The Bushmen: a Unified Society

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The Bushmen: A Unified Society In 1893, a French philosopher and anthropologist named Emile Durkheim published a book in which he discussed solidarity, or what binds members of different societies together. He identified two different types of solidarity: organic and mechanical. Organic solidarity is seen in modern societies, where “labor is highly specialized so that everyone is dependent upon the specialties of others” (Crandall 11). Mechanical solidarity, on the other hand, is seen in more “primitive” societies, where “Each household produces everything it needs” and people are bound together by social norms and ideas rather than specialization (11). Though these two types of solidarity may seem entirely separate, it is possible to have both present in a single society. In the Bushmen tribes of Africa, for example, different aspects of life foster different types of solidarity. When we take a closer look, we see that hunting affects each of these aspects greatly. Hunting is the Bushmen way of life, and as such affects each and every aspect of their society, including religion, marriage, gender roles and politics, fostering both a mechanical and an organic social solidarity among the people. Religion In her book, The Harmless People, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas states, “The Bushmen as well as the gods ignore the suffering of animals” (Thomas 52). The Bushmen’s god, Pishiboro, is a hunter, and thus unconcerned with the welfare of the animals he hunts. As a result, the Bushmen “regard animals with great detachment” (67). In one of the legends about the god Pishiboro, he was married to an elephant. His brother craftily killed her one day in Pishiboro’s absence, afterwards pointing out to Pishiboro that she was an animal, and he had been “married to meat”; at this realization, Pishiboro gladly helps his brother skin the elephant, cuts off a piece of her meat

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