The concept of celebrating Christmas is a foreign cultural aspect which has been modified to suit the lifestyles of Kalahari Bushmen. The narrator explains the significance of this celebration to the Bushmen, who have high expectations on how the feast needs to be prepared. This paper will look at the cultural relevance of Christmas to communities living in the Kalahari and how different theories of socialization relate to their ways of life.
The narrator reveals how Bushmen integrated Christmas celebrations with other rituals that are familiar with their concepts of celebration. The custom of slaughtering an ox, dancing, feasting, and celebration indicates that community members in the Kalahari recognized the value of Christmas in their unique ways.
The narrator’s interactions with Bushmen made him understand their communal habits and other cultural practices better. This way of living was different from what the narrator was accustomed to because he rarely shared his food supplies with members of the community. There was a cultural conflict between the narrator and locals because he had a different opinion regarding sharing and coexistence.
The narrator offered an ox for Christmas to members of the community as a symbol of gratitude for cooperating with him while he was doing his anthropological research. The environment in which the Bushmen lived was a harsh desert, and the narrator observed how they survived in these difficult conditions. They engaged in various community activities that bound them together as people that shared common cultural beliefs and practices.
The influence of Christianity had helped them develop different value systems which had altered the way they perceived different practices that were important to them. They had shown relative acceptance of western ideals even though Christmas celebrations did not have the same meaning to them as it did to the narrator. The narrator’s decision to offer them an ox can be described as a form of organic solidarity because he had been integrated into the community even though he was a foreigner.
Bushmen community members have various beliefs and practices which define them as a distinct cultural unit. The narrator observed that locals were hesitant to accept his gift because they felt its quality was inferior. The concept of cultural relativism became clear because the narrator found it difficult to convince them that his gift was going to satisfy their expectations.
They reacted differently to his gift, claiming that the ox was old and did not have enough meat and fat to satisfy all members of the community. The narrator highlights a unique communal attribute of these people; they still expected him to offer a meatier ox to them for Christmas. The narrator’s cultural background did not make him anticipate that Kalahari locals have a different view on how Christmas is supposed to be celebrated.
The narrator felt they were disappointed with the quality of the ox he had offered because they had grumbled that the meat was not adequate for their needs. The narrator observed that in this community, Christmas was more of a cultural celebration than a religious one. The narrator later discovered that natives of the Kalahari had a strong attachment to tender meat and fat from cattle.
He found out their concept of a successful festival involved eating and making merry endlessly. Therefore, the concept of mechanical social solidarity was relevant in this community because they were bound together by strong norms and cultural practices. They enjoyed performing various activities together, which encouraged bonding and social cohesion.
The narrator’s interactions with the Bushmen and other communities in the Kalahari give him a deeper understanding of their cultural ideals. He found out that locals have a strong attachment to meat and any feast needed to have an abundant supply of the commodity for it to be considered worthwhile. This shows that social interactions which members of this community had with each other were characterized by sharing and celebrations.
The narrator was expected to perform his responsibilities as a positive gesture to appreciate how he had been welcomed into the community. He was required to fulfill specific roles given to him by the community, after living with them and taking time to understand their cultural practices. Therefore, he was expected to show his loyalty to members of the community by offering material and moral support to ensure everyone celebrated Christmas in a special way.
The narrator got a clear perspective of the way of life of people living in the Kalahari. He finds out that they understand Christmas celebrations differently because of the way they have been socialized. However, he later found out that locals had been teasing him about the bull because the meat obtained was enough for everyone.
Christmas celebrations were good, and the mood became cheerful, which was contrary to what the narrator had anticipated earlier. He later discovered that Bushmen liked to make sarcastic remarks about anything they come across, which he felt was a form of unique cultural behavior. The concept of cultural relativism was relevant in this situation because the narrator expected locals to show him gratitude for his gift, yet they reacted indifferently.