Review ...

 "Cast Me Not Out in My Old Age but Let Me Live Each Day as a New Life"

The quote above has been used by Barbara Myerhoff  in her book " Number Our Days ", she had a life span of about 50 years , was an anthropologist, film maker and co-founder at the Centre for Visual Anthropology in the University of South California . Myerhoff is renowned for her work & study about the Elder Jewish community in Venice , California , This was first documented in the  1976 ethnographic film or documentary 'Number our Days ' which was later turned into a book and published in 1979.
                                   


Some of the publications by Myerhoff excluding "Number our Days" include :


~ Peyote Hunt (1974): The sacred journey of the Huichol indians.

A crack in the mirror: Reflective  perspective in Anthropology (1982)-Barbara & Jay Ruby.                              ~ Life's Career-Aging: Cultural Variations on Growing Old (1978)- Barbara & Andrei SImic .In the ethnography  "Peyote Hunt" , Myerhoff studies  the culture of the Huichol Indians . Taking part in their daily rituals and so on .    Awards : ~ 1977: Academy Award for documentary short subject fro Number our Days.   Since Myerhoff was also a film-maker the films she contributed to were:~ 1976 : Number our Days with  Lynne Littman~ 1986 : In her own time with  Lynne Littman & Vikram Jayanti.Unfortunately , In her own Time was take up by  Lynne Littman& Vikram Jayanti because Myerhoff was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. She died in 1985.In the first few pages of Number our Days , Myerhoff's  popular ethnographic book about the elderly immigrant Jewish people living in Venice , California she  gives a standard view about the tough yet sober life of the people there . The subject throughout the book and the first few pages has been this small remaining community of Eastern European jews , who had migrated to the east coast of United states , worked and raised their children before moving to California for their later years . The neighborhood contained a large amount of survivors , soviet citizen & older immigrants and their children. In this section the anthropologist starts by talking to an Elderly woman "Basha" , she confesses and tells Myerhoff about her life . A strong fact affecting this book is that Myerhoff wanted  to study aging in an ethnic group , so she chose a community in mexico as she had been there before but she was given a chance to study her own community , the jews , which made it more interesting . In short , myerhoff potrays a group disadvantaged elderly jews sustaining their life although there is loneliness and poverty and many more problems affecting them .

The quote or sentence I found interesting is     "Cast Me Not Out in My Old Age but Let Me Live Each Day as a New Life" . The reason why I like this quote is because although this group of elderly people have a tough , neglected life , words like these give them the inner will power and strength . They have already sufferered the battles of life and their body is also worn out , they wake up each day thanking god for giving one more day into their lives . They know that these will be the very last days for them , so they make the best of it .

Another paragraph I found interesting is "The anthropologist engages in peculiar work.He or she tries to understand a different culture to the point of finding it to be intelligible, regardless of how strange it seems in comparison with ones own background . This is accomplished by attempting to experience the new culture from within, living in it for a time as a member, all the while maintaining sufficient detachment to observe and analyze it with some objectivity . This peculiar purpose - benign inside and out at the same time- is called participant observation "
Now this paragraph hit me quite well because of the strong and yet simple language in which myerhoff has explained " Participant Observation" . Being an anthropology student myself , this paragraph seems to give a more clear picture of what fieldwork in anthropology actually  includes . And how it helpls us to keep this in mind when we are in the same situation.
The section I read was basically the introduction , so I didn't go much deep into what really goes on in the book and what the book is actually about , but on the whole , i enjoyed reading the text , but being a beginner at anthropology myself , its a bit of a hard work to get the terms straight. Also because the introduction jumps straight into whats actually going on with no elaborate and distinct explanations which for me was a bit tough to catch up with .
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