: BASIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIOLOGY

chose, what he thought to be a large cow that would feed well over 150 people or so. However
the next morning a woman told him that the ox was too old and was just a bag of bones. Others
that he met said that it would hardly feed everybody. He talked to a judge of cattle who also
incisted that Lee didnt know what he was doing even after living there for three years. Another
expert hunter that he talked to said that the people in the community love to have a lot of fat to
eat. Another older man told Lee that it would cause riots because of how little meat there was on
the cow. So Lee was worried that Christmas was going to be a disaster and that they wouldnt
respect him anymore.
However, when he gave it to a butcher the night before Christmas and had them cut it
open. As they opened it up he was surprised to see all the fat that was on the animal. He was
right that there was already a lot of fat on it. He pointed out to the butcher that it did indeed have
a lot of fat on it. However the butcher told him laughing that it was just bag of bones. He soon
caught on that they had been joking the whole time. He learned that in their culture it is
customary to criticize each others achievements. They always criticize others in order to make
them feel humble. The hunters told him that when younger guys try to hunt for cattle they feel
that they are like chiefs and that they can do whatever they want. However, this criticism helps to
make the younger guy feel humble. Lee learned that because of his status in the community he
was perfect for being messed with.
Lee had to deal with the agents of socialization in order to become a member of the
society that he visited. They had given him the nickname of /ontah which was like saying gringo
or blanco in Spanish, a funny nickname that means whitey. Since Lee had a lot more money
than the people who lived there he gave them tobacco and medicine other donations to be nice.
However the people that he met wanted to make him a member of their society by putting him

Running Head: KALAHARI: BASIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIOLOGY

through the test of arrogance. Through this he learned the values of the tribe and became a
member by learning the society. He learned that being arrogant was a bad thing and that people
gained respect by being humble.
Also through his account we learn a great deal about the status of the society that Lee
was studying. For them being ranked higher than others wasnt as important as humility. For
their society they have to kill cattle like how he described every day.
Gemeinshaft was also seen in his account. Gemeinshaft is are people that live together,
have close ancestral ties or beliefs or friendships that naturally occur in social groups. This is
what makes them work together as a group. As Lee had learned, the bushman had developed this
social norm of criticism of each others game catch. This helped them develop humility toward
one another which Lee argued that it helped their society survive. This criticism helped them
become friends with each other an feel that they were a group. They would give each other
nicknames and would train each other to be humble and provide for the community.
Thus, we can see that through Lees travels to South Africa that their society displays
many of the characteristics of the key concepts of Sociology. For one Lee learned of how the
status of the individuals worked for the Bushman, how the agents of socialization shaped their
society and how Gemeinshaft played about in their development. We can see that these concepts
are valid in even very exotic societies and not just in advanced societies that we see in Western
countries.

References
Lee, R. (1969). Eating Christmas in the Kalahari. Natural History.
Schaefer, R. (2012). Sociology (13th ed.). McGraw Hill.