Communication between individuals, persons, groups of people with different cultural origin or linguistic has existed over the years. Without communication, civilization would not be possible, owing to the lack of means of communication between people. This action between people of different origin is referred to as intercultural communication.
Culture is termed as a way of life for people (Thomas, Kinast & Schroll, 2010). It comprises of the beliefs, customs, and art of a particular society or group of individuals. From the film, ‘The God’s must be Crazy’ we see the Bushmen believing in a God who resides in the skies. When the white man in the plane drops a bottle he was drinking from, and the Bushmen see it, they believe it is a blessing from their God. After some period the bottle brings about jealousy and hatred, this leads to the community making a decision to throw away the bottle. They came up with this ruling because it brought about evil virtues and hence they saw it as a bad omen. They also used to hunt for meat, extracting water from plants and harvesting dew. Their other way of life involved the men hunting as women and children were left at home crushing nuts. The community had elders who made decisions on issues affecting them.
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Co-culture is a group of people that are not part of the dominant structure of society and as such termed as the minorities or the ethnic group (Thomas, Kinast & Schroll, 2010). In the film, we find poachers who hunted down game such as lions. We also come across a teacher (white), living close to the community. We also come across law enforcers when they arrest the bushman for hunting down a goat that did not belong to him.
Kinesics is the study of gestures and body movement (Thomas, Kinast & Schroll, 2010). It also involves studying movements as a form of nonverbal communication. The whites used the handshake as a form of greeting among themselves. The bush community, on the other hand, used to place the palm of a hand to the chest as a way of greeting. The people in this community used to put their heads into contact as a way of saying yes.
Haptics is defined as the form of interaction involving touch (Jensen). The placing of the palm on a person’s chest shows contact between the parties; shaking hands is also another type of touch evident in the film. In addition, when people touch their foreheads to signal acceptance haptics is evidenced. Therefore, we can see that the haptics involved in this film entail forms of greetings.
Territoriality is the use of space to communicate possessions and occupancy. It is related to land (Jensen). The Bushmen lived as a community, and as such had pieces of land where they built houses. This indicated that this was the person’s territory, and therefore others should not intrude. In the film, there is a school which shows that the land belonged to the school. When the bushman sets out on a trip to dispose of the bottle, he walks for a long distance before reaching the cliff which he claims is the end of the world. Another indication of territory is seen when the bushman’s children set out to seek for him. They come across a hyena, showing that they had moved from human territory to game territory.
In addition to this, the film showcases different types of communication. It outlines high and low context communication. In high-context communication, most of the information remains hidden (Jensen). For example, we find the greeting of placing the palm on the chest understandable among the bush community but the whites are not aware of such practices. The Bushmen did not understand the handshaking as a form of greeting though it was commonly accepted among the whites.
Collectivism is giving a group priorities preceding over individual ones (Jensen). We find in the film that the Bush community owned land as a community. We also see that the decision to get rid of the bottle is made because it affects the community. As such, it is evident that collectivism is present as the decision is not based on individual wants.
Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual’s belief should be understood by others regardless of the other party’s culture (Jensen). The Bushman expects that the whites to be aware of their customs in matters to do with greetings. When the white lady is bathing, she realizes that the Bushman is seeing her and thus covers herself. In the community, it might not be a vice to do so.
Proxemics is the branch of knowledge that deals with the amount of space set between people depending on culture and behavior (Jensen). The whites saw the bush community as wild people while the bush community saw the whites like supernatural beings. This difference in belief caused a space between them regarding cultural similarities.
Individualism involves being independent and thus a supporter of freedom of action (Jensen). In this film, the bushman came across the bottle, and thus was given the right to get rid of it. The teacher was independent as she had the freedom of living around and conducting her activities. The poachers had freedom of driving around the land.
In light of the above, we can see different instances of intercultural communication in the film. As seen above, we can determine the differences in culture to be an effect of the different geographical locations in which the people of both cultures lived and their practices.
- Jensen, I. The Practice of Intercultural Communication. University of Roskilde, Denmark. Retrieved November 4, 2016, from http://immi.se/
- Thomas, A., Kinast, E.-U., & Schroll-Machl, S. (2010). Handbook of intercultural communication and cooperation. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
