Marjorie Shostak facts for kids

Marjorie Shostak (born May 11, 1945 – died October 6, 1996) was an American anthropologist. She studied people and cultures. Even without a formal degree in anthropology, she did important research. She lived with the !Kung San people in the Kalahari Desert of Africa. Marjorie Shostak became well-known for writing about the lives of women in this hunter-gatherer society.

Early Life and Studies

Marjorie Shostak grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She earned a bachelor's degree in literature from Brooklyn College. There, she supported the women's equal rights movement. She also met her future husband, Melvin Konner, at college.

Research in the Kalahari

From 1969 to 1971, Shostak and her husband lived with the !Kung San. This group lives in the Dobe region of southwest Africa. It is near the border between Botswana and South Africa. They learned the !Kung language and studied the culture.

While her husband studied health topics, Marjorie focused on women. She learned about the role of women in !Kung San society. She became very close with one woman, named "Nisa."

Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman

Marjorie Shostak wrote a book about Nisa's life. It was called Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman. Harvard University Press published it in 1981. This book is now a very important work in anthropology.

The book shares both Shostak's observations and Nisa's own story. It shows the life of a "primitive" woman in her own words. Shostak argued that !Kung San women had more freedom than women in Western cultures. This was partly because of their important role in gathering food.

Later Life and Work

In the 1980s, Shostak and Konner wrote about the "Paleolithic diet." This idea suggests that many modern illnesses come from eating foods different from what early humans ate. They believed our bodies evolved to eat certain foods.

Marjorie and Melvin had three children. In 1983, they moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Melvin Konner became a professor at Emory University. Marjorie Shostak became a research associate there. She also taught classes on life stories and the Kalahari people.

In 1989, Marjorie returned to the Kalahari to interview Nisa again. She was working on a second book, Return to Nisa. Sadly, Marjorie Shostak passed away in 1996 at age 51. Her second book was released after her death in 2000. In it, she described a traditional healing ceremony. Nisa tried to heal Shostak's illness during this ceremony.

Selected Works

• Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman (1981)
• Return to Nisa (2000, published after her death)