Gettin' Some Age on Me
Gettin' Some Age on Me

Author: John van Willigen

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-12-14

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 0813193869

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The social life of older rural Americans is made up of relationships formed through kinship, their neighborhoods, and the organizations to which they belong. These social institutions are shaped by the ways people use them, and therefore change through time. In this precedent-setting study, John van Willigen uses the concept of social network to investigate life-course changes in the relationships of older people within the context of community history. Gettin' Some Age on Me grew out of a study of more than 130 older people in a rural Kentucky county. They were interviewed concerning their relationships with others, and data were collected on the give and take of support that is part of their social life. An understanding of community life and history, developed through interviews and period documentation, provided a context for understanding the changes these people have experienced over time. Finally, related studies by other researchers provided a framework for interpreting rural and urban differences. Van Willigen skillfully interweaves these various accounts to reveal fundamentally important patterns. It is clear that these other people should be viewed not as dependent and isolated but as important sources for social support; that even though their social relationships decline in number late in life, early in the post retirement period there is an apparent increase in social involvement; and that older people are much less isolated in the rural community studied than in many urban areas. This book makes a substantial contribution to the very limited literature on aging in rural America. It is important reading for social gerontologists and for all social scientists with an interest in American communities.

The Encyclopedia of Aging
The Encyclopedia of Aging

Author: George L. Maddox

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-12-11

Total Pages: 1357

ISBN-13: 3662383381

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Comprehensive multidisciplinary encyclopedia dealing with aging processes and older adults. Intended for "the educated inquirer who needs a brief authoritative introduction to key topics and issues in aging." Signed entries contain cross references. Contains lengthy bibliography. General index.

Participant Observation
Participant Observation

Author: Kathleen Musante DeWalt

Publisher: Rowman Altamira

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 0759119279

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Participant observation is the foundation of ethnographic research design and supports and complements other types of qualitative and quantitative data collection. Qualitative research in such diverse areas as anthropology, sociology, education, medicine draws on the insights gained through the use of participant observation. The authors have written a guide to the collection of systematic data in naturalistic settings - communities in many different cultures - to achieve an understanding of the most fundamental processes and patterns of social life. This book serves as a basic primer for the beginning researcher and as a useful reference and guide for experienced researchers in many fields who wish to reexamine their own skills and abilities in light of best practices of participant observation. This new edition includes discussions of participant observation in nontypical settings, such as the Internet, participant observation in applied research, and ethics of participant observation. It also explores in greater depth the use of computer-assisted analysis of textual data in issues of sampling and in linking method with theory.

Other Cultures, Elder Years
Other Cultures, Elder Years

Author: Ellen Rhoads Holmes

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 1995-05-24

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1452264988

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Holmes and Holmes have revised their 1983 book, and it remains a good supplement for an undergraduate gerontology course or anthropology course. It is written at a readable level, each chapter has a clear summary. . . . It provides an excellent summary of secondary sources, avoiding extensive review of primary research, complicated theory, and methodological issues. --Clinical Gerontologist Hailed as "extremely well organized, balanced, and impartial" in its first edition by The Gerontologist, Other Cultures, Elder Years is once again available in a fully revamped second edition. This new edition provides a comprehensive, comparative viewpoint on our knowledge about worldwide patterns of aging. It addresses everything from demographic patterns to family relations, from perceptions of the life cycle to the impact of modernization on the aged. Replete with summaries of crucial studies from various parts of the world, Other Cultures, Elder Years also offers three extended case descriptions of Inuit, Samoan, and white American aged as well as an examination of aging patterns among major American ethnic groups. Among the other subjects the text addresses are cultural perspectives in health care, the future of aging in America, and creativity and the life cycle. Other Cultures, Elder Years is the key text available for use by anyone teaching courses on aging and culture. "I found the current [book] a significant improvement over the first edition. . . . It remains to be the only usable text in the anthropology of aging available. I see the audiences for the book as instructors for the following courses: Anthropology of Aging, Sociology of Aging, and general social gerontology courses. I have used this book in past Anthropology of Aging courses and would do so again." --Jay Sokolovsky, University of Maryland, Baltimore County "This book does a truly artful job of organizing and presenting the complex diversity of human experience related to aging and cultural influence. . . . This book offers an implicit biocultural laboratory to the reader: the biologic universal of human aging is shaped by the prism of cultural influence. The reader is guided through the evolutionary history of aging among anthropoid primates, to hominids, to Homo sapiens sapiens, who are then examined from cultural perspectives found around the globe. The effect is one of inquiry, search, synthesis, and, ultimately, a confrontation with our inner selves as we negotiate the inexorable march toward our ultimate destiny." --J. Neil Henderson, Suncoast Gerontology Center, University of South Florida

New Perspectives in Anthropology
New Perspectives in Anthropology

Author: S. Seth

Publisher: M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd.

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9788185880198

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The book, New Perspectives in Anthropology, brings together information about many diverse attributes of MAN in an attempt to understand him in its entirely. As the subtlety and complexity of anthropology becomes better understood, the issues emerging from the integration of biology, behaviour and culture inter alia human evolution, primate behaviour and human variation shall become increasingly relevant and interesting.

Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology
Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology

Author: H. Russell Bernard

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2014-07-08

Total Pages: 785

ISBN-13: 0759120722

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The Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology, now in its second edition, maintains a strong benchmark for understanding the scope of contemporary anthropological field methods. Avoiding divisive debates over science and humanism, the contributors draw upon both traditions to explore fieldwork in practice. The second edition also reflects major developments of the past decade, including: the rising prominence of mixed methods, the emergence of new technologies, and evolving views on ethnographic writing. Spanning the chain of research, from designing a project through methods of data collection and interpretive analysis, the Handbook features new chapters on ethnography of online communities, social survey research, and network and geospatial analysis. Considered discussion of ethics, epistemology, and the presentation of research results to diverse audiences round out the volume. The result is an essential guide for all scholars, professionals, and advanced students who employ fieldwork.

Food and Everyday Life on Kentucky Family Farms, 1920-1950
Food and Everyday Life on Kentucky Family Farms, 1920-1950

Author: John van Willigen

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-12-14

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 0813188822

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The foods Kentuckians love to eat today—biscuits and gravy, country ham and eggs, soup beans and cornbread, fried chicken and shucky beans, and fried apple pie and boiled custard—all were staples on the Kentucky family farms in the early twentieth century. Each of these dishes has evolved as part of the farming lifestyle of a particular time and place, utilizing available ingredients and complementing busy daily schedules. Though the way of life associated with these farms in the first half of the twentieth century has mostly disappeared, the foodways have become a key part of Kentucky's cultural identity. In Food and Everyday Life on Kentucky Family Farms, 1920–1950, John van Willigen and Anne van Willigen examine the foodways—the practices, knowledge, and traditions found in a community regarding the planting, preparation, consumption, and preservation—of Kentucky family farms in the first half of the last century. This was an era marked by significant changes in the farming industry and un rural communities, including the introduction of the New Deal market quota system, the creation of the University of Kentucky Agricultural Extension Service, the expansion of basic infrastructures into rural areas, the increased availability of new technologies, and the massive migration from rural to urban areas. The result was a revolutionary change from family-based subsistence farming to market-based agricultural production, which altered not only farmers' relationships to food in Kentucky but the social relations within the state's rural communities. Based on interviews conducted by the University of Kentucky's Family Farm Project and supplemented by archival research, photographs, and recipes, Food and Everyday Life on Kentucky Family Farms, 1920–1950 recalls a vanishing way of life in rural Kentucky. By documenting the lives and experiences of Kentucky farmers, the book ensures that traditional folk and foodways in Kentucky's most important industry will be remembered.