Life History of an Elderly Person Anthropology of Aging Essay

Life History of an Elderly Person Anthropology of Aging - Essay Example Collecting and preserving first-hand information about a person is the aim of oral history, alongside making it available to researchers. Researchers should give careful attention to equipment selection, legal and ethical issues, and processing techniques which all characterize the oral history process (Sommer and Quinlan, 2002: 1). This paper ultimately aims to answer the question, "Can a particular theory of ageing help explain aging in mainstream culture" Mr. WB is a 71-year old retired and divorced Irish-American man who presently lives in Illinois. Before proceeding to his actual life history, it is deemed important as well to mention his vital physical characteristics, as they might contribute to further analyzing health associations. He measures 5'9" in height, weighs 200 lbs., has impaired vision due to a developing cataract in both eyes, and has thinning white hair. The interview process was undertaken at daytime in his rented apartment, in which the informant expressed willingness to participate in order to fulfill the purposes of this paper, and requested for anonymity which shall be the case nonetheless. The interview took place for about two and a half hours. Mr. WB's Life from Birth to Present Mr. WB was born on June 29, 1937 in an Irish family who decided to settle in Salem, Oregon and moved to Illinois after seven years. He is second in the siblings of four, in which he has two brothers and a sister. His father, a tailor, died of a heart attack when he was eleven, and his mother, a nursing aid who never remarried, became a lone parent since. Because of poor economic condition, none among the four was able to make it through college and Mr. WB himself managed to finish through the ninth grade only. Mr. WB had his first sexual encounter when he was fifteen, with a girl he was fondly infatuated. This rite to passage made him want to explore more things, such as chasing girls and trying 'new stuffs' like smoking, going to the woods to hunt squirrels, and working in a local burger stand upon turning sixteen. He met Ms. EW when he was nineteen, felt he was in love, wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, and finally got married. The first few months of their marriage were happy and memorable. Ms. EW, now Mrs. WB, had two miscarriages occurring both in the first trimester of pregnancy. The second miscarriage, which almost took her life, made the couple decide not to have a child at all anymore. Mr. WB worked as a clerk at a local manufacturing firm while Mrs. WB stayed at home for a while and took care of the household chores and decided to work at a nursing home after a few years. Twenty-eight years ago, Mr. WB, who was 50 by then, had an illicit relationship with a younger woman in their office which was later discovered by his wife. The affair had been going on for almost a year upon the discovery. The woman, a 25-year old co-worker, was