The |Xam and the Rain

Views by a Group of Southern San

Author: Ansie Hoff. Series edited by: Rainer Voßen.

Series: QKF Research in Khoisan Studies Volume 26

2011
100 pp.
1 map: The Northern Cape, South Africa and surrounding areas
Text language(s): English
Format: 160 x 240 mm
210 g
Paperback
€ 29.80

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This publication deals with the role of water and rain in the historical and changing cosmology of the |Xam, an ethnic group of South Africa, and their descendants. Therefore, the author did a culture-historical reconstruction, including the study of historical documents, oral information of |Xam descendants and own observations in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.

To the |Xam, rain/water is more than only an element to quench thirst. Like many other groups, the |Xam experienced the universe as a life-force order of which the components influenced one another. Rain/water was viewed as beneficial but potentially dangerous and was symbolised in the attitudes and behaviour of an extremely potent female or male mammal such as the Water Eland and Water Cow or Bull, or a snake (the Water Snake).

Descendants of the |Xam still live in the Northern Cape. Although the composition of the inhabitants in the research area prior to the eighteenth century is not clear, it was probably inhabited predominantly by San. Possibly, from about 1740, Europeans, Korana, Griqua and Xhosa-speaking persons moved into the area. Much biological and cultural contact occurred between these groups and subsequently, the |Xam lifestyle and belief system has undergone substantial changes.

Many cosmological views have disappeared, others have changed or have been replaced by new ones. Examples from the recent past are the prominence of the male Water Animal compared to the female form, and the confusion about concepts such as the Water and Underwater People, Water Man, Water Maiden, people caught by the Water Animal, and the Water Spirit.

Under these links you will find further studies of traditional beliefs and healing in Subsaharan Africa, of the conceptualization of landscape, nature, space and environment, as well as publications by the author:

Accompanying material:

• !Ōsis – Female Leader of the Richtersveld (South Africa) (ISBN 978-3-89645-632-8)
• Dealing with Disorder (ISBN 978-3-89645-082-1)
• Ein Heilungsritual der Dama, Südwestafrika/Namibia (ISBN 978-3-89645-351-8)
• Khoisan Medicine in History and Practice (ISBN 978-3-89645-148-4)
• Konzeptualisierung von Landschaft im Mbukushu (K.333/K.43) Bantusprache in Nord-Namibia) (ISBN 978-3-89645-600-7)
• Man and Health in the Lake Chad Basin / L’homme et la santé dans le bassin du lac Tchad (ISBN 978-3-89645-897-1)
• Medicine Experts of the |Xam San (ISBN 978-3-89645-147-7)
• South African |Xam Bushmen Traditions and Their Relationships to Further Khoisan Folklore (ISBN 978-3-89645-875-9)

Cross-reference:

• A Tima-English Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-89645-901-5)
• Alltägliche Zauberei (ISBN 978-3-89645-310-5)
• Anthropologie des Raumes (ISBN 978-3-89645-217-7)
• Hexenjagd und Aufklärung in Ghana (ISBN 978-3-89645-909-1)
• Living with the Lake (ISBN 978-3-89645-216-0)
• Perception of the Invisible (ISBN 978-3-89645-603-8)
• Religion, Myth and Magic in Tangale (ISBN 978-3-927620-46-9)
• Swahili Plants (ISBN 978-3-927620-89-6)
• The Akie Language of Tanzania (ISBN 978-3-89645-714-1)
• The Mukogodo Maasai (ISBN 978-3-927620-86-5)
• Towards Interdisciplinarity (ISBN 978-3-89645-886-5)
• Voices of Affliction (ISBN 978-3-89645-245-0)

PDF documents:

Introduction

(≈ 226 kB)

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