Negotiating Cultures and Identities: Life History Issues, Methods, and Readings (review)

This work by John Caughey finds itself within the bounds of a developing and rich canon of works on the impact of culture and identity as well as the particular discipline of oral history. The book presents a nuanced view, a set of practical procedures, as well as pertinent case studies and readings which will engage new and old practitioners alike. The book is divided into two parts.

Part I centers around the issues and methodologies which the interlocutor should be aware of in developing a project that will highlight issues of multiculturalism and identity which has come to fascinate many academic disciplines. Caughey is grounded firmly in an anthropological and ethnographic framework. Working from paradigms with this particular discipline, as well as from his own field work, he tackles this broad base in an additional five sections, each working to either guide the interviewer to a particular process in the interview or provide a process for self-evaluation in order to clearly identify one’s own cultural blind spots. To this end, he is quite successful. As he notes, “To understand individuals in complex, multicultural, contemporary societies, the concept of cultural tradition or cultural model points to a system of meaning that includes its own vocabulary and beliefs and its own set of rules for acting in the world” (14).

The emphasis placed on finding a research participant versus just a narrator is well argued. Life histories generated in a partnership between equally complex individuals, Caughey argues, can bring to light a heightened awareness for both parties. Life histories generated in this environment also signal a rejection of researcher and subject and allow for a more provocative play of the intertwining of culture and identity which then becomes a part of a rich well of information from which the life history can be drawn.

Within each section, Caughey enacts the delicate balance between theory and practice. Each section is structured such that the reader is given a bit of theory, guided through a processual example generated from that theoretical orientation, and then given a set of exercises. The sets of exercises, thorough yet not tedious, certainly provide a pathway with which anyone seeking to conduct or generate a life history personally or professionally would do well to follow.

The second section of this work holds much promise. This section provides a series of studies which highlight the principles and practices of section one. Once again Caughey’s own words provide a clear central thesis for this section. “Even listing these accounts suggests the complexity that emerges when we shift our perspective from group-oriented ethnography to person-centered life history. All the individuals involved here—the interviewers as well as the interviewees—are entangled in multiple and complex systems of meaning that require them to negotiate their way through diverse beliefs and values” (95). The breadth of the essays is admirable: with materials taken from classic and new work relevant to anyone from neophyte to seasoned professional, Caughey provides examples of success both in successful studies and in the configuration of the subject matter for all levels. For example, Lila Shah provides a look at the complications of a Southeast Asian Indian and an American cultural orientation. Melissa Landsman’s “Conversations with Paolo” is taken from an undergraduate interview of an El Salvadoran immigrant. Barbara Myerhoff’s work provides a look at a Jewish tailor and the author herself as they create a life history together. Joshua C. Woodfork created his piece from a graduate seminar at the University of Maryland in which he explores notions of biracialism and the negotiations biracial individuals make in their daily lives.

If there is a fault in this work, it is only that the interdisciplinary reader may long for the inclusion of the theoretical stances of the likes of Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, or Judith Butler, whose works would, perhaps, provide richness to Caughey...