The Gods Must Be Crazy

The Gods Must Be Crazy 1 is a South African comedy film which tells the story of Xi, a Bushman from the deep Kalahari Desert. He lived happily with his family and tribe because he thought the god provided them with plenty of things. The film contains various elements about cultural differences and intercultural communication concepts. In this essay, I aim to analyze the film in the light of the concepts of ethnocentrism and values. The literature review of the concepts will be discussed in the first two paragraphs, and a description of the segments relevant to the chosen concepts, followed by analysis and discussion on how these segments informs the concepts and what could help viewers to understand.

The term
However, there being only one bottle meant only one person had possession of the bottle at one time, changing their lives from the new experience of ownership. This caused fights between the villagers that had never occurred before. The second segment (S4) is when Xi was brought to the court for shooting the goat. The judge asked him if he was guilty or not guilty, M'pudi (the translator who can speak the Bushman language) did not know how to translate the word “guilty” to Xi, because in Xi’s language, there is no word for it.

Ethnocentrism can either be positive or negative. In S1, where Kate Thompson was putting her clothes on, the situation related to the defensiveness stage, where Xi negatively judged the attire of another culture. Xi could not understand the actions of Kate Thompson because her clothes and modesty were foreign to his tribe and culture. In S2 when Xi was arrested and jailed for stealing, it is likely relevant to the denial stage. The police, lawyers, and judges seemed to maintain their own traditional worldview and culture to condemn the actions of Xi to be absolutely illegal with no doubt. But to Xi, it’s another story.

In S3, the Coke bottle changed the values of the Bushmen and created a violent repercussion that did not exist before it dropped into their lives. As the Bushmen were contending to use the bottle “given from the god”, their relationship and society began to change.