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Nisa: the Life and Words of a !Kung Woman Free FREE NISA: THE LIFE AND WORDS OF A !KUNG WOMAN PDF Marjorie Shostak | 384 pages | 14 Nov 2000 | HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS | 9780674004320 | English | Cambridge, Mass, United States Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman: Context | SparkNotes Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Nisa by Marjorie Shostak. Nisa: The Life and Words of a! Kung Woman by Marjorie Shostak. This classic paperback is available once again--and exclusively--from Harvard University Press. This book is the story of the life of Nisa, a member of the! Kung tribe of hunter-gatherers from southern Africa's Kalahari desert. Told in her own words--earthy, emotional, vivid--to Marjorie Shostaka Harvard anthropologist who succeeded, with Nisa's collaboration, in breakin This classic paperback is available once again--and exclusively--from Harvard University Press. Told in her own words--earthy, emotional, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman Marjorie Shostaka Harvard anthropologist who succeeded, with Nisa's collaboration, in breaking through the immense barriers of language and culture, the story is a fascinating view of a remarkable woman. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published November 14th by Harvard University Press first published More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Nisaplease sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Nisa: The Life and Words of a! Kung Woman. Jan 15, Jennifer rated it it was amazing. How rare! How lucky we Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman to have this. Nisa's story was gathered just as the traditional! Kung culture was beginning to change by encroaching farmer-rancher types and Europeans. This chronicles from birth to death the! Kung life, mostly of women. What I like about this as opposed to some dry abstract is how the way they felt about their daily lives and interaction with others and their environment Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman so clearly displayed. So much of history is written from a male interpretation and while I appreciate and understand the importance of that Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, the lack of female perspective in so much of history means a one dimensional comprehension. An understanding lacking in the vibrancy of the human condition, so much so that this type Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman narrative is such a gem. I was also struck by the universality of women. For all of Western privilege, freedom and equality, the same important milestones for women are present. Also the importance of female collaboration in daily living, which we see unraveling in Western culture. An aside, but I wonder if it is related? This tendency to interpret history from a male perspective. It gives a false sense of importance to male roles, as if rearing the next generation was not as important. And while I wouldn't trade the privilege of choice, it would be good I think to balance our understanding and teaching of history through the eyes of a man with one of woman. It is a diservice to women to belittle their traditional roles, it should be exhaulted! Aug 16, Ocrema rated it it was amazing. The book was definitely great. Mar 09, Audrey rated it it was amazing. I don't usually put books I have to read for school on here but this one is a great read for anyone interested in cultures of Africa. Just finished this for one of my Anthropology courses and was astounded by Shostak's intimate portrayal of the! Kung and! Kung women in particular. The book reveals! Kung women's personal issues concerning transitioning from childhood into adulthood. Issues such as trying to find and create an identity, to coping with marriage and the responsibility that it brings I don't usually put books I have to read for school on here but this one is a great read for anyone interested in cultures of Africa. Issues such as trying Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman find and create an identity, to coping with marriage and the responsibility that it brings, to giving birth and raising children ,we see that! Kung women maintain an enduring strength throughout it all. Mostly about the life of Nisa, a! Kung women, it is through her words that we are granted intimate access to a most beautiful way of life. Breathtaking and sometimes tragic, women everywhere can relate as we see that the! Nov 29, Lgordo rated it really liked it. I really enjoyed this book because it highlights how the reader's understanding of anthropology may differ from the anthropologist's meaning. Each chapter included a summary of a topic by the author, and then Nisa's recollections about that aspect of her life. So when anthropologists say that the women are pretty equal and can choose who and when to marry, that gives you one idea. Then you see that the pressure to marry is pretty overwhelming and ever-present even though a! Kung woman can live I really enjoyed this book because it highlights how the reader's understanding of anthropology may differ from the anthropologist's Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman. Kung woman can live quite well as a spinsterand by the time you're up to your third "no not him" people stop caring what you think and tell you to just shut up and get married already. The sad part is that although Nisa technically could have married any of a number of men, she wound up with the most persistent and aggressive one, who also shocking, shocking also turned out to be jealous, controlling, and abusive. She eventually leaves him and he stalks her for years but doesn't dare take any action. These are the details that really bring the society to life and show that while many things are different, people are people and the important things are the same. Side point, this shows that even in a society where boys and girls are treated pretty equally for the first chunk of their lives and socialization is moderate at best, men and Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman are more aggressive and girls are more easily pushed around. This starts quite early, with Nisa describing what sounds a lot like rape at the hand of the preschool set. I found it interesting how much forced sex there was among children, and how Nisa nochalantly says that you get used to it and eventually learn to enjoy sex when you get older. It makes me wonder if this sentiment is widely felt among! Kung women or if she is especially resilient she is quite forcefuland how our social dynamic regarding sex affects our reaction to rape. Speaking of rape, she also describes several cases of marital rape, even while the anthropologist says that girls aren't usually forced before they get their period, or while they have their period. Yes, everyone thinks it's very bad that Nisa's daughter got killed by her husband accidentally for refusing sex, but Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, that is what happened, and the killer was barely punished. The author briefly addresses these homocides, and notes that the level of violence is on par with or higher than the rate in the average American large city. I'm pointing this out because anthropologists also consider the! Kung a peaceful society. Although we consider our cities peaceful too, that's because urban violence tends to concentrate in specific areas. Among the! Kung, it would be diffuse, and therefore slightly higher on a personal level. It's all relative, and it really helps to hear the first-hand account with specific details. However, the author does note that the level of beating in Nisa's accounts doesn't match what anthropologists witness, while living in the villages. And there's a pitfall in that too. After all, don't we all dramatize our stories in the retelling? And violence is the easiest drama there is. It's clear that Nisa is a dramatic ranconteur, which is what draws her and the author together. Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman: Character List | SparkNotes Marjorie Shostak was born in Brooklyn, New York, and majored in English literature as an undergraduate. She met her future husband, Melvin Konner, at Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman College and followed him in to the Dobe region of Africa, where he was conducting doctoral research. Shostak did not train to become an anthropologist, but her move to Dobe was the first step in her creation of a text that is widely regarded as a classic in that field. Harnessing her considerable talents as a photographer and musician, Shostak began documenting the artistic output of the women of the! Kung tribe. Kung signifies a tongue click in the! Kung language. She painstakingly learned and practiced the! Kung language until she could speak it proficiently, and then set about conducting interviews with women of varying ages and experiences. Nisa, a real woman to whom Shostak has given a pseudonym, was one of those women.
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