ABSTRACT
In a 1980 film classic, The Gods Must Be Crazy, a bushman in the Kalahari Desert is bombarded by an empty Coke bottle thrown overboard from a private plane. To the bushman, the bottle represents a totally alien technology. However, he and his extended family assess its properties and soon find productive uses for this artifact. Among other things, it is ideal for rolling out tortilla-like foodstuffs — and for making whistling sounds. Neither use was intended by the creators of the thing, but that is unknown and irrelevant in the bush. But in the end the bushmen reject the bottle despite its usefulness, because this technology becomes a source of conflict among members of the family.
