THE ACUITY OF HEARING IN THE KALAHARI BUSHMEN

A PILOT SURVEY
By J. F. JARVIS and H. G. van HEERDEN (Cape Town).*

THE Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert are a people who have been of great interest to anthropologists for many years. They are in many ways distinct from the Bantu tribes of Africa, being shorter of stature, lighter in colour, and of very different anthropometric dimensions. Human remains of similar type have been found widely scattered in the eastern part of the African continent, and three centuries ago they ranged over even wider areas of Africa. They are aboriginal inhabitants who are now limited to the semi-desert areas they now inhabit as a result of pressure from invading Bantu tribes. While many still follow their original wild way of life, increasing numbers tend to move to the vicinity of farms where they have the advantages of a more assured supply of food and water. In the wild state they live a nomadic life in a terrain that few others could inhabit, and they have highly developed techniques of survival by which they obtain food and water from these arid regions. Their modern habitat, the Kalahari desert, occupies parts of South West Africa, Bechuarialand, and Angola. Those examined in the present study were members of the Heikom tribe living in association with farms within a radius of 65 miles from Gobabis in South West Africa, some 200 miles from the Bechuanaland border. They had come originally from Karakuves, a settlement in Bechuanaland about 100 miles from Fort Rietfontein. Details about the Bushmen, their customs, mode of survival and physical characteristics may be obtained from the studies of Fourie (1928), Tobias (1964), and Silberbauer (1965). They have been credited with unusually acute senses, Silberbauer (1965) in a recent survey undertaken for the Bechuanaland Government stating that many of them can distinguish the four major moons of Jupiter with the naked eye and have been known to hear a single-engined aircraft at a distance of 70 miles. Other writers have made similar observations, recording their ability to hear the approach of another party of Bushmen long before they were audible to a European who was with them. Reports such as these stimulated the present writers to attempt confirmation by audiometry of the statements regarding their powers of hearing. One of us (H. G. van H.) is a medical student who has had much
* Departments of Anatomy and Otolaryngology, University of Cape Town.

63

J. F. Jarvis and H. G. van Heerden

contact with these people, can speak their language and is accepted into their circles. An opportunity was thus provided to undertake a pilot survey during a University vacation. He was given instruction and experience in Audiometry and provided with a battery-operated pure tone audiometer capable of air conduction measurements only (Amplivox, Model 51). This machine had been in routine use and was known to give reliable readings in normal subjects, and was calibrated to A.S.A. standards. No facilities were available for checking its calibration during the survey, but on return to Cape Town audiograms were recorded on ten normal medical students by the same operator, the mean values obtained being shown in Fig. 1. These were recorded in a sound-treated room where the ambient noise level does not rise above 35 db.
250 500 1000 2000 4000 8000

-10 > < *

i

+10

FIG. 1. Composite audiogram of ten normal students.

Many of the Bushmen were unwilling to undergo the tests, but ten were found who were prepared to co-operate, those of advanced age being selected as far as possible so that the presence of presbyacusis could be detected. The tests were done in the open veld where there was a moderate degree of background noise from wind, singing of birds, etc.; readings during any noticeable disturbance being discarded. Otological examinations were not possible but only one gave a history suggestive of previous ear disease. Age estimations were done very conservatively and in most cases 5 to 10 years could probably have been added to the stated ages. Many of this group had been living for 20 years in contact with a farmer who was able to remember that they already had grown-up children when they came to him. In other cases they had adult grandchildren which indicated their age. By means such as this together with the memory of important 64

The Acuity of Hearing in the Kalahari Bushmen

events, an estimate was possible in all cases. Photographs were taken in several instances and are reproduced together with a typical bushman dwelling in Fig. 2. The thresholds obtained are set out in Table I where it can be seen that most of these subjects have unusually good hearing for high tones even at an advanced age. The audiometer is not calibrated to show a

(a)

(d)

(e)
FIG.

2.

Typical Bushmen and Dwelling (/).

65

J. F. Jarvis and H. G. van Heerden

threshold less than 10, but since the record of subjects E and H runs along this limit everywhere, it is highly likely that had the machine been able to measure less intense signals, they would have shown an even greater acuity particularly as these audiograms were not recorded in a sound-treated room. Of the eight subjects over 50 years of age, C had clearly suffered from ear disease, but of the remainder, B, D, E, H, and J show no evidence of presbyacusis. If these results are compared with the published figures of thresholds obtained in civilized lands (Davis and Silverman, i960) it is clear that these Bushmen who have been examined have above average auditory acuity for their age.
TABLE I.
BUSHMEN HEARING THRESHOLDS

Subject

Sex

Age
90

25

500

1,000 15
10

2,000
0 0

4,000 15

8,000 15

A B C D E F G H I

F F M M F M M M F F

80

R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L

15 15 IO
0

15 15 10
0

35
10
0
10 60

35
10
0

10
0

10
0

95 75

40
0

45
15 10 10
0

40 10 10
0

60

-5

70

IO IO
0

10 10
0

10
0

-5

10 IO IO IO IO IO IO IO IO
20

5
3O

IO IO IO IO IO IO IO
IO

10
0

10 10 IO

10
0

10
0 0

-5
0

IO IO

-5

45 65
60

-5
10 10
10

-5 -5
10 IO

10

-5
IO IO
10

-5
10 IO
10

5 5 5

5 5
10 0

5
0 0

45
20

65 .

15

It is emphasized that this is only a pilot survey, undertaken to ascertain if the reports on the Bushman's abnormal hearing ability could be substantiated. The number examined was small, there was no otological or other medical examination, and critical calibration of the audiometer was not possible. It is felt, however, that the results obtained are sufficiently interesting to merit publication and to justify a larger and more critical survey, such as is contemplated later in this year. 66

The Acuity of Hearing in the Kalahari Bushmen

Discussion

Rosen et al. (1962) found a remarkable absence of presbyacusis in the Mabaan tribe of the Sudan. These people live in an environment where there is little exposure to noise, an associated finding being that the progressive rise in blood pressure with advancing age that is taken as normal in civilized lands is significantly absent. When reports of the remarkable hearing of the Bushmen came to be known it appeared that here also might be a group of people living in a noise-free environment. This prompted the present investigation. The nomadic Bushmen live by hunting and digging up roots and bulbs. They keep no domestic cattle and undertake no agriculture. Their life is hard and precarious and they frequently live in danger from starvation and lack of water. They are generally fit and very hardy, their main trouble being skin diseases from complete lack of water for washing. They are experts in the technique of desert survival and thus depend to a great degree on their powers of physical endurance and the acuity of their senses. They have probably learned from long experience to pay attention to weak stimuli that would escape a civilized man. It is known that the cochlea is sensitive to sound intensities that produce no subjective sense of hearing, and it may be that they have developed the ability to respond to these stimuli that would be below cortical threshold to us. Among those living in civilized lands, a few individuals are also found whose threshold is 20 or even 30 db. better than the average (Littler, 1965). The life of the Bushman is a quiet one, and they rarely shout even in their tribal dances. The drums they use are hollows in the earth covered with an animal hide and cannot make a loud noise, the drummer beating on the ground near the hole, and not on the hide itself. Rosen observed that when the Mabaan went to work in the more civilized regions of the northern Sudan, they began to suffer from rising blood pressure and vascular disease. The Bushmen too are tending to come to work on farms where they are exposed to increased noise from machinery and the lowing of cattle, and it may well be found that in time this will affect their physical fitness and their acuity of hearing. So far, however, the group tested appear to have retained this unusual hearing ability. Kaminer and Lutz (i960) studied the blood pressures in Bushmen and found that in these people also there was no rise in old age. For those living under their natural nomadic conditions the mean for all age groups was 108/66, while by comparison the mean for a group of twenty-one prisoners and farm labourers was 122/71, the implication being that stress in this abnormal environment may have been causative. Both in the Mabaan and in the Bushmen we have the two findings of a lack of hypertension in advancing years and an absence of presbyacusis. It is possible that both may be independent evidence of the absence of certain adverse factors in the environment, or alternatively that pres67

J. F. Jarvis and H. G. van Heerden

byacusis is largely determined by vascular disease rather than by acoustic trauma. Whatever may be the ultimate answer to this question, it is clear that what we have accepted as the "normal" accompaniment of advancing years in civilized lands, may in fact be an indication of the abnormal and traumatic nature of our "civilized" environment.
Summary

A group of ten Kalahari Bushmen were submitted to audiometric examination. The most striking findings was the absence of presbyacusis even in advanced age. The nature of their environment and the means of age estimation are discussed, and a larger survey is being planned.
REFERENCES DAVIS, H., and SILVERMAN, S. R. (i960) Hearing and Deafness. New York. p. 102. FOURIE, L. (1928) The Bushman of South-West Africa. The Native Tribes of SouthWest Africa. Cape Times. Cape Town.
KAMINER, B., and LUTZ, W. P. W. (i960) Circulation, 22, 289.

LITTLER, T. S. (1965) The Physics of the Ear. 1965. London.

ROSEN, S., BERGMAN, M., PLESTER, D., EL-MOFTY, A., and SATTI, M. H. (1962)

Ann. Otol. (St. Louis), 71, 727. SILBERBAUER, G. B. (1965) Report to the Government of Bechuanaland of the Bushmen Survey. Bechuanaland Government Publication. Gaberones. TOBIAS, P. V. (1964) Bushman Hunter-Gatherers: A study in Human Ecology. Ecological Studies in Southern Africa. Junk. Denhaag. Dept. of Anatomy, University of Cape Town, South Africa.