!Kung mythology - Definition and Overview

The !Xu people were both animistic and animatistic; they believed in both personifications and impersonal forces.

They believed in a god named Prishiboro, whose wife was an elephant. His older brother tricked him into killing her and, later, into eating her flesh. Her herd tried to kill Prishiboro in revenge, but his brother defeated them.

!Xu people also had many taboos concerning the dead as they believed that the ghosts of the deceased would cause them injury or death. It was against the rules to even say the name of someone dead.

The !Xu practiced shamanism in order to communicate with the spirit world, and to cure what they called Star Sickness. The communication with the spirit world would be done by the shaman by entering a trance state and running through a fire; this would chase away bad spirits. "Star Sickness" was cured by laying hands on the diseased.