The Life And Words Of A ! Kung Woman Summary

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Nisa Book Review The book The Life And Words Of a ! Kung Woman is about a woman named Nisa. Nisa was interviewed by the author of the book The Life and Words Of a! Kung Woman, the author’s name is Marjorie Shostak. Marjore Shostak interviewed many women but decided that Nisa’s story stood out the most. This book was about Nisa’s childhood memories and adult memories as well. The 15 chapters in the book Nisa have to deal with the 15 interviews that were given from Nisa herself. The thesis of the book Nisa gives the child hood memories and adult memories of her life, but also connects her memories with the ! Kung culture itself, the thesis also shows that all women are similar in some ways. This book contributes to the previous scholarships on …show more content…

These women are not sheltered in another place when on their menstruating cycle. They are welcomed into their own community to do different activities like social, political, and economic activities. When on their menstruating cycle the women don’t have sex with the men, if they do have sex with the men it is closer to the time the woman gets off her period. Another main argument in the book was when the author talks about healing and ritual in the Kung culture. The spiritual factor is very important in the Kung culture; this is because it can influence social and physical life of the Kung people. The Kung healers can be a man or a woman who has healing forces called n/um. A healer can activate there healing power through sing, instrumental playing, and through a trance dance. The trance dance is the main way the healing power is activated. When these healers perform the trance dance the healers dance around a fire, while dancing. When the healers concentrate on healing the persons this causes their n/um to heat up, when the n/um comes to a boil this is when the trance happens. Whatever is drawn out the person’s body goes into the healer and travels out the healer into the air. Many healers see certain gods, and blame those gods for the bad things that’s happening in their community. This trance just doesn’t serve the person they are trying to heal, but it serves their own community as

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