Foraging, Talking, and Tricksters

This essay discusses some aspects of Mathias Guenther’s work on the /Xam narratives that are contained in the Bleek and Lloyd collection. While his writing on the narratives themselves has been very influential in the field, it has not, itself, been adequately critiqued. I especially examine Guenther’s criticism of functionalist and structuralist approaches to the narratives and his characterization of the Mantis figure, /Kaggen, as a trickster in his book Tricksters and Trancers: Bushman Religion and Society.