The writing of the life history is a methodology falls under the general heading of personal documentation and oral testimony. In a basic linear approach, it encompasses the study of the experiences of a single individual embracing stories of their life and exploring the learned significance of those individual experiences. One of the main approaches of the interviewer is avoiding “yes or no”-questions, but rather to get the subject to tell “the story of his or her life,” in his or her own words. This is also called the “narrative” research method. It is common practice to follow a chronological path in the interviews, i.e. to begin with the subject’s early childhood and to proceed chronologically to the present. Another approach is to ask participants to write down their own life stories. This can be done either with individuals, through public competitions, or by collecting already written-up life stories that were written spontaneously. Some countries already maintain large archives of life stories which can be used by researchers.
The method was first used when interviewing indigenous peoples of the Americas and specifically Native American leaders who were asked by an interviewer to describe their lives with an insight as to what it was like to be that particular person. purpose of the interview was to capture a living picture of a disappearing (as such) people/way of life. It was revived in the 1970s, mainly through the efforts of Daniel Bertaux and Paul Thompson who started doing life history research in such professions as bakers or fishermen. The revival of the life history method spread rapidly through Europe, with major research initiatives in Germany, Italy, Finland.
Later the method was used to interview
criminals and prostitutes in Chicago. Interviewers looked at social and
police-records, as well as the society in general, and asked subjects to talk
about their lives. The resulting report discussed (i) Chicago at that
particular time; (ii) how the subject viewed their own life (i.e. `how it was
like to be this particular person') and (iii) how society viewed the subject
and whether they would be incarcerated, receive help, perform social work, etc.
It has been used as a research approach since the turn of the century receiving
attention in history, sociology and anthropology. But raising greater in social
psychology where it was related to culture and personality studies.
In Anthropology the life history, or
personal narrative of one’s life, has long been recognized as an important
vehicle for learning about how culture is experienced and created by
individuals. Life histories have a special significance in our highly technological,
fast-paced, complex world. As we have become more isolated from one another,
the life history offers a means of putting us back in touch with others,
recognizing the intimacy results from listening to and telling stories. life
history as an anthropological method engages to the elaborated focus upon
biographical investigation of an individual. It is method to weave the life of
a person in a narrative way from birth through childhood to the present day. Life-history
is a method of qualitative research, frequently, but not exclusively, used in
anthropology and in the health sciences today. It provides an alternative to
empirical methods for identifying and documenting health patterns of
individuals and groups.In general students create a legacy of a loved one and
preserve a personal narrative of a family member for future generations, others
write the life history of a favourite professor, a friend from another culture,
a leader in their church, or simply a person they admire or so on and so forth.
Method and procedure:
It was a long interview
consisting the important sentences narrate by the informant in quotation for
the life of that person through anthropological lens. Information was gather
with an emic perspective where informants were given the opportunity to tell
her own story. Thus it can be regarded as "narrative" method. The interview was begin with the participant's early
childhood and to proceed chronologically to the present. The steps followed in
this practice are as follows,
· The year wise important milestones of her life was constructed through a timeline in a linear format which indicating important events in her life.
· The detailed description of three important events among all the events mentioned by the informant in the timeline is being presented.
· All the events on the timeline and the three events to have detailed description on was decided by the informant herself.
· Through the interview the exhaustive account of the life of my informant is being described.
Discussion
of the findings:
My informant is a 49 years old Bengali house wife. She has a nuclear family with 52 years old husband and only one 21 years old daughter, who is at present living in Delhi due to her educational purpose. She belongs to one of the daughters of the well-known ‘Dalal-Family’ residing in Nabadwip, Nadia district of West Bengal. Now she is one of the daughters-in-law of ‘Nath-Family’ residing in Barajaguli, Nadia district of West Bengal. She was never interested to engage in a service other than taking care of her domestic life as when she became a wife, ‘it was thought to be the tradition and only duty for the wives to take care of their household and family and it was not necessary as well for a wife to go out for doing a job’. According to her, ‘my identity was ‘Dalal Barir May’(daughter of Dalal Family) and now it is, ‘Nath Barir Bouma’(daughter-in-law of Nath family) and in future I hope to identify myself as ‘Pakhi-r Maa’ (mother of Pakhi, her only daughter)’. She wants her daughter to make her own identity so that she can identify herself along with her child’s identity. Through the interview, the year wise milestones reported by my informant is presented as following timeline,
[Provide a year wise timeline of the memorable events in the life of the participant]
My informant had informed that when after being topper in the
class for last 2 years she got failed in secondary examination only because of
the less marking in mathematics it was a really sad moment for her because she
knew that it was because of the extreme turbulent class room environment faced
by her during that examination. Then when she got failed again in bachelor’s
degree exam in political science, it was
because of the diverted concentration towards a guy who came to meet her
before the last night of that exam. According to her, ‘I liked that guy but I
knew that I would not be engage in any relationship as it was not at all
allowed or favoured to my father, but the guy was so bad that he keep asking me
whether I have changed my decision even before the exam night, I was in trouble
and my mind was distracted for that in that night and I could not be able to
concentrate in my study, also political science was so hard for me to learn and
remember, may be because of this I got back in that subject’. Then she got
angry and denied that guy and then she felt so bad and shameful of not being
graduated that she decided not to be in education any more. Also there was a
hidden wish to be married as her father was not well and he also wanted to give
her responsibility to an appropriate person. Then when her father passed away
she was totally broken from inside as she thought , ‘it is my bad luck that
neither I could be able to complete my graduation degree nor even could be
married according to my father’s wish’ that was a bad time she had passed
during some long years.
So among the above 26 life events remembered
to my informant she was egger to narrate 3 most important life event those all
are related to her family life, which brought happiness as well as hard time in
her life. Although my informant was narrating in Bengali but I preferred to
present the life history in her words only, I just made the translation of the language
from Bengali to English. Now the 3 three memorable event of her life is
presented in her words only in as follows,
Her
Marriage:
Whatever
she had narrated about her wedding in her words are, “When I decided not to
study more I was of 22 years old, it was a long duration of 3 years when a
number of families came to meet my family regarding marriage proposal but if
our side was accepted by them, we did not find fine to have a relation with the
due to any reason or if we were accepting any proposal may be they were not
accepting us due to any reason, like most of the families were coming from
lower social status than us, my brothers were not favoured to send me in a
house where the substance are farming or agriculture or have domestic cattle in
their house, I was also not comfortable with that environment as I grown up
within a fresh environment and higher social status as my father was a
professor in college. But the groom’s family were most of them and those who
were coming from government service background, the grooms were much older than
me which was not accepted from me not even from my brothers.
Then
one day before 1 and half month of my marriage one of my brother-in-law who was
my paternal uncle’s son-in-law came to our house with a proposal of marriage
from Nath family living in Barajaguli, Nadia, West Bengal. The groom was a
businessman having a stationary shop in the centre market of Barajaguli which
is afloat in nature and the guy is well known to my brother-in-law through
their economic relationship. Although my brothers were wish to have a
serviceman but they asked them to come to our house and see me. After 2 days
the groom with his elder brother came to our house, all of us had a conversation,
he had asked me if I would allow him to talk in personal space, then we both
went to our garden and had a little conversation. He asked me about my life, my
education and whether I had any relationship before etc. I did not asked him
anything as I was feeling little shy. But he told me that he was in a
relationship for 4 years but before 1 year he broke up with her as she had
chose her service not him, but he wants his wife to be a house wife, he
promised me that he will do all the outside work from income to grocery
marketing but he wants me to take care of the inside, this mentality touched me
as I was also not interested to go out and work because I love to take care of
my house and family. He asked me if he is liked by me. I said I will be accept
whatever our brothers will decide as I was so shy to say yes I like you or so
on so forth like this to an unknown person whom I met just before few hours.
Then he told us that after few days his family members will come to see me and
if they granted, he is ready to get
married with me as he found a perfect partner within me.
Then
after 3 days my father-in-law, mother-in-law, brothers-in-law and their wives
came to our house, they had conversations with my family. Both the family were
interacted within themselves, and asked our family to visit their house and
decide finally, they are accepting me as to be their daughter-in-law. Then my
two elder brothers, my brothers-in-law and my sisters visited their house, then
they decided the date to Ashirvad(bless) the groom, which is a pre wedding
ceremony. The date was fixed 7th December 1996, then they came back
and had ‘rasgulla’ (famous Bengali sweet) to every neighbours and called the
priest to decide the date for the wedding ceremony. The date was fixed just after 20 days after
that day. After that we were preparing for the wedding ceremony. I was happy as
well as with a mixed feeling of anxious and sadness of leaving my own home.
Within this duration my would be husband was used to send me chocolates and
music DVDs to melt my heart for him. I used to have the chocolate by sharing
those with family members and listened to the music as well. It was very high
situation for me. Both the families were preparing for such a grant event, no
one will be in low standard. I was the youngest daughter of my family and it
was a great responsibility for my brothers to send me in a safe and secure
hand.
Finally
the day came to the reality when I was going to be his wife. It was 14th
December 1996. It was extreme cold climate in Bengal. it was hard to wake up at
the 4 o clock to have curd and puffed rice and then I had to keep fast for the
whole day until the ritual of wedding is being done. All the day I was watching
how every member of my family was working for the ritual, I was asked to
complete some and to take rest. On the evening my grooming was started, with
benarasi saree, flowers and a lot of jewelleries. logno(ritualistic
time get married) of our wedding was at night 1am and it was 5hours journey
from their home to our home. So they went little late at the night as the logno
was at late. I was very much in tension until they were coming. It was going
late that they were not coming, and my tension was increasing in high along
with my family members. Then he came along with his family members and many
relatives. We came to know that due to the fog they were diverted and was not
able to found the way towards our home that is why they were late to reach.
Then I felt relief.
Our
wedding was done according to the traditional and ritualistic way of Bengali
wedding. I did not remember all the smallest rituals now as it was before 23
years ago. After the day of wedding, in the evening I came to my in-law’s house
for the first time. It was too hard for me to left my own home, I had cried a
lot by hugging everyone in my family. But my husband was supportive in that
time. When I came to his home he was also always together to ask for if I need
anything or feeling discomfort. The first night in after wedding night is
called as kal-ratri (black night), when it is not allowed for the newly wedded
couple to see each other’s face. We were far away from together that day
although both of us were egger to spend time with each other. But we have
followed the restrictions with loyalty. Next
day was our first night. That day reception was done very gorgeously in my
in-law’s house. Grand festival with snacks and dinner was done that day. Y
family members were came there but after few hours they go back to my parental
home. I was alone now to my husband’s house which became mine after our
marriage. From that they we were allowed to stay together at night after a lot
of rituals, I forget what all was done that day exactly. I am happy with him
and wish to celebrate our 25th marriage anniversary soon”.
Birth
of her daughter after one miscarriage :
‘I
was conceived after 8 months of my marriage. It was normal baby without any
trouble and I was in 8th month of my pregnancy. But one day suddenly
I found blood from my genital and I was afraid to lose my baby. I was in my
parental house still baby shower done on the 7th month of my
pregnancy. I called up one of my sister-in-law to call rikshaw and take me to
the doctor. I was in severe pain, somehow I realised by that time that I have
lost my baby. It was critical pain, when I just arrived the hospital gate, I
went down from the rickshaw, my baby was felt to miscarriage and I strongly
felt that. It was really unexpected for me. I did not even knew whether my baby
was a boy or girl. When I understood that I have lost my baby I was felt in
unconsciousness. When I woke up in the morning, my sister-in-law told me that
the baby was a daughter, her nails and hairs were started to grow up already.
It was the most critical phase of my life, I have carried her for 8 months, I
have fed her through me, my husband was in his parental home far away from me
due to his shop to be carried on. I did not knew what I will speak to him, he
will definitely misunderstood me that I could not took care of his child. But
no, he completely understood my situation and does not even blame me ever for
that still now. I was literally tired and the heart broke of this situation
made me weak and like a featherless bird’.
After
that she came back to her in-law’s home with her husband. After few days when
she recovered from her situation her husband had proposed her to adopt a child
from an orphanage home, as may be she has no more strength to carry a baby
again. But she denied to adopt that time as she had approached to try for one
more baby, if that does not be succeed then she will go with him to adopt a
baby.
After
few months she was again conceived. It was known to her from a shaman that her
earlier baby had a dos(supernatural cause) on her by another woman during going
to her parental home to have her baby shower. So she had took precautionary
measures through supernatural beliefs as this baby does not cope with any dos. During
her pregnancy she could not eat properly as she needed due to vomiting. She
could eat only few. She liked to eat sour fruits and pickles. All though she
felt hungry but could not eat as needed. She was in under check-up of Dr. Rita
Sinha. She was fine so did not visited hospital many times. She felt the
movements of her baby. She does not felt any pain during pregnancy. Just the
delivery pain happened. During her pregnancy she had maintained many type of
maternal taboos like not doing any heavy work, not to going out by opened hair,
not to cross any rope, not to fill up any hole, not to sew, not to see lord
kali etc.
On the 7 month of her pregnancy
period she had attended a ritual named ‘Sadh’ at her husband’s home. The
ingredients needed for this ritual was came from her parental house. Even the
chefs who cooked for her and the invited people were came from her father’s
hamlet. She had worn new cotton saree. She had treated by 7 types of fruits, 7
types of sweets and vegetable curry and
fish-curry . The invited people were her neighbours and few of their relatives
, near about 70 peoples were invited. She had not taken any gift. But everyone
gave her a new packet of cinnabar (Sindur). On 9 month of her pregnancy. Once
at the evening time she felt quite problem and told her sister-in-law to call
the doctor. So quickly she was admitted on Haringhata Hospital at 8 p.m. for
delivery. She was admitted for 2 days. On the second day she had delivered her
baby girl normally at near about 7 a.m. Her baby was fine in health. After back
to home she lived in a room of the outer side of their main house. There she
lived with her mother-in-law. She had received 1 plate plain boiled rice and
some curry without any spice every day. During these 7 days she could not use
any cosmetics, soap or shampoo. Even she can’t cut her nails and oil her hairs.
After 7 days she bathed in Ganga river and her baby girl was bathed by sun
heated Ganga jal (water of river ganga) . After that she entered at their main
home. Then all the relatives and neighbours took her baby. At the age of 6
months of her baby, she with her husband has provided the first grain of rice
to her child, which is called as ‘Mukhevat’ (having rice) and the date was 20th
December 1999.According to her, ‘it was a great peace to have my daughter, my
husband was also very happy to have her, he has distributed sweets, sarees and
moneys to many poor people after having his daughter. I was extremely happy to
have this child as daughter because I could not see my first daughter. She came
up with our luck. She is our Laxmi (Goddess). I am grateful to god to gift her
to me. She is extraordinary from her heart’.
After
this two events, my informant was in the narration of one of her critical time
period, which now she had crossed but according to her, ‘I would love to
mention a part of my past days, before 12 years back of my present time. I will
never forget that time period, although it is not a happy event but it is a
short event of my 49 years of age’ and then she started narrating about,
Life
in Kalyani:
Life in Kalyani is a short
journey of my informant where it was the most critical time for her family.
According to her, ‘on that time my daughter was in 2nd standard. My
husband’s shop was taken away from him by his father due to quarrels among
family members. We were in a rent house apart from Nath-family. On that time my
husband was in poor economic condition as he does not had his shop, then he
tried to find out a job in private company. Because of his age it was hard to
find a perfect job that time. He had joined as a salesman in a private water
purifier company.
It was too hard time for all of
us, he used to go to office at dawn morning and used to come back at night when
my daughter was already slept. It was so hard time that one day I saw that my husband had only 5 rupees in his pocket. I was unable to
do anything, my daughter was little, then due to my husband’s job we had to
shift to Kalyani, we were staying in an out-house, paying 700 rupees per month
but it was hard for my husband to earn even 700 rupees per month. Then I
decided to work. Even I have joined a private company as a receptionist. I
worked there for 6 months then my husband gone to Banaras for work purpose and
I left the job.I was along with my daughter in Kalyani. For 1and half years I
was there with my daughter apart from my husband.’
She told that in that time
she was forced to admit her daughter in a lower class primary school because of
their low economic condition, which heart her the most. She was unable to even
buy a chocolate for her daughter. Her
husband was far away and she was trying to make her daughter smile every day.
She does not even had that much of dare to travel in a rickshaw for going to
the market. She used to walk for miles everyday to reach her daughter to school
and to take her back to home. Although
there was great economic severity but she was happy to see her daughter happy.
There were such days that she had to feed her daughter only yellow rice, (rice
mixed with turmeric).
According to her, ‘that time life has taught
me what poverty is, although we were in severe economic condition we did not
stop smiling, there were no such days that I did not went out with my daughter
in a occasion. Although I had 10 rupees in my purse, but my daughter was also
happy with a candy cost 50 paise. I found a cooperative husband, a cooperative
daughter and cooperative myself in that time, that we all have survived well
with smile’. Then after her husband returned to Kalyani, they came back to their
in-law’s house as they were requesting them to come back to them. This was 2
years of her life that she had spent there.
Interpretative
conclusion:
“Not creating own identity for well being of
the family,
is not only a sacrifice but a choice as well”
Life-history
allows the researcher to explore a person’s micro-historical (individual)
experiences within a macro-historical (history of the time) framework.
Life-history information challenges the researcher to understand an
individual’s current attitudes and behaviours and how they may have been
influenced by initial decisions made at another time and in another place.
Through this practice I saw
the life‐history as method of grounding anthropological analysis.
Here the life history was
taken on a 49 years old house wife who were decided not to engage in a service,
not to create an identity of her own. As an anthropologist what I have
understood is that, not creating own identity as a well-wisher, who think
herself to be the only to hold the inner control and beauty of the family is
not only a sacrifice, it is also a choice. Because this person had chose her
life as to be the mother-of-her child. She is the person who always live for
others not for only herself. She had mentioned that, ‘of course I took care
of myself from my eating to my personal care, as I love to keep myself clean
and beautiful, I love to keep my household clean and beautiful as well’. She does not like to work in a uncleaned
space. She is a beautiful lady, although she is having her age of 49, she still
has the strength and beauty to keep behind a young girl of present time. Her
beauty is from her inner side as well which came out through her cleanliness.
She had faced many
unexpected realities in her life before her marriage, in her student life. She
found that without her fault she was exploited, may be it was her luck as she
had mentioned. As she was very pretty, in her college as well as in locality,
many young guys have tried to make friendship with her. But she was very strict
in that case, she was not interested at all to make friendship with any guy for
any unnecessary reason. Because she knew that her father has a respect in that
locality, many people have tried her elder sister to exploit her beauty as she
was as beautiful as her. So before her marriage even till now she is maintain
that nature to keep her family in that status that one can blame them for anything.
She had even ignored the only guy whom
she was liking just because of the mentality of not having affaire before
marriage which is not favoured by her father. Then after marriage she always
tried to maintain the tradition of Nath family like, wearing saree, food habits
and such kind of things. When he husband was promised to her that she does not
need to worry about the outer necessities of their family, she also promised
himself to not worry about the inner necessities of the family. She does not wanted
the nuclear family but the situation got so bad that they were forced to be
apart from Nath family and having their own house. But he is very happy to have
her husband because according to her, ‘he is a perfect life partner for me and
a perfect father of my child’.
Now she has daughter, who is
not only glowing from her beauty but also glowing from her carrier slowly. She
had mothered her child with such an environment that she believes that her
child will also not do anything ever that will be a reason of their shame. she
had even a critical time when she left her child to stay apart from her as it
was first time after she was born. But she also crossed that hard time. Now she
is hopeful to be identified as the mother of her child. At last she said that
,‘I keep believe in myself, I belief God will give the right for us, we just
need to believe and God and keep doing our duties’
It is not possible to gather the life history of an individual within some few pages and where the life has passed through 49 years with a lots of ups and downs. But this method helped the researcher to realize it’s preciousness through it’s apply. Through this method the researcher was able to identify the identity of her informant. She had realized during this practice that life has many things to learn from. Experiences are the precious than the destination. Keeping believe in own self and God, keeping hope with smile and doing our own duties is always important for life to overcome any situation.
As an evident to some of the events in her life, mentioned in the timeline as well as in description, she had provided me some memories she have regarding those historical moments and allowed me to add in my practical report to give this a complete structure and those are as follows,
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