Paper Requirements
Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman
by Marjorie Shostak

Your paper assignment is to write an essay on Shostak's book about Nisa, a !Kung woman. Pick one of the following two topics:

1. Nineteenth century evolutionists considered band-level societies such as the !Kung to be primitive, characterizing their way of life as nasty, brutish, and short. Discuss how Nisa contradicts this notion. Be sure to give specific examples as you address social factors that have helped the !Kung adapt and survive in the harsh desert environment. You might want to discuss such topics as food procurement; sex, marriage, and birth spacing; infanticide; health and healing; etc. Do not just recapitulate Chapter 3, Life in the Bush. Using that chapter as a basis to tie in the rest of the book will make for a good start to your paper.

2. Marjorie Shostak's interest in studying the !Kung San was to learn what it was like being a woman in a culture so outwardly different from her own. Discuss the role of women in !Kung society and what factors (marriage practices, giving birth and child raising, economic and social relations, ritual activities, etc.) affect women's status and prestige in this egalitarian society. You should use the different status and prestige of men to complement your discussion of women's roles--how do gender roles affect Nisa's and other !Kung people's view of the world? Finally, why do you think Shostak was interested in women in another culture? That is, how does writing about !Kung women from an anthropological perspective contribute to our understanding of the !Kung, ourselves, and women throughout the world?

Other Requirements:

• 5 to 8 pages in length
• typed, double-spaced
• 10, 11, or 12 point font
• 1-inch margins all around
• spell-checked and grammar-checked
• either handed in to me or e-mailed to me in Word format no later than April 28, 2003

Want an A paper? Consider these suggestions:

• Read the entire book first before beginning to write your paper.
• Be sure you know enough about cultural anthropology before starting. If you're not sure what 19th century evolutionists have to do with the !Kung or are unclear about the definition of egalitarian find out before you choose a paper topic.
• It would be a good idea to review pertinent sections in Scupin's Cultural Anthropology, such as Chapter 6 - Anthropological Explanations and Chapter 8 - Band Societies.
• It might be useful to include outside resources about the !Kung, for example in comparing how Shostak's and Richard Lee's findings concerning women's roles differed, or what specifically 19th century evolutionists claimed about the "bushman" life. You can easily find additional sources by scanning the Notes section of Nisa or by looking in the Bibliography. Be sure to cite your references properly both in your bibliography and in the text--that includes any quotations you take from Nisa (just page numbers are acceptable) and Scupin's textbook, as well as websites you have consulted.
• An A paper will be well-planned, well-organized, and well-written. To ensure this, have a friend comment on the paper. You can even turn the paper in early to me (in person, in my box in the Phillips Building, or by e-mail), and I will critique it so that you can revise it and receive a better grade. In the past, I have found that students who submit rough drafts obtain as much as one letter grade higher after revision.