We have a remarkable anthropologist to thank for an absorbing account.
--New York Review of Books
Both Nisa and Shostak are unusual people, and their collaboration has resulted in an unparalleled account of !Kung
life from a personal rather than social or ecological perspective. Even more important, their work results in a
revelation of the universality of women's experiences and feelings despite vast differences in culture and society.
Nisa helps us know what it means to be !Kung, to be a woman, and finally, to be human.
--Choice
When I reread Nisa, as I have done regularly in teaching over the years, I experience its originality, poignancy,
and excitement afresh each time. Few books that were so influential in changing the look and feel of ethnography
for entire generations of anthropologists have held up so well. It is a classic, with currency and continuing possibility.
--George Marcus, Professor of Anthropology, Rice University
Harvard University Press Web Site, March, 2001
Summary
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 Shostak, a 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.
Table of Contents
Introduction
p. 1
Earliest Memories
p. 41
Family Life
p. 59
Life in the Bush
p. 73
Discovering Sex
p. 95
Trial Marriages
p. 115
Marriage
p. 133
Wives and Co-Wives
p. 151
First Birth
p. 159
Motherhood and Loss
p. 181
Change
p. 193
Women and Men
p. 213
Taking Lovers
p. 237
A Healing Ritual
p. 259
Further Losses
p. 273
Growing Older
p. 287
Epilogue
p. 309
Notes
p. 333
Glossary
p. 345
Acknowledgments
p. 353
Index
p. 357
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.