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From: Carolyn Ybarra <>
Subject: Re: [APG] genealogists and historians,was Re: Working in Archives - Blog series
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:53:51 -0800
References: <mailman.979.1235376167.25698.apg@rootsweb.com>
In-Reply-To: <mailman.979.1235376167.25698.apg@rootsweb.com>
As an anthropologist who was marinated in qualitative research and
case study research, I have a bit different attitude toward the
single case. I have always personally felt that statistical research
tends to strip social situations of all the interesting stuff,
focusing only on those facts that many have in common. My interest
has always been in the complex combination of factors that allow one
town or one family to be a bit different than the norm. That's where
all the juicy stuff resides!
I suspect Genie I.M.N. Amateur's comments would be slightly more
welcome at the anthropology conference. However, since the national
conference has a zillion 15 minute talks at once, there would be no
time for such a discussion! Plus Mr. or Ms. Amateur would have a
hard time following the esoteric anthro. jargon! ;-) I'll take a
genealogical conference any day.
But hey, if you did a statistical study of attitudes of
anthropologists toward family case studies, I might be such an
outlier that I wouldn't even show up in the research! (I daresay my
border-hopping South Texas grandpa lived a life that NO ONE has yet
accounted for in historical research statistics...)
Carolyn Y., Ph.D.
Feeling a bit devily advocatey today...
On Feb 23, 2009, at 12:02 AM, wrote:
> Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:07:46 -0600
> From:
> Subject: [APG] genealogists and historians,was Re: Working in
> Archives - Blog series
> To:
> Message-ID: <>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
>> Every HISTORY conference I've attended, where there
>> were genealogists in the audience, (which is frequently), the
>> historian
>> would make his/her points about some historical viewpoint or finding,
>> and then a genealogist would invariably stand up and hold forth
>> on . . .
>> BUT, my GRANDPA didn't do/act/say/feel the things you're describing.
>
> Carolyn, I cringed in horror when I read this paragraph. To me it
> sounds like
> something worse than just not quite getting what historians are
> after -- it
> sounds like some boor who hasn't been listening, and who doesn't
> understand
> generalizations very well, let alone history.
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