Life History in the Anthropologic Perspective

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Methodology
Primary Themes or Arguments
Narrative Analysis
Narrative Performance and Reflexivity
References

Introduction

Analyzing the life history of people in an anthropologic perspective can serve the comprehension of various life realities and the finding of essential truths and facts about human life and existence. Thus, the life history of every individual has long-lasting and critical resources to convey to every other individual for the smoother running of their lives and activities. It is because of such resourceful content in every individual that human beings imitate and model greater personalities for the better course of his/her life. Every person has a whole lot of life experiences, realities, principles, and concepts which, when shared, become learning experience for others. These factors in every individual can be elemental in developing values such as self acceptance, self realization, and better familial relationships. Therefore, analyzing life histories of various individuals has a very significant implication.

Judged from these criteria, analyzing the life history of my brother Justin in an anthropologic perspective has been significant in molding my personal attitudes and concepts as of now. Several factors went into the selection of my brother for an analysis of the life history in the anthropologic perspective. Most importantly, he is a person known very dearly and closely by me and valued as having every quality for a role model for a young person like me. More remarkably, my brother’s performance and views in general turned cultural norms on their ear by shattering myths of disabled people as depressed and introverted.

My brother’s life has been fundamental in my recognition of the fact that able-bodied people and all people in general, can learn much about how to accept what we can’t change about ourselves and to try and complain less about our lives by looking at those who have good outlooks about life despite their disabilities. He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when he was just six and after that he would fall down a lot. The doctors judged that he would not live to be 20 years old. All these affected his life, but he held his nerves strong. My relation with my brother had been very cordial and at the end of this analysis of his life history it has increased in manifolds. My brother has been very influential in that he has overcome several adversities that were placed before him and this taught me the basic lessons about self acceptance, self realization, and familial relationships. Thus my relation with my brother as well as the analysis of his life history has been instrumental in bringing about essential transformation in my perspectives.

Methodology

It is very essential, as mentioned above, to analyze the life history of influential persons in order to comprehend the realities and greatness of their life experiences. An anthropologic perspective in such an analysis can bring about essential findings about the nature of human personality, the innermost aspects of their worldview etc. thus, in a similar attempt I take up the challenge in analyzing the life history of my brother Justin, who has been helpful in affecting an essential transformation in me regarding self acceptance and self realization. Through the inspirational narrations and talks with my brother I came to realize essential world views necessary to lead a healthy and warm human life. For an analysis of the life history of the person, i.e. my dear brother, most significant data have been collected through the personal interview I had with him and the story he narrated.

These have been very significant in an analysis of the life history of my brother with a view to point out that self acceptance at every reality and experience of life can be elementary in overcoming the adversities of life. The stories of my brother’s life along with the several interviews over the phone have helped me in arriving at the important revelations of the analysis. Therefore, in this analysis of the life history of my brother, I will briefly review the data I collected. The st6ory narrated my brother has been the primary tool for this analysis and it is to be noted that the story narration has been one of the most reliable means of understanding the lives of people. “Story telling is a fundamental form of human communication. It can serve an essential function in our lives. We often think in story form, speak in story form, and bring meaning to our lives through story…. Telling the story of our lives is so basic to our nature that we are largely unaware of its importance… the life story is like a tool that has as many applications as the one using it can find for it.” (Atkinson, 1998, pp 1-2).

In this process the method by which I went about collecting my data has been proved very remarkable. Thus, apart from the stories narrated by my brother about his own life, the int6erviews also were found effective. We conducted several interviews over several weeks by phone. I slowly was able to get my brother to open up much more which allowed me to ask more probing questions. These questions turned out to be the most essential data for the analysis of the life history. All these narrations and the interviews proved how self acceptance and self realization can be effective in overcoming the hardships of life.

As have been mentioned before, self acceptance is one of the primary elements in the success of every person and this has been achieved by my brother which helped him overcome his adversities. There have been several adversities that he faced in his life all of which could turn out to be destructive elements of anyone’s life. However, the story that he narrated about himself was significant in that it provided a great opportunity to understand why this person was not destructed even at the hardest of the hardships or how he overcame all the worries that the life presented him with. The final comments in the narration were found most remarkable in that it conveyed the real essence in his character. “If I could just say one thing about life without sounding too corny, I’d have to tell you that everybody has it as bad as you do and some people have it worse so I think that most people could go on and be satisfied knowing that. Looking at it another way, you could say everybody has good things in their life that they can be happy about and I guess that finding that is the most important thing in life” – this same finding, I feel, was the real essence of all his inner strength.

The interview also worked out to be significant in finding the realities of his personal victory at the times of great hardships. Thus, the response to the question about how he keeps a positive attitude may be found noteworthy. “I guess I just figure it’s a waste of time and it’s important not to worry all the time about what you don’t have and what you can’t do, it’s more important to try to be happy with your life as much as you can. It’s not to say I don’t get down sometimes like everybody else does and that I don’t try to make my situation better when I can.” Similarly, when asked what he thinks is the most important thing in life, he remarked that “ I guess just trying to be as happy as you can be with yourself because you’ll never be able to make anyone else happy if you can’t look at yourself in the mirror and be happy at what you see.” In short, the methods applied to gather the significant data for the analysis have been effective and the analysis based on these effective data will definitely prove the importance of self acceptance and self realization in the success of a person’s life through the hardest adversities.

Primary Themes or Arguments

The analysis of the life history of my brother in the anthropologic perspective has been elementary in bringing about critical realities of life. Thus, the primary theme of the analysis has been that self acceptance is an essential quality for the people to enjoy the true success in life. My primary argument has been very well augmented by the analysis of the life history of my brother in the anthropologic perspective as he is a person who has achieved success in life and overcame the hardships presented by the life realities through the merit of his self acceptance.

There will be in every human life hardships and troubles of various types and it is according to how one perceives them and accepts the realities of life that the worth of the person is understood. Many argue the significance of self acceptance in a complete realization of one’s potential. “Self acceptance is being devoted and happy with who you are now. Some call it self-esteem, others self-love, but whatever you call it, you’ll know when your accepting yourself cause it feels great. It is an agreement with yourself to appreciate, validate, accept and support who you are at this very moment, even those parts you’d like to eventually change. This is important…even those parts you’d eventually like to change. Yes, you can accept (be okay with) those parts of yourself you want to change some day.” (Self Acceptance, 2005).

There have been various sub themes that clarifies the main argument of the paper and my sub-arguments include self realization, familial relationships with an emphasis on siblings, and finally societal acceptance of disabled people. These sub themes will clarify how a person’s self acceptance can result in the realization of his/her personal success, how terrible the hardships are. The narration of the personal story as well as the interviews that were conducted has been elementary in finding the primary and the sub themes of the analysis very significant. Thus, the final comments in the narration conveyed the real essence in my brother’s character and it also pointed to the need for self acceptance and self realization.

“If I could just say one thing about life without sounding too corny, I’d have to tell you that everybody has it as bad as you do and some people have it worse so I think that most people could go on and be satisfied knowing that. Looking at it another way, you could say everybody has good things in their life that they can be happy about and I guess that finding that is the most important thing in life.” Through the interview also the significance of the primary and sub themes of the analysis were supported. Thus, it worked out to be significant in finding the realities of his personal victory at the times of great hardships. It was clear in the response to the question about how he keeps a positive attitude may be found noteworthy.

“I guess I just figure it’s a waste of time and it’s important not to worry all the time about what you don’t have and what you can’t do, it’s more important to try to be happy with your life as much as you can. It’s not to say I don’t get down sometimes like everybody else does and that I don’t try to make my situation better when I can.” Likewise, when asked what he thinks is the most important thing in life, he remarked that “ I guess just trying to be as happy as you can be with yourself because you’ll never be able to make anyone else happy if you can’t look at yourself in the mirror and be happy at what you see.” These responses as well as the story narrated were significant in a clear understanding of the main argument as well as the supporting argument of the analysis. Thus, through the analysis I intend to suggest the significance of self acceptance and self realization by showing how my brother’s performance and views in general turned cultural norms on their ear by shattering myths of disabled people as depressed and introverted.

Narrative Analysis

One of the chief concerns of this paper has been to analyze the life history of my brother Justin and how he’s overcome many adversities he has had to face throughout his life. The life history of every person has a great message to convey and therefore an analysis of such a life history can be influential in bringing about transformations in other. An example for the necessity for self acceptance and the pertinence of accepting the realities with all its absurdities and hardships can be found in the life histories of many disabled persons. Thus, my brother’s life history has been essential tool for the transformation of my perspectives of the disables and their hardships. When one accepts the realities of life with all its joys and worries, they turn out to be inconsequential in the future course of their life. It is significant to note that able-bodied people and all people in general, can learn much about how to accept what we can’t change about ourselves and to try and complain less about our lives by looking at those who have great outlooks on life in spite of their disabilities.

In a remarkable illustration of this factor, my own life has been dramatically changed by my brothers inspirational story which made me more appreciative of what I have and more accepting of what I can’t change about myself. Thus, such true stories of self acceptance as well as the analysis of the life history of such people who have experienced the need for self acceptance in their adversities can be critical in bringing about transformation in the people. One central thing is that one needs to go ahead with whatever one loves, as said in the book, Writing Down the Bones. “A friend once told me: “Trust in love and it will take where you need to go.” I want to add, “Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go.” And don’t worry too much about security. You will eventually have a deep security when you begin to do what you want.” (Goldberg, 1986, p. 2).

Self acceptance has been found to be an important criterion for the growth of a person and it is the first step toward the development of self esteem which ultimately takes one to higher achievements. “A study states that the higher a person’s self-acceptance, the higher is her self esteem. It is your willingness to love yourself and your body for all the limitations. You can never become perfect and therefore have to stop being self-critical… Your self-esteem and personal growth improves when you give yourself permission to embrace yourself for your weakness. You can start today in acknowledging your limitations in knowledge and skills and work on areas that allow you to find the solutions to enhance your strengths.” (Self-acceptance is important for your Self-Esteem and well being).

Thus, it is essential to note that for the personal success of every human being the acceptance of his/her life realities can be crucial. The life story of my brother explains how self acceptance can be elemental in the personal growth. “I guess that’s about all I can really say about myself. If I could just say one thing about life without sounding too corny, I’d have to tell you that everybody has it as bad as you do and some people have it worse so I think that most people could go on and be satisfied knowing that. Looking at it another way, you could say everybody has good things in their life that they can be happy about and I guess that finding that is the most important thing in life.” This statement very well proves the need for better self acceptance in every human being for a transformation in their concepts and views about life.

As Denis Waitley has remarked, “since the perfect human being has not been discovered, we all need to live with our hang-ups and our idiosyncrasies until they can be ironed out. One of the most important qualities in successful, dynamic living is that of self-acceptance.” (Self-Acceptance Is Important for Your Self-Esteem and Well Being). Therefore, accepting the real factors and characteristics of a person can be important in the construction of a good life outcome. Significantly, my brother understood what is essential for the realization of one’s personal glory and it is through the value of self acceptance that he achieved personal success. In the interview with him, it was crystal clear that a positive attitude towards everything he undertook was elemental in his personal satisfaction. There were various means by which he could keep the real positive attitude burning all through his life.

Thus, he comprehended that it was a waste of time to cry for what one lacks and to him it is central not to worry all the time about what you don’t have and what you can’t do. What is more important is to try to be happy with one’s life as much as one can. In an endeavor to live life to its fullest, just as any normal being, my brother would just go out and do what everyone else did and just live the life as normal as possible. He did not try to be an inspiration to anybody by struggling through life and overcoming obstacles etc but his very survival accepting the realities of life was inspirational to many like me. The response he made in the interview to the question what he thought was the most important thing in life would definitely clarify the importance of self acceptance. His response, remarkably, to the question was, “I guess just trying to be as happy as you can be with yourself because you’ll never be able to make anyone else happy if you can’t look at yourself in the mirror and be happy at what you see.” It really conveys the implications of self acceptance.

There are times when every one feels depressed and long lost in the memories of good old days. It is an indication that the life has certainly kept most adverse experience to be served at any moment in one’s life. There are also people who are almost dealt wit their personal joys every next moment. The adversities that are faced every day become unbearable and the life itself turns to be strange. This is a feeling that many have felt through the life course. Remarkably, my brother also has felt such adverse experiences like the narrator of the story ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’. “Not only was I exiled, paralyzed, mute, half deaf, deprived of all pleasures, and reduced to the existence of a jellyfish, but I was also horrible to behold. There comes a time when the heaping up of calamities brings on uncontrollable nervous laughter – when, after a final blow from fate, we decide to treat it all as a joke.” (Jean-Dominique, P. 25). Life can turn out to be indifferent to people at such adversities and only self acceptance can serve at such critical situations of life.

This is the factor that helped my brother in his personal satisfaction even at the most adverse situations of life. Unconditional self acceptance has been significant in the development of this self satisfaction. “Unconditional self-acceptance does not mean resigning yourself to the status quo, but rather accepting things as they are with an eye toward improving what you can. Unconditional self-acceptance means accepting your self, though not necessarily condoning every behavior you perform. You are the same human being, fallible, imperfect, unratable, whether you weigh 140 or 160, though you might prefer the behavior of controlling your intake of food to the behavior of overeating. You are not in any way “bad” for choosing overeating over self-control, nor will you be “good” after you have lost the extra weight. Many people indeed end up engaged in self-hatred when they fail to achieve a goal or series of goals. Amazingly, when individuals stop rating themselves, but only their behaviors, they become less afraid to take responsibility for their choices and behaviors, since each behavior does not condemn them to some global label of “badness” or “worthlessness”, they become much more able to change and grow.” (Unconditional Self-Acceptance: Beyond Self-Esteem, 1997-2008). This has been important for the self esteem to grow which ultimately brings about self satisfaction.

Self realization is an elementary condition for the self acceptance to work out and it is when my brother realized the realities of the self that he began accepting life as it is. There is an opposite turn of the reality as people can very well deviate from an acceptance of the self when the truths and facts of their lives are realized. However, my brother is an example for understanding how self realization can lead to the acceptance of the self. At the realization of the facts about the life my brother decided that he was not going to be miserable anymore. Instead he decided that he would go out and enjoy life. He understood that the self realization and positive attitude would make anyone stop and reevaluate their lives and start focusing on what is really important.

There was a particular moment in his life when he came to the ultimate realization of life, whereupon he would want to be the real person instead of imitating or wishing to be another person. “I guess I finally grew up when I got to college and realized it was no different than high school; the only difference was you had to pay to go class and be bored and have no friends. I finally discovered that no matter what you do and where you go there’s always going to be people who aren’t going to want to hang out with you and be your friend. So I stopped tying so hard to be like other people and started being myself, which was a lot easier.” This point of realization was significant in that it brought out essential changes in him and helped him in self acceptance. This also led him to better familial relation, especially the relation with me as a dear sibling.

Narrative Performance and Reflexivity

The analysis of the life history in the anthropologic perspective has been conducted based on the stories I was told and the interviews I arranged with my brother. These are essential performances which can be evaluated for an understanding of the implications and relevance of these performances. Therefore, a reflection of the stories I was told as well as the way they were told essentially clarifies the research findings. In other words, such a refection of the performances would effectively suggest that my brother is a person who was very much transformed by the self realization and the ultimate self acceptance which determined the personal satisfaction he enjoys in his life. The role I played in bringing out the realities in the personal aspects of my brother cannot be neglected. The openness that he was able to maintain in the relation with me was influential in explaining the realities of his self acceptance as well as personal transformation. It is also significant to note that my relationship with my brother has changed over the course of doing research of and interviews with him.

It has improved tremendously in a way that he is more close to me now and this closeness helped me in extracting the most essential data for the research purpose and the analysis of his life history in the anthropologic perspective. Thus, it is also important that my relationship with my brother has changed over the course of doing research of and interviews with him. It is necessary in this analysis of the narrative to consider that “investigators do not have direct access to another’s experience. We deal with ambiguous representations of it – talk, text, interaction, and interpretation. It is not possible to be neutral and objective, to merely represent (as opposed to interpret) the world.” (Riessman, 1993, p 8). Therefore, the analysis needs to be carried out dealing with all the aspects of the representation of the person through the narratives and interviews. In fact the experience of reading several texts such as Tuhami which deals with the life history of Tuhami, an illiterate Moroccan tilemaker who believes himself married to a camel-footed she-demon has helped me in my endeavor to analyze the life history of my brother. “Tuhami is a complicated work… it is an attempt to make sense of what Tuhami the tilemaker related to…the anthropologist and to come to some understanding of how he articulated his world and situated himself within it.” (Crapanzano, 1985).

A total and unconditional acceptance of the self has been the result of the analysis of the life history that I gathered in my brother’s performance. As Nick Rajacic in ‘USA, the Principle of Unconditional Self Acceptance’ explains, a total acceptance of the self was visible in my brother’s performance. “I accept myself because I’m alive and have the capacity to enjoy my existence. I am not my behavior. I can rate my traits and my behavior, but it is impossible to rate something as complex as my “self.” My self consists of innumerable traits, not just this one. I strive for achievement only to enhance the enjoyment of my existence, not to prove my worth. Failing at any task cannot make me a failure. I can choose to accept myself even if am unwilling or unable to change my “character defects” because there is no law of the universe that says I can’t. My approval of myself cannot come from pandering to any external source or bowing to any external authority. My self-acceptance can only come from me, and I am free to choose it at any time.” (Rajacic). It is remarkable that the stories my brother told, and the way he told them, reflected positively upon him and his attitude on life and in doing so shone a light on my own outlook on life.

It is also remarkable that the analysis of the life history of my brother has significant value in a cultural perspective of the disabilities. This shakes not the personal norms alone but the cultural norms of disability as well as disabled persons. As against the common view of disability as contemptible life situation, this analysis makes clear that disability is not a life time curse, but through a better attitude, i.e. the positive attitude, any trying situation or adversities such as the disabilities can be treated as normal as any other life situation. Thus, it is clear from the analysis that my brother’s performance and views in general turned cultural norms on their ear by shattering myths of disabled people as depressed and introverted. They can really lead a self satisfying life given they possess the exact positive attitude and self acceptance. Therefore, the cultural implication of the life history has been very fundamental in understanding the society’s attitude towards disability and in affecting personal as well as cultural transformations in perspectives and attitudes.

References

Self acceptance. (2005). Self Creation.com. Web.

Self-acceptance is important for your Self-Esteem and well being. about-personal-growth.com. Web.

Jean-Dominique, Bauby. The Diving bell and the butterfly, Translated by Leggatt, Jeremy, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 25.

Unconditional Self-Acceptance: Beyond Self-Esteem. (1997-2008). Center for conscious living. Web.

Rajacic, Nick. Unconditional self acceptance – USA – The foundation: USA: The Principle of Unconditional Self Acceptance. Web.

Atkinson, Robert. The Life Story Interview. Sage, 1998, pp 1-2.

Goldberg, Natalie. Writing Down the Bones. Shambala/Boston, 1986, p. 2.

Riessman, Catherine Kohler. Narrative Analysis. Sage, 1993, p. 8.

Crapanzano, Vincent. Preface, Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

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