Abstract
This paper questions preconceptions that situate the |xam in a Stone Age past where they can be objectified by a timeless gaze. From such appropriations and (miss)-representation, the |xam emerge either as shamans or victims or as the quintessential proto-scientists. We explore instead the expressive culture of the |xam and describe its significance as “applied history” for people’s lives in the present. Our investigation follows two routes; firstly, via notions of vibration, sound and rock engravings as they remain available for intermedial comparison in the archaeological and ethnographic records. Secondly, we consider the complex ontological instabilities and continuities in an oral tradition by focusing on !khwa—rain potency. From this we demonstrate how cultural literacy, with no direct written form, is translated from an extinct |xam language and culture and finds meaningful leverage among present-day descendants of the |xam who are genetically extant but now speak another language, Afrikaans.
Highlights
Investigating the |xam language reveals a set of acoustic analogies which convey a rich and meaningful experience of sound
Sounds produced by bells and rock gongs were linked in the |xam language
The thinking strings and their empathetic vibration shed light on the question: What is heightened conscious from a |xam perspective? Thinking strings are indicative of altered states
Summary
Sounds produced by bells and rock gongs were linked in the |xam language. Rain still influences the lifeworld of people living in the semi-desert Karoo region, including descendants of the |xam who can no longer speak nor understand |xam since the language is extinct. Once thought quaint or worthless, these ideas, communicated through stories and rock depictions, appear ever relevant in a region beset by climate change and the challenge that Fracking poses for the underground water system of the region. In an extraordinary collaboration in the nineteenth century, several |xam informants and storytellers told their stories (kukummi) to the German philologist Dr Wilhelm Bleek and his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd. According to the UNESCO website, this collection of literature and testimony “provides an invaluable and unique insight into the language, life, religion, mythology, folklore and stories of this late Stone Age people”
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