They left part of thier beliefs, culture, and history in paintings and engravings on rock faces. Some of the paintings are very old dating 25000 B.C. and some about 150 years old.
It is very difficult to date paintings. To use radiocarbon dating
to have to
use a part of the scene's paint which would destroy the painting.
The above old date comes from other stuff like charcoal dating in a layer,
in which the painting done on a slab was founded.
The paintings was done with natural paints and brushes made from
sticks, bones, animal hair and other natural fibers.
Natural colors used were black from charcoal, white from ashes or bird droppings, yellow,
and red brown from achre and dried blood.
The mixture to get the paint isn't known but we do know they used
mixed ingredients like egg yellow, urine, animal blood and colors
together to form the paint. Different
painters probably used different recipes.
Their paintings depicted normal way of life:
daily tasks- like catching fish and collecting honey and digging for roots,
history- the strife that existed between the pastoralists and the Bushmen and other groups,
trance dances- to find the rainbull and drive out sickness,
stories- legends and stories about animals and the friendship that
existed between man and animal.
They believe animals were once people with human characteristics
There are/were different dialeks of the Bushmen click language and different myths and some myths interpreted differently. Some have the same beliefs or myth but the story surrounding the beliefs were different. The people also lived in different regions that shaped these beliefs and myths.
These people showed respect and gave characteristics to animals,
the rain, the sun, the moon and the stars. They do pray/ask for a good hunt or food or rain, but they don't have a religious ceremony and a
divinity or fore fathers to which they pray.
We decided to place this unique and diverse folktale as part of our web page. This short tale relates to the traditional cultures unit because it shows how
different African legends influence the ideas of different cultural
beliefs.
40,000 years ago the Bushmen were the first people that settled in South Africa. They left part of their beliefs, culture and history in paintings and engravings on rocklike faces. Some of these such paintings are extremely old and go back to 25,000 BP and some even 150 years ago. The paintings show how the African people live day to day life by illustrating daily tasks, history, trance, dances, stories and legends. The daily tasks were depicted by catching fish, collecting honey and digging for roots.
Trance dances were used to find the rainbull and drive out sickness. In addition, stories and legends about animals and friendships that existed between men and animals were also common. They believed animals
were once people with human characteristics. By looking at the
unique paintings of the Bushmen, their lifestyles were eventually
depicted upon greatly. In addition
to this, the Bushmen showed respect and gave unique characteristics to animals, rain, sun, moon, and the stars. In doing so, the people pray and ask for
animals to hunt, and for rain to come. They didn't have a religious
ceremony which they can play. Dating back thousands of years ago,
it was known that the Bushmen's myths and legends created a world of
their own.
Overall, myths and legends play an important role in the African traditions. Our American society today differs greatly from the American society which dates back to many older folktales.
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