Story of a /Xam Bushman Narrative

Abstract

This article explores the intricate discursive histories that have accompanied the telling, transmission, publication and reception of the narratives in the Sleek 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 Sleek 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.

Opsomming

Hierdie artikel verken die verwikkelde diskursiewe geskiedenisse wat met die vertelling, oordrag, publikasie en resepsie van die narratiewe in die Sleek en Lloyd­versameling gepaardgegaan het. Ek neem as voorbeeld die verhaal waaraan David Lewis-Wiliams die titel "The First /Xam Man Brings Home a Young Lion" gegee het. Hierdie verhaal is geneem uit sy keuse van verhale uit die Sleek en Lloyd­versameling getitel Stories That Float from Afar: Ancestral Folklore of the San of Southern Africa. Ek voer aan dat 'n eietydse lesing van die narratief kennis moet neem van gebeure en intervensies wat die ontologiese eenheid daarvan ondermyn. Dit behels benewens die opvoering en resepsie van die narratief in verskeie werklike en virtuele ruimtes ook die opname, transkripsie, vertaling en interpretasie daarvan.