Movie: The God Must Be Crazy
[1] Do you see any ‘culture as a way of life’ and ‘culture as shared symbols’ in this film?
Yes, one of the plot threads in the movie was about the life of a group of South African Bushmen and it demonstrated how a group of people shared the same way of thinking and acting. The group of South African Bushmen shared the same culture – both surface and internal culture. They spoke one special language, they have the same belief that God is the one who guided them and gave them gifts, and they had the same norm of behavior – e.g. prayed before eating the animal hunted. These represent their internal (nonmaterial) culture. On the other hand, the Bushmen shared all the resources and created useful things for their life, such as used the snack skin to make clothes, and only covered part of their bodies; they lived in one large grass house, and ate animals hunted in the forest. These represent their surface (material) culture. More importantly, these elements must be learnt by the young generation through social interaction. The young children needed to learn the language, their mutual values and custom shared in their group. From the life of these South African Bushmen, it is clear to see ‘culture as a way of life’ and ‘culture as shared symbols’.
[2] How did the coca-cola bottle affect the interaction of the native people?
Initially, the Bushmen lived a wonderful and peaceful life. They did not need to worry about any superficial things such as money, paper work, old, beauty, etc. They believed God will provide them enough with good gifts like rain, trees and fruits. However, things change dramatically after a Coca Cola bottle arrived on their land by a careless pilot, and the native people believed that was a gift from God. It was the hardest thing they have ever seen in their life. Soon after, the bottle became a extremely useful tool to their life, serving various functions such as breaking bones and making patterns on snack...