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comedy, and trances. Particularly when hunting, people went to sleep soon after the sunlight
vanished since there were no lights other than some light from the fire, woke up during the
night to perhaps tend the fire or chat, then fell off to sleep again. And sometimes, in the heat of
the day, they found a suitable tree to take a nap under. In contrast, modern man stays up later,
often with awaking later as well. Is it then not a surprise that modern city man enjoys TV, rock
concerts, discos, the Lion King, ballet, acting in movies or TV, late night talk shows, and
religious experience? Is it learnt or in our DNA? Visions and trances were induced by
dancing, singing, miming, and hallucinogens such as dagga (hashish). According to Don Heath,
who grew up among the San Bushmen and spoke their language since his great grandfather,
grandparents and parents had worked with them, men got stoned smoking dagga joints around
the fire at night from the age of 12 years. If they were out hunting or got caught out at night from
camp, they did not smoke because they knew at night that could be fatal. The women would lie
down and smoke pipes through water in a calabash (pumpkin like gourd) buried in the ground.
Alcohol was rarely drunk or consumed except for occasional bubbly honey water or fermented
fruit juice since they did not have the containers or pots to brew alcoholic beverages. The
dancing was often led by some “shamans.” Usually referred as shamans, the San Bushmen
were not shamans, a Turkish word, in the general sense of shamans. They did not believe in
sorcery or casting evil spells as in the case of Nguni/Zulu true shaman sangomas, nor did they
typically communicate with the dead. Yet many in the clan would have prophetic like visions
of where to go hunting, seeing out of the eyes of animals like eland, and had out of body
experiences with their souls traveling to distant places.
Sandstone Caves Covered by Basalt behind an Eland in the Drakensberg
In case of disease, it was not because of a curse cast on a member as commonly believed by
Nguni tribes, but because food from a killed animal had been wasted or excessive killing had
occurred or an ancestor was trying to take a family member from them. Supplication and
amends for wasting of meat from a killed animal would heal the disease.
Fighting was uncommon within this hunter-gatherer egalitarian society that prized sharing.
When disagreements arose the method of dealing with it is what anthropologists call “fission;”
separation and going to another group or starting another band. Ironically, the term that refers
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