In the previous lectures we discussed some of the stereotypes associated with hunter-gatherers such as: noble savages, living fossils, and one with nature. In the film N!ai, I believe that the filmmakers attempted to break some of those stereotypes by attempting to show the way they lived with as little staging as possible. However, some of their commentary eluded to some of the stereotypes that I feel these filmmakers were trying to avoid. The film-makers also portrayed the !Kung as a group of people with little to no conflict prior to european contact. While I do believe that European colonization is responsible for conflicts that many countries in Africa face, it is illogical to suggest that there was no conflict prior to european contact. Additionally, the filmmakers portrayed the !Kung as the people who lived in a boundaryless land, which I argue is not entirely correct. While the people in the area did not possess title deeds …show more content…
While they did have access to a diverse menu, there is always a limit to the resources provided by the environment. Climatic changes limit some of the resources available or could destroy a resource entirely. Thus, the !Kung don’t have unlimited resources and I argue that they are aware of that and will gather and hunt what they know is more readily accessible. What I would have liked to see in this film is some more of the challenges that the !Kung may have faced before Europeans colonized the area. They did show that the !Kung faced challenges in hunting and that the process could take several days, but that scene was very short. This film also showed some of the challenges that N!ai faced which could be problems that many other women in her group faced, so I thought that that was interesting. I thought that the scenes where N!ai was rebelling her arranged marriage is relatable across many other