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Bushmen Quotes

Browse 15 quotes about Bushmen.

Bushmen Quotes

“Then, too, the Ju/wa men had an inherent, almost natural bravery that everyone took entirely for granted. They hunted the world’s most dangerous game with quarter-ounce arrows, they stood off lions and dealt with strangers, all without a shred of the bravado or machismo that so characterizes the men of other societies, including ours. The Ju/wa men simply did what men do without making anything of it, and didn't even think of themselves as brave.”

CourageBraveryHunter GatherersBushmenJu WasiJu HoansiZhu Wasi
Book:The Old Way: A Story of the First People
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“I am N!ai. When the white people first came, I was already a young woman with breasts. Before the white people came, we did what our hearts wanted. We lived in different places, far apart, and when our hearts wanted to travel, we traveled. We were not poor; we had everything we could carry. No one told us what to do. Now the white people tell us to stay in this place. There are too many people. There’s no food to gather. Game is far away, and people are dying of tuberculosis. But when I was a little girl, we left sickness behind us when we moved.”

BushmenKungJu WasiN Ai
Author:John Marshall
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“I am N!ai. When the white people first came, I was already a young woman with breasts. Before the white people came, we did what our hearts wanted. We lived in different places, far apart, and when our hearts wanted to travel, we travelled. We were not poor; we had everything we could carry. No one told us what to do. Now the white people tell us to stay in this place. There are too many people. There’s no food to gather. Game is far away, and people are dying of tuberculosis. But when I was a little girl, we left sickness behind us when we moved.”

BushmenKungJohn Marshall
Author:N!ai
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“But,” I asked, “ why insult a man after he has gone to all that trouble to track and kill an animal and when he is going to share the meat with you so that your children will have something to eat?” “Arrogance,” was his cryptic answer. “Arrogance?” “Yes, when a young man kills much meat, he comes to think of himself as a chief or a big man, and he thinks of the rest of us as his servants or inferiors. We can’t accept this. We refuse one who boasts, for someday his pride will make him kill somebody. So we always speak of his meat as worthless. This way we cool his heart and make him gentle.”

BushmenKungJu WasiJu HoansiKalahariEating Christmas In The Kalahari
Author:Richard B. Lee
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“It is a mistake to assume that government must necessarily last forever. The institution marks a certain stage of civilization-is natural to a particular phase of human development. It is not essential, but incidental. As amongst the Bushmen we find a state antecedent to government, so may there be one in which it shall have become extinct.”

HumansMayStatesGovernmentLastsCertainNaturalMistakeForeverStageParticularDevelopmentCivilizationEssentialsMarkInstitutionsAssumingPhasesHuman DevelopmentBushmen
Book:Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed
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“To a mathematician the eleventh means only a single unit: to the bushman who cannot count further than his ten fingers it is an incalculable myriad.”

MeanScienceTenFingersMathematicianUnitsBushmen
Book:George Bernard Shaw: Collected Articles, Lectures, Essays and Letters: Thoughts and Studies from the Renowned Dramaturge and Author of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Pygmalion, Arms and The Man, Saint Joan, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion
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