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31 December 2024
14 December 2024
A Holiday Project: Essential Questions
The holidays are upon us, for those who will be spending time with family this season, consider asking them some not so run-of-the-mill questions.
Professor of anthropology, Elizabeth Keating, wrote a book entitled Essential Questions: Interview Your Family to Uncover Stories and Bridge Generations. The Atlantic ran an article by her about it when the book was published. This is a gift link to read the article for free: “The Questions We Don’t Ask Our Families But Should.”
In her book, Keating presents groups of questions that tap into memories and experiences that can reveal more than you ever thought to ask your family members...or yourself for that matter. These are not the birth-marriage-death, names-dates-places, work-life-faith kind of questions. As an anthropologist, Keating brings an interesting perspective to interviewing our elders about their lives.
Each section starts with a broad question and has several follow up questions that explore the nooks and crannies of a life. The topics include questions about:
...background (is there a story about your name?)
...space (tell me about the house you grew up in)...time (tell me about a typical summer day when you were a child)...social interactions (tell me about a time that you were treated as insignificant)...becoming (tell me about what the world looked like as you entered it as an adult)...identity (what did people tease you about when you were a child or a teenager)...body & adornment (tell me about the clothes you wore as a child)...belief (how have your beliefs changed in your lifetime?)...kinship & marriage (what do you wish you asked your parents or grandparents?)...material culture (what objects from childhood do you still have and why?)...fear (what has been your bravest act?)...memory (what songs trigger memories for you?...and my favorite, what do you wish people knew about you?
05 December 2024
"De-rehabilitation" of Rehabilitated Soviet Repressions
Because I’ve been working with the Black Sea Germans on these lists lately and mapping the locations, this just published article in The Atlantic caught my eye. Russian president Vladimir Putin has decided “de-rehabilitate” and reinstate the original charges.