The author, Marjorie Shostak, provides at the beginning of each chapter in her book a short introduction of the subject matter which precedes text in the actual chapters recounting Nisa's life. This work covers Nisa's life as she remembers and also provides some insights that the author has outside of the interviews with Nisa. These perspectives are given from the viewpoint of having lived and been with the !Kung women.
Numerous aspects of the Kung women's way of life is revealed, beginning with Nisa as a little girl, "I remember when my mother was pregnant with Kumsa. I was still small and I asked, "Mommy, that baby inside you-(Shostak, 1981, P. 51) and proceeded on to her marriages, "I had refused Bo, but Tsaa, my next husband, I liked. When I married him, my breasts were just beginning to develop" (Shostak, 1981, P. 138) and further on to when she gave birth and when "After (her) children died, (she) just continued to live." (Shostak, 1981, P. 326). But there appears to be a particular emphasis on Nisa's sexual trysts with men from chapter 4 onwards, "There are men, a few of my lovers, who still live in my heart." (Shostak, 1981, P. 331) This may be due to Nisa being proud that she is able to attract lovers, and she is boasting that particular fact to the author. Nisa was able to describe in detail her entire life in her interviews, even going into the little details of her play habits whilst she was young and to the long treks that she took around with her husband in her latter years. .
What I noticed particularly missing from the text is that it covers a mainly female viewpoint on life in a !Kung village, while information about the !Kung men were given in the introductions, it is just mainly skimming through it. If the anthropologist was a man, this book may turn out totally different, covering more of the men's aspect on life, giving details on the men going out for hunting, the specific methods and knowledge needed in the hunt.
