Assignment #1 25 pts Due May, 27, 2016

You are an anthropology graduate student going into the field for the first time.
Neither you nor your advisor have ever lived with the !Kung before. Your advisor
gives you this standard life history form to fill out about !Kung women by
interviewing people. We are using the book, Nisa, to draw information, as you
would in the field during an interview. Each ethnographic population is different,
and these questions are not easy to answer. Or in our case, you won’t necessarily
find simple answers in the book. The challenge of working with living people is to
extract the data that you want from how someone else views the world. Nisa
doesn't tell us her story in a straight forward way, but she does give us lots of clues
about her siblings, spouses, children and life history.

1) Fill out as much of the form as you can, with as much detail as you can. Take
the perspective of Nisa from the end of the book. I do not expect that there is an
answer to every question. But for many of the questions, you can make at least
some good guesses.

2) Think about some of the ways that you might want to alter the form to better suit
the !Kung if you were to go back to the field site another time. We'll discuss this in
class. The online class will not discuss this in class. Please respond below. One or two sentences
is adequate.

I would create a section for the documentation of miscarriages, and a section in the
"cause of death" that allowed for cultural information about the death to be put in.
My examples for this specific case would be when Nisa had a baby concieved out of
wedlock. The belief that these children were 'cursed' because of the actions of Nisa
have impact on a level that I think is worth documenting.
 Kalahari Project: Female Life History Form
1.Id: u0881409 2. Recorder: Majorie Shostak
3. Date: May 29th 2017
4. Subject’s Name: Nisa

5. Current age: 66 (at end of the book)

6. Age estimate from: G Certificate x Body Size/Life History G Birth Rank
Notes on estimating age: She was 50 at the first interview in 1969,as she had recently gone through menopause. The
second interview took place in 1975. 50+16=66.
7. Current marital status: G Single G Married G Widowed G Divorced

8. How many times have you been married? G1 G 2 G3 G4 G5

9. Have you had your first menses ? G Yes G No

10. If yes, how long ago? Dry seasons ago [ ] Wet seasons ago [ ] Moons ago [ ]
How old were you?
22 years ago
Estimate age at first menses[ 14 ]
Notes on estimating age at menarche: Nisa first menstrated during her third marriage, after her two trial
marriages. the !Kung woman start these marriages from 12 and on, so I estimate that by the time she was with
Tashay and had her first menstrual cycle, she would be 14.
11. How old were you when you first got married? 12/13 ]
Notes on estimating age at marriage: !Kung woman begin trial marriages early, I estimate she started at 12/13.

12. How old were you when you had your first child? [ 14 ]
Years after first menses? [ 1 ] Years after marriage?[ 1 ]
Notes on estimating first birth: Nisa says "when I gave birth to Chuko, I was still a young girl and
hadn't given birth before" pg 185

13. How many times have you given birth? [ 6 ]

14. Were any of these still births or late term miscarriages? G Yes G No G I don’t care to say

15. Were any of these early-term miscarriages? G Yes G No G I don’t care to say

16. How many children have you had? [ 4 ] 17. How many of your children are still alive? [ ]

18. How many grandchildren do you have? [ ]

19. Did you or do you use any forms of contraception? G Yes G No G I don’t care to say
20. If yes, what forms?

21. What qualities are important to you (i.e. Nisa) in your choice of husbands?
1=important 2= doesn’t matter 3=doesn’t mention
A man who is a good hunter Q1 Q2 Q3 A man who works hard Q1 Q2 Q3
A man who loves me Q1 Q2 Q3 A man who has a lot of friends Q1 Q2 Q3
A man who is respected Q1 Q2 Q3 A man who is faithful Q1 Q2 Q3
A man who helps others Q1 Q2 Q3 A man who comes from a good family Q1 Q2 Q3
A man who is handsome Q1 Q2 Q3 A man who hasn’t had other lovers Q1 Q2 Q3
A man who is ~ older ~ younger ~ my age ~ I don’t care what age he is
What other qualities are important to you?

Nisa loves food, so being able to hunt and provide for her is very important. Also, Nisa gets jealous quite
easily, so it's important that she's the main woman for whomever she is dating. She would rather not be a
co-wife, because she knows how jealous she can get in these situations.
 If individual is deceased
Relation Name Birth Alive? Life Age Cause of death Page
(circle one) year Yes stage at reference
/No at death
death

Parents
Mother Chuko 1900 No H 40 pg 46

Father Gau 1890 No H 65 pg 46

Children
Father Tashay No H 55 couldn't breathe, coughing up blood pg 189

So Da Nai 1932 No F 15/16 Husband's abuse, broken neck pg 185

So Da Bau 1934 No A 1 Sickness from the spirit of the bird pg 188

So Da Kxau 1935 No E 14 Food infection from honey ch 14

Father Twi

So Da Little Chuko 1931 No A 1 died as an infant pg 185

So Da
So Da

Father
So Da
Father
So Da
So Da
So Da
So Da
Brother/sisters
Bro Sis Ma: Chuko Kumsa 1922 pg 46
G full sib G½ sib Fa: Gau
Bro Sis Ma: Chuko Dau 1918 pg 46
G full sib G½ sib Fa: Gau
Ma: Chuko
Kxamshe 1924 Trembling sickness
Bro Sis
1
G full sib G½ sib Fa: Gau
Bro Sis Ma:
G full sib G½ sib Fa:
Bro Sis Ma:
G full sib G½ sib Fa:
Bro Sis Ma:
G full sib G½ sib Fa:
Age Classes for age at death: A= breastfeeding, NOT walking; B= Breastfeeding & walking C= Juvenile D= Menstruating
unmarried girl E= teenage boy F= married no child G= married with unmarried children H= married with married children