Essay on Nisa Life and Words of a Kung Woman - 633 Words

Nisa: The life and words of a !kung woman:response â€Å"Nisa: the life and words of a !kung woman† written by Marjorie Shostak is a book about a woman named nisa of the !kung people. It entails the stories of her struggles and the many horrific tragedies in her life and how it shapes who and how she is. The book Is basically an interview of a fifty year old nisa, it is written in her perspective of what it is like to live in such a society. She suffered quite a few devastating tragedies as aforementioned which included, the death of four of her children, two as infants and two as adults. Even shostak says that none of the !kung women suffered tragedies the way nisa did. The story evokes the importance of women to the tribe. Most of the†¦show more content†¦When anyone tried to pick on me she would help me and it also helped to the fact that she was popular and all the boys wanted her and what she said was taken as gospel. She always had my back even when my mom wa s whipping me she’d make jokes about my mom having the propensity of killing me because I was small which made my mom stop at times. It is very similar to the way Nisa describes her older brother Dau and his protection over her except it’s the other way around . Nisa tells of stories of Dau and how she looks up to him time and time again. She remembers that some occasions Dau would bring her mongongo nuts because it is her favorite. In another occasion Nisa’s older brother would intervene when their parents treat her punitively because Nisa would sometimes disobey what her told her not to do. In conclusion, shostak acquired a lot of knowledge from her stay with the !kung people. She learned that their culture is not really different from that of western civilizations, though their culture is seen as embryonic in terms of technology and medicine. They are thought of as primitive and looked down on because they do no project the image of technologically sound people. Despite all these the !kung civilization is similar to our civilization by the social bonds we share with one another, love, hate, promiscuity, family we love and others we hate toShow MoreRelatedMarriage Play : The Life And Words Of A ! Kung Woman1151 Words   |  5 Pagesplays an essential part in lives of !Kung women. Marjorie Shostack in depth describes each step of Nisa’s life in her book â€Å"The Life and Words of a ! Kung Woman†. Nisa, a fifty year old !Kung San woman, tells about her numerous marriages, husbands and lovers. Nisa vividly described the relationships between men and women. Furthermore, she states that children become aware of sex at a young age because the children share a single hut with their parents. In the !Kung society, first marriages are arrangedRead More!Kung and Nisa Essay1238 Words   |  5 PagesThe book, â€Å"Nisa The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman,† written by Marjorie Shostak is a culturally shocking and touching book about a woman who had gone through many struggles and horrific tragedies in her life. This book also highlights the perspective of most of the women in the society. There are many issues in this book that the people of the !Kung tribe goes through. Out of all the women in the tribe Shostak had made close connections with a fifty-year-old woman named Nisa. According to ShostakRead MoreKung! Essay example864 Words   |  4 Pagesof women in Kung society. Make sure you use both part (l) and part (2) of Friedl’s argument. (Do not worry that Friedl’s argument is simplistic; she is not trying to say that women’s role in subsistence is the ONLY factor that affects their position in society.) Friedl states that the position of women is higher the more they are involved in primary subsistence, and the public distribution of that subsistence. I think this classes Kung! Women pretty high up the social ladder. Kung! Women, helpRead MoreMarjorie Shostak: the Life and Words of Nisa a Kung Women1257 Words   |  6 Pages| !Kung Women | | | | â€Å"Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman,† written by Marjorie Shostak; is a culturally shocking and extremely touching book about a woman who had gone through many struggles and horrific tragedies in her life. This book also emphasizes the perspective of most of the women in the society. There are many striking issues in this book that the people of the !Kung  tribe go through.  Marjorie Shostak, an anthropologist, has written this book and studiedRead MoreAnalysis Of Nisa The Life And Words Of A ! Kung1518 Words   |  7 PagesLife and death are experienced throughout the country, which occurs every day around the world. We all experience dealing with death or life rather it s pertaining to a family member, friend, associate or even a co-worker. Life and death effect the population rates amongst the globe. People views, practices, and feelings differ from different religions and cultures. Each culture is unique and obtains different beliefs and rituals. According to the book Nisa The Life and Words of a !Kung WomanRead MoreThe Epic Of Gilgamesh, By Ralph Waldo861 Words   |  4 PagesRalph Waldo wrote life is a journey, not a destination. This quote is occasionally used to give meaning to the trails one faces in their life. As for our protagonist, Gilgamesh, this quote embodies what he went through. Epic, stunishing and dramatic are adjectives easily given to describe this mythical script. By carefully analyzing Gilgamesh s story, we find hints of how he came to the glorious ending to his quest. Nevertheless, the women in this epic poem play a small but very powerful roleRead MoreThe Field Of Anthropology As A Field2218 Words   |  9 Pagesunderstand other cultures have seemingly existed all throughout human history, yet the methods for doing so have changed over time. The field of anthropology dates back to the late 19th century, and when it reached the United States, it became even more WORD-widespread? Since then, it has cont inued to develop as a field, with new approaches becoming standard about every twenty years. Two of the main approaches to writing works of ethnography include ethnographic accounts of a culture foreign to the writerRead MoreKung Women Essays1768 Words   |  8 Pageslaborers) and (2) the PUBLIC distribution of the product of subsistence. Use this argument to account for the position of women in !Kung society. Make sure you use both part (1) and part (2) of Friedl’s argument. The !Kung are hunter-gatherers of Southern Africa and the women play an essential role in the production of subsistence for their families. The woman actually contribute a greater proportion of the subsistence to their families directly than do the men who are the game hunters in theRead MoreCultural Diversity : The And Words Of A ! Kung Woman And Saheri From Saheri s Choice1197 Words   |  5 Pagesdiscussed Nisa from our reading Nisa: The Life and words of a !Kung Woman and Saheri from Saheri’s Choice: Arranged Marriages in India a video. We examined the difference between Nisa’s arranged marriage and Saheri’s positives that both women see the marriage. First, a positive thing for Nisa is she gets gifts like the beads, she gets a place to live. For Saheri being married was her becoming a mature adult, having the freedom that an adult has and having a household of her own. In contrast, Nisa hadRead MoreNisa: the Life and Words of a !Kung Women Essay2258 Word s   |  10 Pagesaround the world including the !Kung. The !Kung population is located in the Kalahari Desert, in isolated parts of Botswana, Angola, and Namibia. The !Kung live in a harsh environment with temperatures during the winter frequently below freezing, but during the summer well above 100F. The !Kung, like most hunter-gatherer societies, have a division of labor based mainly on gender and age. (Body) Gender in the Division of Labor For the most part in the !Kung society the men do the hunting

Family reflection free essay sample

Family reflection BY mk21366 Family is one of the primitive institutions in society. Its organization and the relationship between generations shape values formation, economic outcomes and may even influences national institutions. This primitive institution though is also a group of people who interact and influence each other. The family that will be presented in this paper, lets call them the Adams family is a four member family that the writer of the present knows for nearly 20 years. Mr. Adams is the owner of a company and he is a well respected person in the specific business despite. He has never attended University. Mrs. Adams is a c. o. executive in a multinational company, ever since her University graduation and she is also considered to be a successful professional. They are the parents of two male aged 24 and 26 and were married around the age of 25. Their eldest son works in his father company and the youngest lives and works abroad. Mr. Adams comes from a troubled family, he has one brother, with whom no contact exists for many years, and their mother was the second wife of their father. His father was a troubled man compulsively Jealous of his ife often psychologically abusing his wife and he had beaten her twice one of them was in front of Mr. Adams who protected her and threaten his warned his father never to do so again. His mother was a traditional passive person nearly unable to support and protect herself and believed that men have every right to be authoritative. His fathers Jealousy for his second wife was rationalized due his first wifes cheating on him with his brother. His father owned a company in the same field Mr. Adams is activated and his mother a housewife. Mrs. Adams comes also rom a troubled family, her father was a gambler and her mother was an alcoholic, to this alcoholic woman Mr. and Mrs. Adams assigned the care giving of their children. She had a fatal stroke in the kids presence 14 years ago. Mrs. Adams father was an accountant who was prematurely retired because of a heart condition due his weight and ner mother was a nousewite. Her tamers gambling and early retirement caused financial problems and insecurity to the family, Mr. Adams who was working at the family business supported Mrs. Adams during her studies at the University. Both Mr. and Mrs. Adams used to work long hours and were determined to succeed in their professions and earn us more money as possible. They always valued powerful and rich people and put great effort to improve their social status and they have achieved that. Their way of living has been, rather superficial following the trends of the Greek society over the recent years. They live in a 300 m 2 house in the suburb, travelling a lot to exotic places and in general live a luxury life. They value and respect others on the basis of their financial and social status, especially Mrs. Adams, and this has ffected also their children who quite often refer to their housekeeper as the slave, the specific housekeeper is an educated woman a financial refugee from the former Soviet Union. None of the children ever attended university or was keen to be an educated person and until recently they all lived under the same roof. When their eldest son reached the adolescent years he presented symptoms of deviant behavior including marihuana use, arrests for graffiti and aggressive behavior. Two years ago Mr. Adams discovered that his youngest son was a heroin user. He found out about he addiction only because of the fact that his son fell into o comma. Until that day he had not realized anything even though they lived and worked together. Mrs. Adams on the other hand knew all about the problem, her son had written a letter he passed to his mother, in this letter he admitted his addiction and asked for her help. In her point of view she was helping him trying to spend time with him, something that she did not use to do before, going out with him, hiding the problem from her husband and not consulting a specialist. As mentioned above both Mr. and Mrs. Adams, worked hard to achieve a better social and economical status spending limited time with their children, even on holidays. They promoted a life style for their children which was based on their suppressed childhood wishes like piano and painting lessons and complained when the children refused to go along. Mr. Adams was dominated by his own father and grew up in a severe environment where strict rules were applied. Those rules originated from his fathers need to have absolute control on his wife and his fear that she might cheat on him, a fear he felt until the day died t the age of 85, always suspecting that Mr. Adams was covering up his mother. As a father Mr. Adams was determined not to be strict at all, he claims that he tried to have an open and trusted relation with his children and never doubted or checked on them. This attitude did not change even when both children failed in their school exams for the first time. Nobody bothered to improve their educational level, instead the children were sent to a luxury summer camping while Mr. and Mrs. Adams left for their holiday trip. No rules were set even after a call from the local police station here the eldest son was taken after he was caught for graffiti on private property. Graffiti on public and private property was his idea of entertainment. The relation of Mr. and Mrs. Adams could be characterized as a detached one, they both have been involved in intimate relations with other people, and this was a situation they both knew but avoid discussing about it. They only talked about separation twice over the years but decided to continue their marriage for their childrens shake. Her relation with her children was also detached, both children from time to time omplained in public mentioning that sne did not use to caress them, or cook tor them, or that when she and her husband were away for vacation she used to ask the housekeeper not to work during her absence despite that the two children were living at home, or that she used to call and remind them to take care of the dog in a way that really bothered them; you two animals take care of my baby. She is a superficial fashion victim acting always in a trendy way. The eldest son remembers that she used to tie his brother with a leash as soon as he started walking. Mrs. Adams was surprised of her sons memory of a fact she had forgotten and besides that was trendy back then as she said. She also believes that when you do not speak about a problem this does no longer exist or will automatically go away. Based on this belief she thought that if she would spend time with her son, his addiction problem would go away. She also claimed fear that her husband would leave her if he found out about this, so he persuaded her other son not to reveal the problem. Both parents did not notice the change in their sons behavior or felt comfortable with xcuses that he was tired when he was distracted. They both were upset when the father found out about the addiction. Mrs. , Adams as a mother kept a close relation with her youngest son, whom she manipulated completely. Both parents had a strange attitude towards their children; they never set rules or limits trusting that their children would behave as adults and on the other hand whenever a threat to their marriage would appear they both claimed that they should stay married for their children shake and that their children need them. About a year ago Mr. Adams decided to leave his home and ask for a divorce. Mrs. Adams talked him out of this; one of her arguments was their addicted son. Their son was already living in another country, had long ago overcome the withdrawal symptoms of his addiction, he was and still is regularly seeing a therapist, he lives with a woman with whom he has an intimate relation and recently he got a better Job at customer service of a multinational company of consumable products. The eldest son of the family works in his fathers company and six months ago he moved out the family house to live with a girl he is related to, something that did not make his parents happy, they both entioned their children leaving home made them realize that they are getting older. This increased the anxiety they experience due to the economical recession. All their life has been concentrated about pursuing of prosperity, a prosperity which of course they shared with their children. And this was their main role in the family. They considered their children education and culture as part of their social status and never really wondered what the children themselves would like to do with their lives. The difficulties the children faced at school did not alarm the parents, besides here was always the possibility of inheriting their fathers business. The parents had unresolved issues from their childhood. Issues, they never faced not even when the Greek therapist of their son pointed out that they should. They all felt relief when their son decided to move to another country, the parents because they would not be obliged to be part of problem solving and thus they would not be obliged to face their repressed difficulties, and the eldest son relieved his guilt because in a way he was the one who introduced his brother to drugs. This family has a weak ierarchy, and usually avoids conflict and definitely avoids facing their problems and the work on them. The parents were trapped with the children and are unable to resolve the contlict between them. Due to the structure ot their tamilies Mr. and M Adams thought that they were autonomous persons, but they seem to have confused autonomy with isolation. Both of them react with an immature way, and think that the change of scenery will automatically resolve any conflict. They both refuse to resolve their issues and bring to the present the problems of the past. They seem nable to handle the stress and in cases of crisis their anxiety is out of control. The eldest son also avoids facing and resolving his own issues. The only person in the family who tries to find a way to deal with his problems is the youngest son. He was the most vulnerable person and desperately looking for help. As he was disappointed from his family attitude and unwillingness to face the problem he decided to leave the country, ask for help abroad; find out who he really is and what he wants to do with his life. Amazingly the most vulnerable one seems to be the most willing and determined person to face and resolve his issues.