Nisa

A detailed Summary of Nisa


Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman

Nisa is the autobiography of a !Kung woman, edited and commented on by Marjorie Shostak. Shostak (the author) cleverly combines both an emic perspective quoted from Nisa and an etic perspective observed by herself. This enables the author to convey information about Nisa and the !Kung people using descriptions on aspects of !Kung life and extracts from NisaÕs own experiences.

Nisa highlights many different aspects of !Kung life beginning with her earliest memories and following the course of her life through to her old age. The ethnography describes the traditional !Kung approach to healing. Family members or elders performing healing rituals treat most illnesses. For the !Kung people their healing dance is mor


Nisa also touches on equality as in !Kung societies, men have more power although women technically do more work. An example of this is how the food men bring back is valued more highly even though men often contribute only 20% of the daily food supply.

There are many aspects of !Kung life that Nisa either minimises of ignores. One of these aspects is infidelity. Although infidelity is approached in the text, there is no reference to how infidelity is seen or treated in the wider !Kung community. Is infidelity considered morally bad? Readers get a general feeling that infidelity is common although not accepted as Nisa often expresses her fear of being "caught".

e than a ritual as it is believed to cure many illnesses and many troubles that besiege their



Some common words found in the essay are:
Nisa Kung, Shostak Shostak, Woman Nisa, kung life, aspects kung life, aspects kung, kung societies, kung people, kung life nisa, life nisa, experiences nisa, kung woman,

Approximate Word count = 514
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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