1. My relationship to my subject was she was my mother. She was born in South Philadelphia. She is half Italian and half Irish and grew up in the neighborhoods of South Philadelphia and the neighborhoods of the suburbs just outside of Philadelphia. Her whole life she has been somewhere in the middle class around lower and middle middle class. She grew up in a conservative, catholic family in the 1960s-1970s.
2. How I interviewed my subject, my mother, was to describe the basic goal of the interview and then to do question and answer. I was not comfortable throughout the entire interview process. For most of the interview I was uncomfortable and I also my mother was uncomfortable. This definitely did affect the thoroughness of the interview. It affected the thoroughness of the interview on both sides. There were some questions that I could tell my mother wanted to give as short an answer as possible because she did not want me to know some information because I'm her daughter. This in return or emphasized the fact that I did not want to ask some questions because I knew that she might not want to answer them or she might flat out not want me to ask them in the first place. I think interviewing someone that you were not related to or even someone you did not know at all would be much better. Even interviewing someone not so closely related to you such as an aunt, uncle, or cousin would be preferred, but the further you remove yourself the easier the interview would be. It is hard as an anthropologist to remove personal bias or your relationship with the subject, but I also think it is even hard for the subject to do the same. My mother could not remove the thought that she was being interviewed by her daughter, even though I asked her to not think of me as her daughter but someone she did not know who was interviewing her.
3. I do not think there is an emphasis on maternal or paternal lines, but there is definitely a difference in the attitude toward the older and younger individuals. When asked about closeness with older generations such as her grandparents, the attitude changed and she stated she was not close with them. The attitude held toward the older generations was much more formal. My mother also added the comment that the generation was different back then and you really did not have much of a relationship with your grandparents. She said you were not close with your grandparents even though you saw them every week. The closer to her generation and the younger generation was informal and the attitude changed. She was very close with her parents and one of her siblings. She is also close with her daughter. The attitude toward the younger generations while informal, there was still an attitude that certain things should not be discussed with younger generations especially your daughter. There was a trend of larger families, but there is now a trend of smaller families with mother and all mother's siblings having 1-2 children. The largest family is her eldest brother with 3 children. My mother mentioned that her mother's parents and her father's parents did not get along well and that her mother's parents never really liked my mother's father because one side of the family was Irish and the other side was Italian. Other than that there were no differences that affected social interactions.
4. I know relatives on my mother's side very well. On my father's side I know the names of some of the relatives. The only relative I know a lot about is my great grandfather on my father's paternal side. I do not socialize equally with them. I have a certain degree of closeness with almost all of the relatives on my mother's side, but I have never met any of the members on my father's side. I am not exactly sure why this is, but from what I can infer there was a disagreement and the relatives on my father's side chose to no longer be involved in his life. In my personal family of my mother and father, my mother and father have almost equal influence in decisions, but I would say my father has a little more influence in most decisions. I do not know about other family households of my family members. The family members who marry into the family are definitely treated equally with members who were born into the family. They are treated like there is no difference. I am not really sure if there are different attitudes towards family members based upon gender. Most of the time I would say no there are not different attitudes. Through this exercise the main thing I have learned that there is an attitude toward younger generations and that they should only be told so much because it is not proper to tell them certain things. I can now see this through the way my mother approached the interview and how I do not know about my father's side of the family. There are also other things that support this idea that are not evident to me. I can also see how it has been passed down generationally because my mother was very formal with her grandparents and sometimes even her parents.
2. How I interviewed my subject, my mother, was to describe the basic goal of the interview and then to do question and answer. I was not comfortable throughout the entire interview process. For most of the interview I was uncomfortable and I also my mother was uncomfortable. This definitely did affect the thoroughness of the interview. It affected the thoroughness of the interview on both sides. There were some questions that I could tell my mother wanted to give as short an answer as possible because she did not want me to know some information because I'm her daughter. This in return or emphasized the fact that I did not want to ask some questions because I knew that she might not want to answer them or she might flat out not want me to ask them in the first place. I think interviewing someone that you were not related to or even someone you did not know at all would be much better. Even interviewing someone not so closely related to you such as an aunt, uncle, or cousin would be preferred, but the further you remove yourself the easier the interview would be. It is hard as an anthropologist to remove personal bias or your relationship with the subject, but I also think it is even hard for the subject to do the same. My mother could not remove the thought that she was being interviewed by her daughter, even though I asked her to not think of me as her daughter but someone she did not know who was interviewing her.
3. I do not think there is an emphasis on maternal or paternal lines, but there is definitely a difference in the attitude toward the older and younger individuals. When asked about closeness with older generations such as her grandparents, the attitude changed and she stated she was not close with them. The attitude held toward the older generations was much more formal. My mother also added the comment that the generation was different back then and you really did not have much of a relationship with your grandparents. She said you were not close with your grandparents even though you saw them every week. The closer to her generation and the younger generation was informal and the attitude changed. She was very close with her parents and one of her siblings. She is also close with her daughter. The attitude toward the younger generations while informal, there was still an attitude that certain things should not be discussed with younger generations especially your daughter. There was a trend of larger families, but there is now a trend of smaller families with mother and all mother's siblings having 1-2 children. The largest family is her eldest brother with 3 children. My mother mentioned that her mother's parents and her father's parents did not get along well and that her mother's parents never really liked my mother's father because one side of the family was Irish and the other side was Italian. Other than that there were no differences that affected social interactions.
4. I know relatives on my mother's side very well. On my father's side I know the names of some of the relatives. The only relative I know a lot about is my great grandfather on my father's paternal side. I do not socialize equally with them. I have a certain degree of closeness with almost all of the relatives on my mother's side, but I have never met any of the members on my father's side. I am not exactly sure why this is, but from what I can infer there was a disagreement and the relatives on my father's side chose to no longer be involved in his life. In my personal family of my mother and father, my mother and father have almost equal influence in decisions, but I would say my father has a little more influence in most decisions. I do not know about other family households of my family members. The family members who marry into the family are definitely treated equally with members who were born into the family. They are treated like there is no difference. I am not really sure if there are different attitudes towards family members based upon gender. Most of the time I would say no there are not different attitudes. Through this exercise the main thing I have learned that there is an attitude toward younger generations and that they should only be told so much because it is not proper to tell them certain things. I can now see this through the way my mother approached the interview and how I do not know about my father's side of the family. There are also other things that support this idea that are not evident to me. I can also see how it has been passed down generationally because my mother was very formal with her grandparents and sometimes even her parents.
I understand you felt very uncomfortable doing the interview to your mother. I had problems to interview my aunt (who is like a mother to me) because I was scare that some questions would be too personal or inappropriate for her. I think it does not matter if you do not have a great relationships with all your relatives as long you are fine with your parents and bothers c:
ReplyDeleteDo not forget your Italian and Irish culture because you can find incredible things and show them to others.
I found your post very interesting and I do agree with you that it would be easier to interview someone you know nothing about. Your lineage was interesting that the older generations are treated differently. Good job I enjoyed reading this.
ReplyDeleteI loved your section on the difficulties of interviewing a relative. Very logical and well-analyzed. I agree.
ReplyDeleteYour final sentence was wonderful and insightful. The way you tied your own mom's distance from her grandparent to her resistance to opening up to you regarding your father's side of the family was very clear-sighted. Is her reluctance due to a privacy issue, meaning perhaps she doesn't feel comfortable talking about your dad's business out of respect?
Well done.
Thank you and yes, I do believe that most of the reason why she does not talk to me about what happened with my father's side of the family is because she respects my father's privacy. I think it is a sensitive issue with my father so she wants to respect his privacy and his feelings.
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