Abstract
In southern Kgalagadi Africa, a group of Indigenous people called the Ju/’hoansi are just a small piece of humanity representing similar cultures all over the world, with a spiritual strength in desperate trouble because of the approaching modern world. The Ju/’hoansi trance dances have been emphasized by over 150 anthropologists and archaeologist who study the San societies in the area, with a huge focus on their group who practices the all-night trance dances in order to cure illnesses of their members by the laying on of hands.
Healing Makes Our Heart Happy
A group of Indigenous people called the San or Bushman of southern Kgalagadi Africa, the Ju/’hoansi tribe, is recognized for hunter-gatherer strategies spanning two million years, with their involvement in agriculture originating approximately 12,000 years ago. The word San basically refers to religion of the Ju/’hoansi tribe, dating from their ethnic relatives and rivals over the years — a religion which practices the healing of illness through trance dances during the night.
Out of this vast tribal history a unique modality of healers have developed, with much research focusing on their belief systems which states that their illness originates from themselves instead of from the gods they believe in. Any dance ritual to remove illness will focus on the person individually instead of through the god[s], while resolving things like being lazy, greedy, or general conflicts simply through general humorous involvement of the entire community.
Community Involvement of the Healing Dance
A major part of their culture, the trance dance of the Ju/’hoansi tribe involves extended families of the entire community. This healing trance dance is a way of life for the Ju/’hoansi, not just a way to heal. When they perform the healing trance dances, their entire lives are involved in the healing process, as they feel they need to heal the entire tribe as a whole in addition to those who are considered ill. (Katz, 1997, p xiii) To do this, the entire healing community becomes one entity through their complete willingness to help one another become better, in addition to using a group knowledge and strength to accomplish it.
Over the years, the people of the Ju/’hoansi tribe have developed ways to solve problems by recognizing workable solutions through strategic thinking and the trance dances for several reasons. In Katz’s book, “Healing Makes Our Heart Happy” he states,
The Ju/’hoansi remain intensively involved in their traditions of community healing and spirituality. ‘Healing,’ they tell us, ‘makes our hearts happy.’ The healing dance has supported the people in the past in their efforts to deal respectfully with problems within the community. (p. xiv)
Healing Energies of the Trance Dance
Respected healers within the tribe feel the healing n/om spiritual energy keeps each community member alive, according to a respected elderly healer by the name of Oma Djo. (Cultural Survival, 272, 2008) He feels that the N/om energy is at the heart of their healing, while the “n!ore” represents their existence physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Oma Djo and the members of the tribe also feel the N/om is what feeds their daily existence to provide nourishment and food, social support, and their spiritual substance. Without it, they would not be able to heal through the trance dances which creates an altered state of consciousness which the Ju/’hoanis call “!aia”.
When trance dancers experience their first “!aia” they can become extremely fearful, but many times they state their God takes their soul away to remove the fear. Traditionally, the healers pass this “n/om” healing energy to others and refuse payment by those who are sick. In the recent years, healers such as Oma Djo have not only refused to share their healing energy with his community but also has charged payment. All of this has gone against the healing ethnic healing practices of the trance dancers in history, and as a community they withdrew from this healer to leave him alone.
Life of the Ju/’hoansi Healers
The Ju/’hoansi people and their healing dances begin at the ages of five or six in games, with parents or close relatives who are healing teachers. The community views these teachers as just ordinary members of the tribe, but as children these healing qualities appeared which made the entire community celebrate in honor of the new life. Not about specific techniques, the honor of being a healer who would “drink n/om” to perform healing is what it is about even if pain is involved. Their “heart is open to the boiling n/om”. (Katz, 1997, p. 60)
The Ju/’hoansi are community tribes, building on shared purposes through gatherings, such as the healing dance which is the main ritual of their life to maintain harmony and balance. A good healer emphasizes a way of life, respecting who they are while becoming a strong ideal for the entire community. Once the healing energy enters the body of the healer, they can interact with the gods to heal the community. Needing to die before their soul can be reborn, which requires enough strength and courage to withstand the burning fire within, is the only way the entire community can be offered the healing energy. In Cultural Survival, a healer says it all,
In !aia your heart stops,” said /Ui, a powerful healer. “You’re dead; your thoughts are nothing. You breathe with difficulty … You see spirits killing people. You smell burning, rotten flesh. Then you heal, you pull sickness out. You heal, heal, heal. Then you live. (Cultural Survival, 272, 2008)
Summary
The realities dramatized in the Ju/’hoansi trance dance represent many areas which involve the daily existence of the entire tribe as a whole. Communal bonds are strengthened in order to accomplish a strengthening of their now weakened land, empowering their community in the encroaching Western society both economically and politically, while also receiving local support from their country’s government. With the trance dances making their self-determination strong enough to achieve these goals, we need to look at the statement by the healer Oma Djo in Healing Makes Our Hearts Happy in order to better understand, “N/om is just the same as long ago, even though it keeps changing.”
The trance dances tell about who the Ju/’hoansi are through the ability of the healers to bring in the healing energy to heal the community as a whole, even though it may bring them pain and suffering. The healing energy that comes through the dancers is given freely to each and every member of the tribal community in order to heal afflictions on an individual level and also as a group mind-set. This shows how generous and giving they are as one entity, instead of as separate individuals.
References
Roberts, Thomas B., Hruby, P., (2003). Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen
Chrestomathy. Council on Spiritual Practices. Retrieved on October 17, 2008 at < http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/straight_path.html>
Katz, Richard, Biesele, M. (year, month day). Healing Makes Our Heart Happy. Cultural
Survival, 27-2. Retrieved on October 18, 2008 from
<http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/healing-makes-our-hearts-happy>
Katz, Richard, Biesele, M., and St. Denis, V. (1997). Healing Makes Our Heart Happy.
One Park Street, Rochester, VT 05767. Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
Guenther, Mathias. 2007. Current Issues and Future Directions in Hunter-Gatherer Studies.
Anthropos 102: 371-388<http://www.peacefulsocieties.org/Society/Juhoan.html>
