Essays on Dobe

4-1

Anthropology has done much for religion by comparing religious opinions and cultural practices across social organizations, concluding that religion is created by human society that practice it.

Assumption of modern anthropology holds that religion is in continuity with magical thinking (Cassirer 1944:122).

God is an imaginative projection of humans as it has been observed that images of gods worshiped by communities resemble such communities. For instance,

Xenophanes a Greek writer observed that Thracian gods were blue eyed and blond while those of

the Ethiopians are flat nosed and black (Harvey, Van A. 1997). If gods are like the people worshiping them, then the society is worshiping itself in the disguise of religion- this argument has not been validated by all anthropologists. But this may make much ...

2-1. Food Foragers, Hunting and Gathering, and ‘Insulting the Meat’ and Egalitarianism

Food Foragers Food foragers are essentially ‘in tune’ with their environment such that they have developed the senses and the skills to forage for food. Foragers survive by fishing, hunting, and gathering edible plants in their surroundings. Since foraging not only requires skill but also shared efforts among people in the community. For this reason, foragers were the ones that put together the fabric of ‘community’. “It was as foragers that we became truly human, acquiring the basic habits of dealing with one another and with the world around us that still guide the behaviour of individuals, communities, ...

Ethnography may be referred to as a detailed study and analytical data documentation of the human culture. In our case study, Richard Borshay Lee a Canadian anthropologist born in year 1937 did a study in the southern part of Africa. His study was on tribe many had perceived to be marginalised and dying race. His case study brings out in his more vivid outlook of the lively hood of the Ju/’hoansi in a way contrary to the norm perceived by many. In his study Lee brings out the two main groups living in the Dobe area. They were the Khoi and ...