Sign up for an annual CuriosityStream subscription and you'll also get free access to Nebula (a new streaming platform I'm helping to build along with other creators). Use my promo code when signing up to get a 31-day free trial: curiositystream.com/cogito This video was a part of the MASSIVE #ProjectAfrica collab. Check out the other videos in the #ProjectAfrica collab here: bit.ly/project-africa Or you can go straight to the end of the playlist and check out The Cynical Historians video on How African History Disproves “Guns Germs and Steel” kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aLWBoNmDusrWY4k.html Or go to the video after mine by Archaia Istoria on Phonecian Circumnavigation kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nsqhfcaAsuDGfZ8.html

As a Namibian who speaks one of the Khoisan languages. I want to congratulate you for doing a great job on this video. Great video.

Me: Struggles to pronounce just about everything, even my native English. Cogito: Rocks a word with a click in it.

"Hipity hopity your land is now my property".... as a native I laughed at how REAL that was 🤣🤣

As a native American living on a reservation I feel there pain hope them the best in the future 🙏🙏 just subed to the channel

proud namibian here :D some san tribes are still around here and are protected

R.I.P San Warriors who died while developing there famous poison

It's a tragedy when a native people are robbed of their land, language, culture and independence

"But then Europeans arrived." Uh OH, this isn't going to end well, is it?

Being south african is bad that this video has tought my more about my culture than school ever did

That chonker giraffe, man, what an absolute unit. Gave me a good chortle

Thank you for bringing a broader sense of history to the world. The world is so much more than Europe.

the San are one of my favorite cultures. I have always been fascinated by them. I hope that their culture, language and life style can survive, because it bothers me that so many unique, wonderful and great cultures are dying, being replaced by generic European/Western culture, language and life styles.

Xhosa dude here, your click sounds are not bad dude, definitely way better than the ones in the film Black Panther, where they supposedly speak xhosa

"Vines cover the ruins of Rome, Sand covers the sphinx and the juncles reclaimed the cities of the Olmecs, but the San remain." Thats powerful. Just goes to show that just because something is more ancient or "primitive" doesn't mean its all bad and we can still learn alot from it.

I have lived in Botswana. Most of the Batswana are extremely racist to the San despite the fact that they all have a significant amount of San ancestry.

Good lesson: We should be laughing at our arrogant elected officials to make them humble...

I love the bringing down of ego. humility bragging

Wow, the San people really have a rich culture, I never knew the hunter-gatherer life style could sound so appealing. It sounds almost like heaven on earth, working for 15 hours a week and having plenty of food. How wonderful. I really enjoyed this video. Always nice to learn about a culture I wasn't aware of before.

We still have some Khoisan communities in the western cape of south africa. They tend to be fishermen. Also it very important to understand that just because they work 19 hours a week does not mean its an easy life. They have spent their lives learning how to survive and thrive in areas that would be considered a death sentence to others. It's also not capable to grow large communities like that. That's why they are a minority even though they lived the longest in SA.

I am Namibian/Bantu and its truly sad what my government has done/keeps doing these people.

I am from Namibia. Thanks for making this video. It is really insightful and I must say I've learnt quite a lot from it. It's such a shame that we often look at the san people as "primitive". I feel bad about the way our government treats them and tries to manage them. I hope however that they'll be able to keep their traditional way of living and not let the outside world influence and destroy that. With all that is going on however that hope is quite bleak.

"...which ones were medicinal..." *Joint is smoked*

Dude the reason why we still work 40 hour weeks at this level of productivity is corporate greed and stagnant wages. Not our own greed.

I've been stuying the San for years and this is one of the most comprehensive videos on the people, thank you so much for posting this!!

I'm from Namibia, I really appreciate your content

did he just make a "the sand people will return, and in greater numbers too" reference? (San™ People)

I love how they use shame and ridicule to squash any ambitions of power. That's the best thing ever. It makes me think of that old saying from Huey Long. "Every man a king, no man wears a crown"

After hearing about how they ridicule each other to keep social order, I really wanna go hang. I want to take part in a tribal roast session

The best part is the control of egos in this society.

Another reason I would never buy diamonds.

Sorry, man. If I like and subscribe to this piddly channel immediately, certain individuals might get an inflated opinion of themselves. I will. Later. Maybe.

Ridiculing the hunter's catch is honestly the most wholesome thing

The were very social and peacefull and that so early while the rest of the world were fighting and killing each other and the called them savage people how ironic

Huh. It's as I thought. Like always. Asymmetry of power does *not* have to exist in a thriving human society. Goodness, I hope they outlive this ridiculous country.

I was half-expecting to see a bit of footage from "The Gods Must Be Crazy." Yea, I'm old.

Nicely done, many thanks.

I am crying. This story is so amazing and so sad.

~3:08 small correction, there's actually one site from around 315,000-330,000 years ago where people often identified as anatomically modern humans have been found, so that pushes the date for our origin back by about a hundred thousand years.

I loved learning about these people. They seem to be really smart when it comes to hunting and liveing off their land and they seem to be overall nice people, I think we can learn a few things from these people and I hope the best for them in the future to come. I love to learn about people around the world and their history and beliefs and how they overall live or used to live in the past, and I would love to know more about these people. ☺️

the content of this video reminded me of the thoreau quote: “Wherever you may seek solitude, men will ferret you out and compel you to belong to their desperate company of oddfellows.” and of course men live lives of quiet desperation.

This ones a chonker 😂😂

Amazing they are living exactly how we evolved to live.

God damn this people are amazing. Europe should learn from them. They could survive anything.

I knew first about San people from an awesome movie called "The Gods Must Be Crazy" It was fascinating and watching this video I kept remembering the movie. I love how you covered every aspect as always.

“The Gods must be crazy” (1980) was a movie about The bushman or San People. It was a comedy but not disrespectful to the bushman. Make sure you watch the incredible 1980 version there are chinese knockoffs with the same name floating around on KZfaq and people think it’s the original based in the comments in that video.

i love how Australia is accurate to real life

How tf do you recognize individual peoples footprints?! That’s honestly amazing.

For those watching this video, if you feel bad and “wish you could change the past” just know that these egregious acts are still happening TO THIS DAY. If you want to be a part of positive change and help indigenous people all over the world from genocide and displacement, urge your countries governments to stop their illegal occupations, claims to land, and funding militia groups/puppet governments in these areas that are used to strip indigenous people of their land and natural resources.

So I suppose the opening of "The Gods Must be Crazy" is quite accurate, then.

I think there's certainly a lot to learn from the San. We probably shouldn't abandon our way of life but what they can teach us is to maybe slow down a bit. We definitely have the technology to maintain our current way of life in a much more sustainable way and if we just stop aiming for infinite GDP growth and start aiming for improving the welfare of everyone we can probably do a lot better. I think Solarpunk is probably something to look towards here, it doesn't give up our technology but it vastly restructures society to make it more sustainable and more about every individual. Post-Scarcity is not a technological goal it is a way of organizing society and we could achieve that. I also think that really what many of us want is not so much progress as it is change, we do like our constantly and rapidly changing society but we can probably achieve that without constantly growing economies.

Starvation and poverty began in Africa with the arrival of the Europeans.

There were aboriginals in australia who didn't know about the white settlers until 1984

Serious, great video, very interesting subject. I specially liked that you didn't shy way the fact that most of the traditional way of life have died as a consequence of mordern african political instability and past european colonization, and they are now a reminescense of what they were. It is a bit sad, but knowledging us about their problems and what needs to be done is always important. I hope the best for this amazing people.

Please a video about Kurdish, Assyrian or Coptic peoples ❤️.

Thank you for acknowledging the genocide , it often isn’t taught at all in history

I hope the San outlasts our modern civilization. They seem to have the most wholesome social structure. They deserve to live on Earth more than us.

Did anyone notice that Australia is upside down in 10:23 ?

"They soon came back, and in greater numbers." You just couldn't help yourself, could you? :-D

Farmers being more sinister than the Devil is the greatest thing I've learned on KZfaq.

It helps not to think of tribal people as a unchanging monolithic fossil cuz they also experience the passage of time and have progressed according to their own values which have sophisticated over thousands of years

San jazz is definitely my new favourite genre.

Two questions: How did they traditionally handle sanitation in the desert (where did they get water?) What kind of religions or rituals did they have (assuming some may have abandoned their traditional beliefs)?

Thx for mentioning overproduction 👏

Im a South African and my family are direct khoisan descendants .

Really fascinating topic! That part about San people serving in the South African Border War was total news to me. I have a feeling I'll learn more new interesting things from this collaboration than from all the previous ones.

These people are the preservers of human ancestry... and we've been talking sh*t for thousands of years.

bro watching this is a literal ego check

"Hippity hippity, your land is my property" That has to be ma favorite line in this video. I didn't hear you mention anything about where most of us have heard of the San from, "The Gods Must be Crazy". A movie put out by the South African government to discredit the San.

I love how a group of people turned the art of the roast into a cultural achievement worthy of praise

This video deserves a lot more views. Truly, great work on so many levels... history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, geopolitics, economics. I really like this channel. And I really love this video! I'd support you on Patreon if I had more money.

I can onlythink “ i want to see the gods must be crazy again”

I love the concept that the San just banter like blokes down spoons.

I've always had an immense respect for the San peoples and am happy you did a video about them. I hope I can speak with someone from one of the groups some day and just listen to what they have to say. They have an amazingly rich history.

0:50 *Snoop Dogg gets mentioned* You had my curiosity, now you have my attention

The art of the wife dropping Chibi Husband off the pillar was hilarious, I had absently thought of her pushing him, but nope, that was better.

That is a very chonky giraffe.

I really appreciate this video! I am South African and sadly this is the longest lesson I've ever received based upon the indigenous people than in my 16 years of education in the country. They focus more on Apartheid, white settlers and the Zulu kingdom

So glad to see this quality of content coming out of Ireland. I studied anthropology in an Irish university and learn more from your videos than I did in school.

There was a long time throughout history where everyone from every land lived like this. Most people became domesticated, but some stayed cool.

A traditional civilization lasts about two centuries. 150,000 years is at least marginally longer than that... It's safe to say they found the way

Bro, we can learn so much from them, they are as 'original' as original can get... 'raw' humans in a 'raw' environment, and they demystify so much of what we consider just part of "human nature" like greed and the desire of material wealth being the main motivators of life or hierarchy or pride.

Rome: we are the greatest civilization! The San: Ok buddy think what you’d like

One thing I remember about them is there wonderful nice cheekbones - oh and they seem like a nice and happy bunch of people.

When speaking of agriculture around 16:00, a reminder to anyone watching, agriculture isn't just farming, it includes the rearing of animals. It's a common misnomer that agriculture refers to simply growing food and it absolutely does not and plays a big factor into the entire assessment about agriculture here. It seems that “farming” is used interchangeably with “agricultural” but these are COMPLETELY different things, particularly in the context used here. There should be a distinction to provide historical accuracy.

2:56 The way your characters walk is so cute.

as a South African, you're doing really well :)

As for insulting someone's catch to keep their egos in check. We have a saying where I'm from. "If you can't make fun of yourself, don't make fun of others. That is why we make fun of everyone."

“The world’s oldest people” Jimmy Carter: *Am I a joke to you?!*

Sources and other video details below: Sign up for an annual CuriosityStream subscription and you'll also get free access to Nebula (a new streaming platform I'm helping to build along with other creators). Use my promo code when signing up to get a 31-day free trial: curiositystream.com/cogito This video was a part of the MASSIVE #ProjectAfrica collab. Check out the other videos in the #ProjectAfrica collab here: bit.ly/project-africa Or you can go straight to the end of the playlist and check out The Cynical Historians video on How African History Disproves “Guns Germs and Steel” kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aLWBoNmDusrWY4k.html Or go to the video after mine by Archaia Istoria on Phonecian Circumnavigation kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nsqhfcaAsuDGfZ8.html THE LIST OF SOURCES IS SO LONG THAT KZfaq CRASHES WHEN I TRY TO POST IT. SO HERE IS AN OFF SITE LINK: pastebin.com/BYSdzRtB So I went a little insane researching and writing for this video. Even though it is my longest video yet I had to leave out so many things just to make the video less than a few hours long! But I really enjoyed learning about the San. One thing that I had to leave out was a discussion on the Marshall family, who went to go look for the San in the Kalahari in the middle of the 20th century. The two Marshall children John and Elizabeth went on to document the life of the San with such an incredible level of detail and empathy. You can tell from reading Elizabeth's "The Harmless People" and from watching all of John's documentaries that they really cared for the people they were studying and through their work the character of the San people really shines through. I highly recommend you check out their work. Other things like how the San take care of their children, how they practice birth control, their religion, art, more detailed hunting and tracking techniques, their personal experiences in the military, and further details on the San's experiences dealing with and fighting against colonial/Bantu incursions, were all cut for time. But you can read about them further in the sources listed below. But now that this monster of a video is finally finished I'm off to go have a nice cup of tea... and maybe a pint or three.

Beer. That's why we agriculture. To get all people wasted all the time you needed to develop the farming of the grains.

It weird how you can hear the history of the blues in traditional African music, like the sample of the San music has instantly recognizable blues rhythm to it, but it’s happy so it shows how slavery created the misery in the lyrics and overall tone of blues

As an angolan, I want to tell you that there are 5000 of the San in Angola. Not only Namibia amd Botswana.

“Let’s find out!” I get stoked everytime

I remember watching all the "the gods must be crazy" movies as a kid. They were my favorite. I loved the humor and weirdness in the movie about bushmen. So by default I've always loved them and their coulture (For those who don't know the gods must be crazy it's a old movie about a bushfamily that saw a coke bottle fall fall out of an air plane. Then the father of the family goes on a quest to get rid of the 'evil thing' because there was only one so it was causing conections. Runs into crazy white people on the way. Oh and also poachers. And soilders.)

Am I the only one who noticed that Australia is upside down at 10:25?

Why is australia upside down

San is the original and accepted name, it means gather in Khoekhoegowab (khoekhoelanguage) Bushmen is a Foriegn name given by the British the name explains for itself.

Listening to san music in the video: "hmm, ok. Its quite ... okay ...kinda... (rly trying hard here to say nothing bad)" 2 minutes later: My brain is repeating the music and wants more. Its such a sweet beautiful sound where can i get it.

Most of the documentary demonstrated how gathering /hunting is more efficient than farming then you say the opposite.