What's on TV tonight? It's linked to Bushmen's fireside chats, scientist says

What Bushmen talk about by night differs greatly from what they discuss by day, says a US researcher whose study of hunter-gatherers in Africa suggests fireside chats help shape human culture, and maybe even television programming.

United States anthropologist Polly Wiessner has studied the Ju/'hoan (!Kung) Kalahari Bushmen of Botswana and Namibia for four decades, learning their language and at times living among them.

The study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences was based on notes Wiessner took in 1974 on 174 night conversations at two !Kung camps in northwest Botswana (the !/ symbols represent click sounds in their language).

She also reviewed digital recordings and translations of 68 firelight stories, captured during three visits to !Kung villages in Botswana and Namibia in 2011-2013.

During the day, people mainly complained and gossiped (34 per cent of conversations), talked about money, trade or hunting for food (31 per cent), and joked (16 per cent). Only 6 per cent of day talk involved storytelling.

But by night, 81 per cent of conversations involved stories. Economic matters fell to 4 per cent of conversations, and complaints or criticism to 7 per cent.