Below are some
diagrams that show the relationship between researcher, childhood memories and
environment. The first diagram schematizes the Mental Geography of the Researcher. Only those childhood
experiences of WWII and the Early Post-War years are shown that erupted during
my first fieldwork in the Lenda valley of Zambia. It should be noted that
during the years of assimilation to, and graduate education in, Canada and the
United States, personal memories were dormant. I was made aware, however, that
Germany was responsible for the Holocaust. The latter was not a personal experience;
rather, the experience was one of having been made aware of it as a teenager
and young adult in Canada and the United States. The book shows how all this
plays into the research.
The row below indicates
that Personal Memories Erupted first
in Zambia at specific times and on seeing Lenda nature, local makeshift
dwellings, experiencing close relationships, during border crossings, and on
observing the decadence in the southern part of the region. How all this
happened is of course the story of the book. Clearly, these memories generated
biases, but in the sense of both positive and negative ones. It is a topic that
is picked up again, along with others, in the Concluding Chapter of the book.
The next Diagram sketches
the Researcher as System always in relationship
with the Environment. The latter
consists of the research environment in Zambia, or what I called the Lenda
valley and, through correspondence, that of North America. The researcher as system consists of the
person doing the research and, while she is doing science, heeding what is happening
inside of her. The latter involves, of course, the use of faculties other than,
and in addition to, reason, for example, feeling, intuition, the imagination,
and so on. The reverse arrow is there to remind ourselves that all these
interactions during the research process have consequences, usually
unanticipated ones, and involve risk. Doing field work is a highly dynamic set
of activities and communications. The book does not analyze these so much as
show them.
 |
| PowerPoint Slides as guides to the book: My Apprenticeship |
_________________________________________________________________________________
