Yuliya Sesina

Feberuary 23^rd, 2009

Anthropology 1001 TV24A/Gaunt

Richard Borshay Lee. “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari”

When thinking about the work of anthropologists, I think of all the information that we gain through studying different cultures. I think of the different methods we use to collect that information and understand it. However, until I read “Eating Christmas in Kalahari”, I did not think of learning culture and values from the native people actively “teaching a lesson”. Although, what better way is there?

Anthropologists try their best to become as close to an emic of a culture as possible. Although it is perhaps not possible to reach that point a 100%, I believe that learning through personal experience is most effective. A person can tell you about a practice or belief hundreds of times but until you experience it, it will remain a concept. Many of us have heard the saying “give him/her a taste of their own medicine”. Even though it is usually used to teach a person a lesson about something bad they did, it is hard to argue that it could be very successful. Allowing a person to feel what you feel, adds a new dimension to the concept they were just told about making it all that more “real” for them.

Richard Borshay Lee’s example shows that through the “lesson in humility” presented to him by the Bushmen tribe, he was able to see his own shortcomings. I doubt that if someone were to tell him that the motif of his Christmas “gift” was anything short of generous he would agree with them. However, after the feelings he experienced from the Bushmen “lesson” and the explanation given to him, it became clear that what he considered a great gift was nothing more than a typical practice of the native people.

Reading Lee’s account made me see that there are countless things that we could learn and ways that we could learn it. It also made me think of Professor Gaunt’s “Agree to be Offended”, when Tomazo said that he did not explain the actions of the people before because Lee did not ask. Perhaps, if he did he would have gained the understanding earlier, and avoided feeling all the negative emotions.

Bibliography

Lee, Richard Borshay. “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari”. In Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 12 ed., ed. Spradley and McCurdy. Allyn & Bacon, 2008, 11 – 18.