>Her insights into a primitive (sic) society is worth more than that of the vast majority of anthropologists, for one simple reason: Helena was there for real, as a member of those societies. She didn't only study stone age life. She lived it.

This reminded me of Zora Neale Hurston, who had taken a similar approach when studying the history and practice of voodoo in Haiti and Jamaica.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/claimin...