Carol,

Many years ago, I was fortunate to help out in a project out in the city of Tacoma and Pierce County in Washington.  The project was aimed at getting people to write autobiographies, but it used a facilitated group setting with the participants to encourage and inspire the prospective writers.  The group setting often resembled oral history interviews.  I noted (as a recent anthropology student) that the group discussion helped to quickly separate out the shared levels of experience from individual, idiosyncratic aspects.  The participants all lived in Tacoma or Pierce County at the time, but came from a wide variety of places and experiences there and elsewhere along the way.

One particularly rich discussion among the group participants focused on the changes in laundry processing through their lifetimes. It covered everything from washboards and hand-cranked wringers, use of bluing, best soaps, notable advertising jingles up through highly automatic washers and dryers and how permanent press clothes were first regarded. 

So, I'd recommend that you think about the synergistic effects that a moderated group discussion can have on stimulating individual memories, offering instant clarifications and corrections, as well as a range of comparisons -- all right on the spot. 


Richard D. Davis, MA
[Contractor: Colorado State University]
Cultural Resource Program Coordinator
Fort Campbell, KY
 
phone: 270-798-7437
fax:       270-798-7230
 
 


-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carol McDavid
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 10:25 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: oral history questions in HA

Hi,

Through my work with several history organizations in Houston, I am encountering a growing number of new local oral history projects -- this is good news, because Houston isn't a city known for caring much about history! However, none of the projects I've heard of recently have included many, if any, material culture questions in the lists of questions asked. In fact, it doesn't seem to even occur to people to ask this sort of question. 

Because of my work with these organizations, I am now in a position where I might be able to suggest that a few "material culture" questions be inserted into their lists of questions (bearing in mind that these projects are all over the map in terms of emphasis, objectives, skill/training of interviewers, etc. etc.). I realize that sometimes this will just mean taking their existing questions in directions they might not have thought of (getting more detailed descriptions of everyday activity rather than more general narratives, for example).

I would like to do this outreach for a couple of reasons. First, selfishly, it might help the data produced by these various sorts of projects to be somewhat more useful to archaeology (even as a jumping off point for additional questions later).  Second, I thought it might be one way to open people to the idea that material culture questions (or even material culture "extensions" of general questions) have some relevance to history in general. It might start some useful conversations....

So I'd like to pick your brains...what questions would YOU recommend that I ask people to include in their more general "oral history" projects? What areas of inquiry have you found to be particularly productive? I am coming up with my own list of course, but I keep bumping up against my own tendency to focus on site specific sorts of questions, which wouldn't necessarily make sense in this case. I would guess that those of you who have done oral history have your favorites...would you share them? Off list if you prefer...I'd be happy collate replies and report back to the list if that's of interest.

I realize that this question isn't as simple as it might appear on the surface, and that it may be impossible to discuss this sort of thing except in the context of a specific situation or project...but I thought I'd ask it anyway!

A related question to this would be...do you have favorite sources that address the HOW of doing oral history for historical archaeology purposes? I am having another look at the literature of course, but most of the stuff I've found doesn't say much about the specific questions asked, and that's what I am looking for now.

Thanks in advance,

Carol

**************************************
Carol McDavid, Ph.D.
Project Director, Public Archaeology, Yates Community Archaeology Project Adjunct Asst. Professor, University of Houston
1638 Branard
Houston, TX 77006
www.webarchaeology.com
www.publicarchaeology.org