Kung

The !Kung Religion

patrick patterson

March/28/2011

The Kung Religion is a polytheistic religion. This means they believe in multiple Gods. They also believe in spirits and spiritual powers each man in the tribe possesses. In the religion there is a Greater god they call Gao!na and a lesser God. The greater God Gao!na created himself and then created the lesser God Gaua. He then created 2 wives, one for himself and the younger one for the Lesser god residing in the west. The Greater God is believed to live in the east where the sun rises with his wife and the lesser God lives in the west where the sun sets with his younger wife. The gods have 6 children between them, 3 sons and 3 daughters. Gao!na is believed to have supernatural powers that could change himself and others into different forms and animals and also bring people back to life. They believe celestial bodies such as the sun, moon, and morning star are symbols of divinity.

To the Kung, the spirit world plays a huge role in every part of their life including life and death, there food and water sources, hunting, etc. There are spiritual leaders and healers (medicine men) in each tribe. They believe Gao!na gave each medicine man the healing power they possess which is name “gaoxa”. They believe all the misfortunes, death, sickness and anything negative comes from spirits shooting invisible arrows through the person experiencing the misfortune. A healer is believed to be able to perform a healing dance that can stop or remove the invisible arrows, and in turn stop any misfortune from happening. This dance involves a healer dancing around a fire until they are put in a trance state of mind that activates a powerful force that they call n/um. Women and men both can become healers by going through an apprenticeship, but it is more common for women to play a secondary role during the healing dance by clapping and singing which is believed to help the healer stay safe and healthy while in...