Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman

Marjorie Shostak offers readers an interesting and insightful account of her relationship with a member of the !Kung San people of the Kalahari Desert during the early 1970s, a woman known by the pseudonym "Nisa," in her seminal work Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman. The book is a coupling of both Shostak's ethnographic insight and Nisa's life history told in her own words, along with some very interesting photos taken by the author. Shostak admittedly runs into barriers that she must cross, particularly as to whether or not she can trust Nisa, who the rest of the tribe regards as a liar, but really, much can be seen in the lies that people choose to tell as well as the truths. Either way, Nisa's stories are compelling and give the reader a great window into their hunter-gatherer society and the dynamics that make it work. It reveals techniques of tribal socialization and ethic reasoning, the importance of intimacy, as well as offering a model (however debatable it may be) for the ways in which the status of women is compromised by changing demographics. Nisa's life history account reveals many instances in which can be seen a socialization process that is meant to turn her into a more productive and adaptive person in society. These instances can especially be seen in Nisa's childhood. The !Kung place a high value on sharing in their culture, and Nisa's early tendencies to selfishly covet and hoard food for herself was counterproductive to this ideal. Nisa's mother dealt with her daughter's stealing firmly, often hitting her and screaming such things like, "Nisa, stop stealing! Are you the only one who wants to eat klaru? Now, let me take what's left and cook them for all of us to eat. Did you really think you were the only one who was going to eat them all?" (Shostak 53). By this form of punishment, her mother not only chastised Nisa for her counterproductive actions, but she also reinforced the social norm of the culture - namely, sharing. Nisa's life history account is also filled with stories of intimacy. The frequency of these stories, as well as her descriptions, reveal much about !Kung principles and social organization. Marjorie Shostak at first assumes that Nisa's focus on sexual matters is her attempt at finding a common ground with a fellow woman, but she soon realizes that it is in fact quite characteristic of !Kung society. The !Kung say that "when the gods gave people sex... they gave us a wonderful thing" and its importance is seen as significant as that of food in sustaining life (Shostak 237). They find talk of sex to be important and it is often used as the subject of jokes "in a deliberate way to dispel tension" such as making pornographic gestures to cheer a man up who had been spat in the eye by a cobra (Shostak 237). But the act brings out other qualities of !Kung life as well. Many men and women of the society frequently take secret lovers. They see it as an exciting and passionate alternat

Majorie Shostak's account of her anthropology trip to Africa's Kalahari Desert examining the rituals, lifestyles and existence of the !Kung tribe is not to be read like an expanded version of a National Geographic article. It is written with academic rigor and precise examination of a !Kung woman Nisa. The majority of the book is told through Nisa's words which are translated into English with as much accuracy possible by Shostak. Shostak prefaces each chapter with a more general description of the events of Nisa's life which follow. The !Kung have such a different life style than Westerners, so naturally the story telling methods Nisa uses are a little unfamiliar. There is much more repetition of certain phrases and ideas that some of us might find excessive. If one can get past this they will soon see what an expert Nisa actually is. Also it is a tribute to Shostak that she didn't slice up the narrative to make it more accessible for Westerners. The book in begun with an extensive introduction, about 40 pages. Although at first this might feel over detailed and cumbersome, it is a necessity to read it before jumping into Nisa's narrative because some of the actions taken might seem unfathomable without a better understanding of !Kung life. For instance, when Nisa describes stealing and hoarding food for herself as a child, we might feel she is extremely selfish. But after reading the introduction we understand that in !Kung life there is virtually no private property. Imagine being a young child and having nothing of "your own." I think we all would have stolen to some extent. Also during the time the book was written there was a struggle within the anthropology communities as to whether these "field work" expeditions we're even worth taking. There were many who thought that the "white man" was so engrained with his own cultural sense of morality that any attempt to interpret or understand someone different would be wasted time. So it is possible that in parts of the long introduction Shostak was justifying to her academic circle why it was important that she did go to see another kind of life. After the introduction is over, we move into various important events in Nisa's life, described by Nisa and prefaced by Shostak. Although these interviews were not given chronologically they are presented in as workable a series events as possible. We are taken first through her childhood in which Nisa's mother has her second child and no longer allows her to breast feed because it is believed that once her younger brother is born, it is his milk. We are then taken, to various cases of childhood problems. The `Discovering sex' chapter is worth noting, children go away and as Nisa says "play sexually". Although the parent's sometimes mildly scorn this, they remember how important is was for them in developing as sexual beings, so they pretty much look away. I think that our incredibly sexually conservative and private culture could learn something f

There are many angles by which to praise this classic. It has a voice for feminist, postmodernist, etc. I think it also has a great lesson in writing ethnography. This book was very helpful in my writing my recent book/ethnography, "Native Americans in the Carolina Borderlands: A Critical Ethnography, Carolinas Press, 2000). The author does a superb job of blending ethnographic descriptions and interpretations with oral history. Yes, Nisa is allowed for most of the book to talk in her own voice! Yet, with the ethnographic articulations of the author, the reader gains a more complex portrait of Nisa's people. A must read for ethnographers, novice and experienced, as well as undergraduate students in Anthropology and qualitative methods.

NISA was an incredible book. Anyone who wants to learn about another way of life, FROM A WOMEN'S POINT OF VIEW, will enjoy this. Nisa talks about marriage, life, death, love, pain, etc... Truly remarkable

The author's method of giving an anthropologist's perspective on a particular topic followed by Nisa's stories relating to the same topic was a wonderful balance of the scientific and the personal. I enjoyed this book immensely and it made me think deeply of how different are culture is from our roots as hunter-gatherers.