While Nisa lived in more modern times, I still feel as if her account is still valid for understanding the life of much earlier Paleolithic people since it is better than nothing at all. There is evidence that she has had contact with a wider world as she mentions that she is not a village person and that she is someone who does not own anything and that certain people say that she is poor. Obviously, people from her own community would not say that she is poor since they are in the same position as she is. Therefore, she must have had contact with others who are more established than she is financially than she is. Plus, she is being interviewed by an American anthropologist.
From what she is describing, the woman does not have a say in choosing her husband and whether or not she gets married. She notes that she did not love her husband and probably did not really know him that well, which points to the fact that they had arranged marriages. Eventually, she did fall in love with him after a while, but compared to contemporary society, that is very backwards. Usually, we would fall in love with someone, then decide to marry that person. Also, her ideas on sex was that "A man has sex with you. Yes, that's what a man does," (Strayer 48). Additionally, she says "I... gave myself to him, gave and gave. We lay with each other and my breasts were very large. I was becoming a woman," (Strayer 49). From what I can gather, Nisa must have been very young when she was married, probably before puberty. Maybe women in general all married young. In terms of sex, Nisa notes that she had multiple affairs, as did her fourth husband. She states "But I did have lovers and so did he.... Because affairs... is something that even people from long ago knew," (Strayer 49). She justifies this by saying that if she had more than one man, then she would receive multiple gifts. Therefore, only having one man would not be satisfying. In modern times, this would be seen with much disapproval.
Nisa believes that God is stingy and his "heart is truly far from people," (Strayer 49). She goes on to say that God's ways are foul; first he grants her with a child, then takes it away from her and leaves her completely alone and in pain. She finishes it off by stating "That's the way it is. God is the one who destroys. It isn't people who do it. It is God himself," (Strayer 49). In terms of the curing rituals that she took part in, Nisa describes n/um and what is does to cure. Personally, I think she is describing a sort of drug, maybe even alcohol. Interestingly, she notes that sometimes n/um works and sometimes it doesn't, and that's because God "doesn't always want a sick person to get better," (Strayer 50).
Overall, I get the vibe that Nisa's assessment of San life seems to be critical. Throughout the different topics she discusses in her interview, she always has something critical to say: She doesn't like stingy people who don't share what they have, she didn't like her husband at first and was upset when they were married, she denounces and blames God for all the pain and suffering she has felt for the loss of her loved ones, she wasn't a big fan of her fourth husband which prompted her to have multiple lovers, and she didn't like how the healing ritual made her feel.
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