The many ethnographies produced from the fieldwork of anthropologists represent much of our knowledge of cultures that we may consider foreign to our own. Ethnographies are often written to provide an understanding of the practices of the culture being studied, thereby bridging the gap between distinct ways of life. Majorie Shostak is one of the best-known anthropologists who attempts to do just that in her writing. While in the Dobe regions of Botswana, she studied the lives of !Kung women to find out if they shared similar ideas with women in her own culture. She began her research by emerging in every way possible. She learns the language, lives among them in grass huts and eats the food they eat. She still remained dissatisfied and began a series of interviews with !Kung women. The one woman who stood out from the rest was Nisa, who became Majorie's key informant. Nisa's stories added depth and gave Shostak the satisfaction she so craved. Unlike most ethnographies, the stories are written in the first person, all from Nisa's perspective. This approach to writing an ethnography has its strengths but can also be criticized. Shostack's emic approach is commendable because readers get a sense of how people themselves view the world around them. Assuming that enculturation makes the individual less capable of analyzing his or her own society, many turn to the interpretative viewpoints of a complete outsider who may present generalizations that ignore the values ​​people attach to their actions and who may inaccurately describe the true reasons for their conduct. Nisa is a great informant because her stories provide a lot of information about her culture. Her stories coincide with the stories of other women,...... middle of paper......in a humanistic way but she could have adopted a materialistic view. For example, the themes of male domination and polgamy could have been explored further. From a materialistic point of view, this could have been explained by the fact that men are better able to promote the growth of the hunter-gatherer family than postmenopausal women. The need to continue to populate can also be used to explain why gender is a major theme in !Kung society. However, unlike the humanist approach taken by Shostack, the materialist view would ignore the emotional attachments people place on activities such as sex. Nisa's story is both entertaining and informative. She may be flawed in her recollection, but her stories provide enough to assume that she is describing her culture accurately. This leads us to be sure that his stories give an accurate insight into his life!Kung..