Been in her mid-thirties back in 1978, the video presents the life, both past, and present of a woman by the name N!ai. N!ai is in this video portrayed as a woman of intimate Portrait with most of her story been told in a broad overview as dedicated by the film. The video is based on the time, and the life before the white men came, especially women in the society and the great experience that as a child she had, primarily by the way people back then did whatever that they wanted without being forced in any way. From the story, women had some tasks in the society just as she narrates that while she was a child, she used to follow her mother in these women tasks and see what went own during this free full time. Some of these activities that were done by the women in the society included picking berries, nuts, and roots as the season passed.
As she grew up, she saw significant things in the social change as the white men came especially when it came to patriarchy and matriarchy in the society with all their responsibilities changing together with the social systems that included social identity. Sexuality, sexual orientations of members of community and gender patterns altered to some extent that she even found herself significantly resisting the order of marriage, something that was very uncommon back then. The film also presents her as a young girl and a young wife during this time as her husband became a healer. What this film majorly reflects is the tight integrations in our society especially when we consider the ethnography of our community and the history of sexuality and gender divisions in our communities. In the film, the footage presented of her covers more than 27 years in which we see significant expeditions in our society especially in the ceremonies especially hers which occurred back in 1951.
Sexual dimorphism is also a great voice that is raised from this video since it reveals remarkable changes as she remembers the life she had and the one that she is witnessing. Gender responsibly and other roles that were back then associated with specific genders as per the film have been turned into crazy integrations that cover the resistance of women like N!ai who saw such differences. From her case, gender stratification also has some influence in the modernity of these societies with the subject been majorly recognized as the gender differences go on from an individual problem to a community-based issue that needs to be told and spoken out. As a young wife, she is presented as the perfect example through which she represents the great idea of the violence associated to the patriarchal gender in the society and also the changing gender behaviors that in this situation were associated with the repetitive gender patterns that we had in the community.
The video creates a general viewpoint of the female gender based on the life of N!ai as it is in the film. As N!ai recalls in the video, the gender roles in the past were similar and not so much differentiated which changed after the whites invaded their lives. Everyone did what pleased them in the past before after the white’s invaded their territory despite gender differences. Building on the video, the tradition guided the behaviors of the men and the women in the society based on the cultural expectations and beliefs. Their lives revolved around the different stereotypes that were held dear about both sexes. Gender roles and behaviors as seen in the video were constrained by the cultural expectations, training, and stereotypes. The video through the narrations and life of N!ai show the type of experience the people of her community led based on the different beliefs held for both genders, men and women, and the changes that occurred many years after the whites invaded their territory.
Individuals in the Ju/’hoan community would carry out any role despite their gender. For instance, N!ai recalls when she would go with her mother for hunting. These roles changed after the white man came since they were viewed as roles of the male gender. Women were supposed to take care of the family by carrying out different functions that involved taking care of the children and searching for food for the family. The family was ruled by the patriarchy type of rule whereby the men were in charge of making laws in their homes. There were also cases of patriarchy violence whereby, men would beat up their wives since as narrated in the video, N!ai tells of how her mother left her husband for marital violence.
This changed in thirty years after the aspect of modernity was introduced by the white man whereby women were taught to stand for their rights. After thirty years, cases of patriarchy violence reduced due to increase of women movements in the society that fought for the rights of women and enlightened them on rebelling against such acts of violence from men. These were first steps to gender orientation among the Ju/’hoan women whereby they were taught to value themselves as necessary as men.