Introduction:
I chose to choose my topic on a person’s rural upbringing that was isolated away from society or city life. I chose this topic because it has always fascinated me to know about the various challenges people face with their environment. It’s interesting to hear of the diversity that exists between people who grew up in a rural or isolated setting. It’s beautiful to be able to discuss the range of hardships, unique experiences, and moments of joy these individuals have lived to be present with us today. I believe it’s important to discuss those experiences openly within Western society. I feel it would be a vital component to bring light and support to any immigrant’s transition into the United States of America. It’s important in order to bridge a sense of support and understanding towards our counterparts.
Methods:
The data collective methods that I used for this ethnography paper are interview based. I interviewed two individuals that requested to remain anonymous. One is an anonymous male in his late 20s. The other was an anonymous female in her late 50s. The data collection techniques that I used were voice recordings with the individual’s permission to be recorded. My angle will be a description approach. There will be no hypothesis to my ethnography because I am taking the emic approach. I aim to understand and listen to the descriptions of an isolated villager’s childhood or rural upbringing that the individual’s day to day life consisted of. I seek to know simply what life was like for them.
Summary:
There’s a dormant human experience that has been hibernating out of the Western eye that isn’t talked or discussed about often. Two experiences have been documented; both seem parallel to each other but differ, because one environment was in a rural setting, while the other was an environment that was isolated. Reoccurring themes overlap each other; two children grew up in a setting with domesticated farm animals, they both had no convenience of electricity, modern fecal waste disposal units, air conditioning, or water filtration systems in their households, and there was never an abundance or excess in things. Food was scarce, so was water at times, and the availability of education was also missing. The education that was missing would be the categories of mathematics, literature, reading, writing, world history, and art.
Both these anonymous individuals who grew up in this isolated or rural environment experienced death, illnesses, and challenges that threatened to overwhelm their survival. Death was observed through the slaughtering of animals they raised for food; it was also observed through family members dying from poisonous animals, or strangers dying of malnutrition. Both individuals knew people who were either harmed or killed by dangerous animals that were poisonous. A common threat both children faced while growing up was keeping an eye out for scorpions, snakes, and poisonous spiders. When both these individuals had the ability to understand and retain information, they were passed down knowledge orally by their parents, and this was done in order for them to know how to identify threats, and stay away from them.
From an early age as soon as these individuals were able they both chipped in and helped with chores. They both had their own similar experiences feeding livestock, cleaning after them or cleaning outhouses, and had to collect wood to start a fire in order for them to cook a meal. A fond memory of childhood was built towards the animals their family raised for both these individuals, each of them enjoyed the cycle of life and death that unfolded before their eyes through the raising of their livestock, and they both enjoyed seeing baby animals grow up into maturity.
Both individuals worked with their environment to provide and accommodate themselves with the basic fulfillment necessary to sustain life; water, food, and shelter. The excess or abundance in things was unimaginable and impossible for them to obtain, so their family lived happily, because having enough to survive on a day to day basis was a miracle. Since there were limited resources there was never any reason to compete or not help each other.
While my anonymous male’s childhood upbringing in a rural environment was brief, vague, and not as challenging as my anonymous female’s upbringing there were a few things they both stated that they observed growing up. Both had come to the conclusion of understanding how their basic environment was simple and too inconvenient as they grew up. They knew that there was a constant challenge they had to struggle with as children; which was dodging death as much as they could, and growing into adulthood. Reaching adulthood in both environments was a safe haven and a light indicator towards whether they would have a slight promise to a longer life. Both of the people I interviewed acknowledged that out of everyone who grows up in their environment, it is the children who are the most weak to survive, because they are more susceptible to malnutrition, illness, and not overcoming poisonous animal’s venom. Death seems to have taken a lot of child relatives from my anonymous female’s life during her childhood. It’s fascinating to hear that both individuals considered their free time or play time through the chores they did growing up. One of them emphasized how it was a form of entertainment and a way for time to progress more quickly. He mentioned how chores never felt like chores because they were never a burden. He stated how they were fun and amusing. My anonymous female mentioned chores were it was her free time.
My anonymous female mentions some light taboos that her village had. One of those taboos involves pregnancy as well as fertility. Pregnancy was not talked about to neighbors or the children in the household. This occurrence in a woman’s life was kept private and it was not celebrated prior to a child’s birth. Mothers that were expecting only announced to the community when their children were born. It was a tradition for things to occur this way within the village. It was not exclusive to her family. She never quite understood why such a big event in a woman’s life had to remain silenced. She also acknowledges celebrations that took place, one of those celebrations being a woman’s sweet fifteen. This was a celebration that was acknowledged throughout the village and not ignored. Birthdays were never celebrated but the marking of a girl’s fifteenth year in life was. This was when her status changed from a child to a woman who is ready to blossom as a young woman should.
My anonymous female expressed a lot of openness and detail to her life in an isolated environment. Opposed to my anonymous male’s rural upbringing she did not have doctors nearby or hospitals to help her in life or death situations. She opened up to me about the times she was stung by a scorpion. It occurred twice for her. She mentioned how a tincture that was pulverized up from chilies, various kinds, and garlic cured her from the poison. She also let me know how doctors didn’t cure anyone when you got stung or bit by something venomous. It was natural medicine that did, but only if your body didn’t respond too negatively to the poison, and both times the same method to cure her from the poison worked.
Thoughts:
This experience was seriously something. It was very disheartening to see how vague, brief, and dismissive my first interview with the anonymous male was. It was hard pulling things out from him. The interview amounted to twenty three minutes. However, he never was open or inclined to talk about the things he mentioned before that made me want to interview him. I respected his choice on not talking about certain things I previously found fascinating, but it just was very unfortunate.
I am absolutely thankful for the fact that my anonymous female interview was amazing. She was so open with me. Our interview also amounted to the same amount of time as my first interview: twenty four minutes. Although the interview occurred yesterday it was well worth it having her as an addition. I couldn’t believe the taboos her village had with pregnancy and fertility. It was so unique and interesting. I found it so enlightening to know of these things. I was also so horrified for her having to deal with those scorpion stings on her hands. The poor thing only got them because she was doing her chores too. I was utterly baffled that they didn’t take her to the hospital to inject her with the antidote to that venom. She laughed about it. She was good humored and polite. I just couldn’t believe that the natural medicine her parents had to grind for her to drink in water worked. I also felt really bad for her sister who had the worst negative reaction to a scorpion sting. I can’t imagine how awful it must feel to be vomiting blood.
This experience was frustrating, challenging, but very rewarding. I learned a lot about the things I’ve always been passionate about knowing from other people. It was worth the time spent on interviewing my two individuals. I would definitely do it again if I could. Honestly, I am so thankful for my second interview, she made this ethnography memorable.
Reference Page
4/29/16 Anonymous Male interview (see field notes) at a coffee shop from 5:00 – 6:00P.M.
Location: 7201 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA 90602
5/4/16 Anonymous Female interview (see field notes) at a coffee shop from 6:00 – 6:45P.M.
Location: 137 N Montebello Blvd, Montebello, CA 90640
© 2017 RAQUEL CAMPOS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED