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This book is about anthropology as a journey of mutual understanding of increasingly greater breadth and depth. It is about allowing oneself to be inspired by those whom one is studying, teaching, treating, or counseling; how that inspiration leads to a poem or story that is shared with them; and how that personal experience becomes the basis for a more grounded relationship, deeper self-knowledge, and ultimately the accomplishment of one's goals in applied anthropology. This approach does not negate other ways of knowing-participant observation, open-ended interviews, naturalistic observation, focus groups, or surveys-but complements and extends them and the kind of cultural data they elicit. It is about how another people's world (the North American Great Plains, in this case) comes alive to an observer, therapist, or consultant. Written by a prominent medical and psychoanalytic anthropologist, this work is a daring experiment in communication. It outlines an alternative for researchers and writers that can allow one individual to tune in to another individual across a cultural or epistemological boundary. It is a new step in the empathic process, one that affects and transforms the practitioner as deeply as the client. A must read for those in caring professions.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Preface
Introduction
The Seasons of Living
Essay: Why Not Oklahoma?: A Plea in Behalf of Oklahomaness in Oklahoma Medicine
Prairie Days
Prairie Nights
Essay: Pupils
Wheat and Weeds
Scrub Oak and Cottonwood, or A Prairie's Aesthetic Social Classes
Essay: Farming in Chelm
A Place and a Time for Hope, or When to Persevere, When to Retreat
The Soul of a Prairie and the Mystery of Human Relationships
Essay: Bronc
The Sense of Place
Prairie Storms
Essay: Driving to Work
Prairie Solitariness: Leaves on the Ground, Tumbleweed in the Pasture
Prairie Seasons of Death
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Über den Autor / die Autorin
HOWARD F. STEIN is Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City. Dr. Stein is the 1999 recipient of the Omer C. Stewart Award for exemplary contributions to the field of applied anthropology. A specialist in medical, psychoanalytic, and applied anthropology and related fields ranging from rural health to ethnic studies, Stein has observed first-hand the changes that have taken place in health-care and in various other organizations. He is a member of numerous professional associations and author or coauthor of more than 20 books, among them
The Human Cost of a Management Failure: Organizational Downsizing at General Hospital (with Seth Allcorn, Howell S. Baum, and Michael Diamond forum, 1996) and
Prairie Voices: Process Anthropology in Family Medicine (Bergin and Garvey, 1996).
