Description

J.D. Lewis-Williams, one of the well-known South African archaeologists and ethnographers, excavates meaning from the complex mythological stories of the San-Bushmen to make a larger theory of how myth is used in culture. He extracts their “nuggets,” the far-reaching but rarely unspoken words and concepts of language and understanding that are opaque to outsiders, to build a more nuanced theory of the role of these myths in the thought-world and social circumstances of the San. Myth and Meaning: San-Bushman Folklore in Global Context, (PDF) draws from the exceptional 19th century Bleek/Lloyd archives, more current ethnographic work, and San rock art;-includes well-known San stories such as The Broken String, Mantis Dreams, and Creation of the Eland;-extrapolates from our understanding of San mythology into a larger model of how people create meaning from myth.