Water in the Desert: Rituals and Vital Power among the Central Karahari Hunter-gatherers

Abstract

The |Gui and ||Gana, Karahari hunter-gatherers, practice certain rites every time one passes critical phases in their life, or when something unfortunate happens. Because the rites are a kind of curing, they use traditional medicine in the rites. The medicines are composed of plants and substances from human bodies. Comparison with the rites performed by the Kgilagadi, neighboring agropastoral people, reveals that, the |Gui/||Gana consider bodily substances to be mor important than medical plants. The |Gui/||Gana think that all bodily substances stem from one identical power and people exchange the power through these rites.