Richard Lee: The Hunter-Gatherer ! Kung People
The evidence anthropologist Richard Lee gathered about the hunter-gatherer! Kung people definitely contradicts philosopher Thomas Hobbes early 1600s beliefs of pre “civilizations” as being “nasty, brutish, and short”. These commonplace views of misconception often held by people in the industrialized world toward small-scale societies are not only wrong but offensive.
During Richard Lee’s time studying the !Kung people of southern Africa he noticed various traditions and customs they adapted into their way of living. For example, in the early 19th century The London Missionary Society introduced the celebration of Christmas into the !Kung culture. They understood this holiday as the “[celebration] praise the birth of the white man’s god-chief”. …show more content…
Unfortunately, anthropologist Lee found himself in an usual predicament, the people of the !Kung society claimed the ox was too small to feed and satisfy the hungry of the community and he should find another ox before he causes conflict. Lee was very shocked by this discovery because the ox was more than big effort to feed the village for days, even though, he was very aware of his knowledge the repetitive doubt from the !Kung made him believe his ox was not good enough for the Christmas dinner feast. The day of the feast came and Lee just accepted the fact that he ruined it with his “not up to par” ox, when in reality his ox was super hearty and fat. The !Kung lied to Lee in order to teach him a lesson of humility, they were not assumed with his bragging of the size of the ox he planned to share with the village. Teaching of human morals and values is something a “brute” would not be able to properly do if we applied Hobbes theory of small-scale societies. I personally believe Hobbes theory was ignorant and clearly unstudied to have made a hasty conclusion as such about small-scale societies. We are all guilty of negative stigmas and stereotypes we place on certain groups of people but this way of thinking can be very toxic, as human beings we should be opened minded and empathic toward one
During Richard Lee’s time studying the !Kung people of southern Africa he noticed various traditions and customs they adapted into their way of living. For example, in the early 19th century The London Missionary Society introduced the celebration of Christmas into the !Kung culture. They understood this holiday as the “[celebration] praise the birth of the white man’s god-chief”. …show more content…
Unfortunately, anthropologist Lee found himself in an usual predicament, the people of the !Kung society claimed the ox was too small to feed and satisfy the hungry of the community and he should find another ox before he causes conflict. Lee was very shocked by this discovery because the ox was more than big effort to feed the village for days, even though, he was very aware of his knowledge the repetitive doubt from the !Kung made him believe his ox was not good enough for the Christmas dinner feast. The day of the feast came and Lee just accepted the fact that he ruined it with his “not up to par” ox, when in reality his ox was super hearty and fat. The !Kung lied to Lee in order to teach him a lesson of humility, they were not assumed with his bragging of the size of the ox he planned to share with the village. Teaching of human morals and values is something a “brute” would not be able to properly do if we applied Hobbes theory of small-scale societies. I personally believe Hobbes theory was ignorant and clearly unstudied to have made a hasty conclusion as such about small-scale societies. We are all guilty of negative stigmas and stereotypes we place on certain groups of people but this way of thinking can be very toxic, as human beings we should be opened minded and empathic toward one