Interview with a senior citizen

Oral History – Senior Citizen For this topic you will conduct an interview, take notes, and write up your findings in a five to seven page paper. You will be expected to utilize and apply anthropological concepts, which you have learned in this class, to your findings. Your interview source should be a senior citizen, preferably a family relative or family friend, with whom you feel comfortable conducting an interview. The focus of your interview will be on what was life like for your interviewee when she or he was your “college age” (please note that they do not have to have actually attended college). What beliefs, activities, values, and hopes did your interviewee have at that time? In what ways does your informant feel that their values, beliefs and expectation have changed over time? Does he or she consider these changes to be a positive or a negative? Be sure to conduct your interview in an open-ended manner. Your goal here is to have your informant tell you as much about his or her young adult life experiences as possible, so don't ask simple “yes” or “no” questions. Finally, compare his or her answers to your own life. In what ways are his or her responses similar to or different from your own life? Please attach your interview notes to your final paper. Issues to keep in mind – Both of these assignments should incorporate key ideas from our class. In other words, whether you choose to interview an immigrant or interview a senior citizen, you need to discuss a minimum of three issues from our class. These issues could include topics such as immigration, gendered behaviors, sexuality, family, marriage practices, kinship, economic practices, racism, assumptions about biology vs. culture, social roles of men and women, problems of modernization and capitalism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, unfair labor practices, social pressures related to our bodies, issues of science and culture, or any other topic that we have studied this semester.