Was this the First House that Appeared on Earth? San Bushmen of the Kalahari

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] uh it seems almost certain that our early human ancestors were nest builders if we go back some four million years to the miocene era there were many species of great ape alive in central and southern africa and of these four common descendants remain the gorilla the chimpanzee the bonobo and the orangutan all are competent nest builders and we'll construct a nest once or sometimes twice in a day from an analysis of abandoned nests there are clearly three layers firstly living branches of a suitable tree are bent towards each other and woven together [Music] fine twigs are snapped off and used to fill any gaps finally leaves are gathered from the surrounding trees and used to make a lining structurally this is exactly the same system that we have seen in use by several african communities but only one group could show us how to do this without the use of modern metal tools tool use is also a skill that may go back to a common ancestry [Music] chimpanzees use sticks for many purposes just scraping the ground reveals insects delicious but they can also dig substantial holes by breaking the ground with a stick and removing the loose dirt with their hands they are not the only ones whether these skills have been handled between the generations so many years is unknown but there is no suggestion here that anyone in africa is any more ape than the rest of the human population everyone in this video possesses human intelligence and most of the people we meet on our journeys have a sensitivity for each other and for our planet that puts the industrialized countries to shape i first encountered the sam bushman as a boy inspired by the books of lawrence van der post they are the oldest known race on earth and i had an idea that maybe they would still carry a tradition of building from these ancient times today modern life has had a massive impact on their culture i was keen to see whether they still had the skills required to build a hut without the use of metal tools they showed me that every part of the process could be completed without the use of knives or machetes [Music] however they certainly make life a little easier [Applause] it is quite possible that this is the oldest house in the world of course it is the design pattern not the structure itself that we are trying to date for the structures only last a few months the design pattern of course has no physical existence it lives only in the shared knowledge of the community and is passed between generations children learn about architecture at the same age that they are learning to talk the sand huts are built from three separate layers main branches twigs and leaves in this case grass but others can be used the physical skills are similar to those used for nest building only developed to a much higher level and the tool use of sticks and rocks goes back at least 2.5 million years uh collecting the grass isn't easy the ground is hard and the tough fruits have gone down a long way in search of moisture everything must be pulled up by hand keeping the clumps intact will be important later in the process [Music] sanseviera is used by the bushmen to make rope individual leaves are pulled from the plants [Music] beaten with rocks or sticks separated and tied together it will take several hundred leaves to bind an entire hut [Music] [Applause] the bushmen have many special and magical songs this one the eland dance relates to a time when a girl will be placed inside a hut and kept there for a whole three weeks [Music] [Applause] but let me explain for this song this song is our special song this song is played by only the ladies when a girl is becoming to be a woman her first period we have to hide her in the heart and we dance around with negatives no guys who are coming no men who are coming it's only the ladies and we'll be just like this but we want we allowed only the all old man to join us and this will call it the inland dancing now that old man will be holding his working sticks like this imitating the island and you said you hide the girl in the house in the heart and then you dance around all around her yeah three weeks in the heart three weeks yeah she must not come i'm speaking and it will be that is our punishment to show her now she's no he's now a lady now she has not to play around with the boys and when [Music] we can she can take the stick yeah and try to to beat them now we'll invite the boys when she's coming out that will be the special day which means that the lady the girl is coming out [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] wow [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Nomad Architecture

Views: 216,754

Keywords: Oldest house on Earth, San bushmen, Kalahari Desert, Botswana, Traditional houses, primitive crafts, bushcraft, vernacular architecture., Oldest house in the World, thatched hut

Id: Y_sqDoI5ad8

Length: 11min 18sec (678 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 28 2020