THE KUNG, a former gathering and hunting society living in
the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, have been intensively
filmed, studied, and interviewed by anthropologists
for over thirty years. What is the special appeal of these
people? For one, they are among the few remaining representatives
of a way of life - foraging - which was, until
12,000 years ago, the universal mode of human existence.
For another, observers are attracted by their extraordinary
culture, their narrative skills, their dry wit and earthy humor,
and the rich social life they have created out of the
unpromising raw materials of their simple technology and
semidesert surroundings.
Despite the many reports written about the Kung, certain
areas of their life remain little understood. The ritual of the
healing dance is one such area. This dance has been the
main focus of religious life among the Kung. At weekly
dances, while the women clap and sing, men and women
dancers enter a trance-like state and go among the assembled
Kung, laying on hands and casting a shield of spiritual
energy over the group.
The main contours of this dance and its associated beliefs
had been described, but no study in depth from a psychological
perspective had ever been attempted. Much remained
to be learned of the altered state of consciousness
in the dance, of the long and painful training process, of
the folk theory of illness and healing that lies behind the
ritual, and of the esoteric knowledge held by the masters of
healing, the handful of charismatic "gurus'7 who personify
the most sacred of Kung traditions.
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