Ju Hoansi Quotes

“Then, too, the Ju/wa men had an inherent, almost natural bravery that everyone took entirely for granted. They hunted the world’s most dangerous game with quarter-ounce arrows, they stood off lions and dealt with strangers, all without a shred of the bravado or machismo that so characterizes the men of other societies, including ours. The Ju/wa men simply did what men do without making anything of it, and didn't even think of themselves as brave.”
― Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, The Old Way: A Story of the First People

“Finally, we thank the San people themselves for their unfailing hospitality (after their own fashion) toward more than a dozen researchers over as many years. We have all come to appreciate their cheerfulness in the face of adversity, their peculiar sense of humor, and their fierce egalitarianism.”
― Richard B. Lee

“But,” I asked, “ why insult a man after he has gone to all that trouble to track and kill an animal and when he is going to share the meat with you so that your children will have something to eat?”
“Arrogance,” was his cryptic answer.
“Arrogance?”
“Yes, when a young man kills much meat, he comes to think of himself as a chief or a big man, and he thinks of the rest of us as his servants or inferiors. We can’t accept this. We refuse one who boasts, for someday his pride will make him kill somebody. So we always speak of his meat as worthless. This way we cool his heart and make him gentle.”
― Richard B. Lee