A Story of a /Xam Bushman Narrative

TLDR: This article explored the intricate discursive histories that have accompanied the telling, transmission, publication and reception of the narratives in the Bleek and Lloyd collection and argued that a contemporary reading of the narrative, either in the notebooks or in the form in which it appears in Lewis-Williams's book, has to take into account a series of events and interventions that undermine its ontological unity.

Abstract: SummaryThis article explores the intricate discursive histories that have accompanied the telling, transmission, publication and reception of the narratives in the Bleek and Lloyd collection. I will use as an example the story that David Lewis-Williams calls “The First /Xam Man Brings Home a Young Lion” in his selection of materials from the Bleek and Lloyd Collection, Stories That Float from Afar: Ancestral Folklore of the San of Southern Africa. I argue that a contemporary reading of the narrative, either in the notebooks or in the form in which it appears in Lewis-Williams's book, has to take into account a series of events and interventions that undermine its ontological unity. These include the performance and reception of the narrative in various real and virtual spaces as well as its recording, transcription, translation and interpretation.