Gods Must Be Crazy

Who is to say what normal is? Everyone’s normal can vary based on your personal experiences. People common say “common sense” is everyday things you’re supposed to know. But every person’s experiences are different. Since each person has different experiences, their common sense is different. Common sense can also be related to norms. The Gods Must Be Crazy shows the concepts of norms through a Coke bottle, clothing, and during the hunting of the goat.

Coke is a common drink throughout America and Africa. If you were to show any American or most Africans a Coke logo they would understand what it stood for. The meaning would be a soft drink that many people enjoy. In some parts of Africa the meaning would not be shared. Some parts of Africa are remote and only people known as the Bushmen reside there.

The people there are not as modern as American cultures. The definition of Coke is not known. One day a bottle is dropped off from an air plane. A local Bushman finds the Coke bottle and takes it back to his camp. Bushmen camps are small. The people live among each other in peace. They don’t have modern convinces in their culture. Water is a limited commodity. So when the Coke bottle is found they have not a clue to what it could be. Since the Coke bottle is dropped from the sky they think it is from the gods.

They are not sure what the bottle’s purpose is, but it proves useful to them in many ways. One of the tribe members uses the bottle to make music by blowing into the bottle. It also proves to be useful as a tool. Bushmen use tools from their environment. Their environment is mainly grass and trees. The Coke bottle is harder than any other material they have at their disposal.

The Coke bottle soon becomes an object everyone wants. The Bushmen had never cared about material things before until they found the Coke bottle. Now everyone needs the Coke bottle to do everyday things. This need for the Coke bottle causes new emotions among the tribe. Jealousy and the desire are new emotions among the tribe. In American society it would be a common feeling to feel jealous of one other. This new emotion was not common for the Bushmen. They begin fighting that is when one of the members took action.

A Bushman tried to get rid of the bottle. His actions when he tried to get rid of the bottle also show common norms. When an American wants to get rid of something they throw it away or recycle it. This concept was not the same for the Bushmen. They believed the Coke bottle was a gift from the gods. Their method of getting rid of the bottle was to throw it in the sky. When that didn’t work the Bushmen decide to bury the bottle.

When both methods fail the Bushmen decide a new form of action to rid the tribe of the Coke bottle. They send one of its members out to rid them of the bottle. This Coke bottle would lead this Bushman to intermingle with other cultures.

The Bushmen walks for many days when finally he stumbles across another person. This person is different from any other person he has ever seen. The woman is pale and tall. When looking at this person he thinks he would have to dig a hole all day to be able to feed her. He comes to the conclusion she must be a god.

Feeling his troubles are over he asks her to take the Coke Bottle back. The woman doesn’t understand the Bushman. The languages between the two cultures are very different. Neither the women nor the bush man can understand each other. They do find one thing about each other in common. Both of them think the other one is quiet rude. Not only did the Bushman find the women rude he found her clothes unusual.

Bushmen wear little clothing while on the other hand the woman wore layers. American people would find the opposite of the Bushmen. They would think that because of so little clothing, that the Bushmen were indecent. While the clothing is strange, he compares the fabric to spider webs. This shows that while the Bushman’s knowledge is limited, it can only be based on his experiences. While the Bushman’s way of thinking was harmless it would soon put the Bushman in danger.

After traveling for a few days the Bushman becomes hungry. He comes upon a field of animals. While the animals would be identified as goats by some people, he had not seen animals like these before. The Bushman is hungry and shoots a poison arrow into one of the goats. Everything he was doing seemed perfectly normal to him. It wasn’t to the boy watching the herd of goats.

The boy panicked and went for help. While the Bushman thought he was going for his family. Both people thought different things about their actions. The Bushman was trying to eat. He thought he was being friendly by asking the boy if he wanted some. When the boy returned he was not alone. Another man was with the boy.

The Bushman invited them to sit down and eat with him. Seeing what the Bushman had done the man was upset. He picked up the goat and through it on top of the truck. Both people found each other’s behavior rude. The Bushman was just trying to eat. He found the man rude for wanting all the meat to himself. So he got up and began to hunt down another goat.

The man also found the Bushman’s behavior rude. He then shot at the Bushman to warn him not to go after anymore of his animals. The Bushman had never heard a gun before. Instead of taking the sound as warning, he thought it was thunder. While the first shot had been a warning shot, the second time it hit the Bushman. But it did not occur to the Bushman he was shot because it wasn’t normal to him.

Things like a Coke bottle or clothes can only be normal if you have seen them before. Your environment around you will shape what you find normal and don’t find normal. “Common sense” cannot really be “common sense”. Since everyone’s experience in life is different, so is what you find normal. Your ideas of the world around you and how you perceive it is known as norms. Throughout the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, the concept of norms is shown through Coke bottle, clothing, and during the hunting of the goat.