essay

The creative individual in the world of the !Kung San

Creativity/anthropologyIthacaPublished In 1993 • Pages: 54-69

By: Shostak, Marjorie.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this paper, Shostak explores !Kung creativity and the problematic role of !Kung artists in their highly egalitarian society. Although !Kung musicians, healers, bead-weavers, and storytellers are constantly contributing to and refreshing !Kung culture, they are careful not to stand out and put themselves above others. Instead they downplay their accomplishments. Shostak interviews three different artists, a musician, healer, and bead-weaver and discuses how they manange. She concludes that because no change of status results from creative expression it is tolerated and indeed 'creativity flourishes in !Kung life' (page 68 ).
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Modification of behavior
Personality traits
Music
Visual arts
Shamans and psychotherapists
Revelation and divination
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
San
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2005
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Africa
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Southern Africa
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Ian Skoggard ; 2003
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1969-71, 1975
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1969-1975
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Dobe area, Botswana
NotesAdditional notes
Marjorie Shostak
Includes bibliographical references (p. 69)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
92052765
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
San (African people)