Barbara Myerhoff facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Barbara Myerhoff
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| Born |
Barbara Gay Siegel
February 16, 1935 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
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| Died | January 7, 1985 (aged 49) Burbank, California, U.S.
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| Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Occupation | Anthropologist, filmmaker |
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Lee Myerhoff
(m. 1954; div. 1982) |
Barbara Myerhoff (February 16, 1935 – January 7, 1985) was an American anthropologist and filmmaker. She also started the Center for Visual Anthropology at the University of Southern California.
As an anthropologist, Barbara Myerhoff helped create important ways of studying people and cultures. These methods are now common in social cultural anthropology. They include looking at how the researcher's own experiences affect their work (called reflexivity). She also used storytelling to share her findings. Myerhoff believed anthropologists should not just study, but also speak up for the people they work with.
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Barbara Myerhoff's Early Life and Ideas
Barbara Myerhoff was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on February 16, 1935. Her grandmother, Sofie Mann, helped raise her. Sofie was a great storyteller. She taught Barbara to appreciate everyone's life story. Her grandmother believed that if you looked closely, everyone had an interesting tale to tell.
This idea of storytelling became a big part of Myerhoff's work. It helped her when she worked with older people later in life. She noticed that they, like her grandmother, held onto their stories. Their stories showed their love for life and helped them feel seen.
Myerhoff also learned about "reflexivity" from her grandmother. They would sit by a window and make up stories about their neighbors. Barbara said this helped them understand their own lives better. One day, frost covered the window. Her grandmother warmed a penny and pressed it to the glass, making a small clear spot. Seeing the world through this small, framed view made Barbara think. It taught her the importance of focusing on a small part of life to understand bigger ideas. This was the start of her understanding reflexivity. It meant looking at how your own way of seeing things shapes what you learn.
When Barbara was a teenager, she moved to Los Angeles. She studied sociology and human development. Later, she joined the anthropology PhD program at UCLA. There, she met Hilda Kuper, who became her mentor and friend. Myerhoff was also influenced by many other thinkers of her time. These thinkers wrote about symbols, rituals, and myths in different cultures.
In 1968, Myerhoff earned her PhD in anthropology. Her research was about the Huichol people of Northern Mexico. She started her fieldwork with them in 1965. She and a colleague were the first non-Huichol people to join their annual peyote hunt. This was a special journey to a sacred land. Myerhoff saw this ritual as a way for the Huichol people to reconnect with their original unity. She believed this desire for unity was something all humans shared.
Myerhoff focused her study on how the Huichol's symbols and rituals gave meaning to their lives. She worked closely with Ramon, a religious leader. She understood that her account was her interpretation of Ramon's interpretation. This showed her subjective voice. Yet, she also wanted to document the Huichol's traditions. She aimed to preserve the rituals of a culture that was facing challenges. Her book, Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians, was published in 1974. It was even nominated for a National Book Award.
Number Our Days: Stories of Older Adults
In 1972, Myerhoff began a new research project. She worked with older Jewish people at the Israel Levin Center in Venice, California. She received a grant to study how people experience aging. Myerhoff explored how these older adults created rituals to keep their traditions alive. These rituals also helped them feel important and visible.
In one of her essays, Myerhoff wrote about Jacob, a beloved member of the center. Jacob always held a big birthday party. He would give a speech about finding meaning in life and aging. One year, he asked the community to keep celebrating his birthday even after he was gone. After his speech, he passed away. Myerhoff explained that because Jacob planned his own death, his community could understand it. His death made his birthday ritual even more special. The elders continued to celebrate his birthday, remembering his "perfect death" among friends. By writing Jacob's story, Myerhoff helped keep his life and vision alive.
In 1976, Myerhoff became a full professor and chair of the Anthropology Department at USC. She led the department until 1980. During this time, in 1977, she made a film version of Number Our Days with director Lynne Littman. Myerhoff wanted the film to show the elders in a positive light. She wanted to give back to them for sharing their stories. That year, Number Our Days won an Oscar for best short documentary. This brought a lot of public attention to the center.
The book, Number Our Days, came out in 1979. It received great reviews and was named one of the year's best social science books by The New York Times. In this book, Myerhoff combined academic analysis with personal stories. She included the elders' voices throughout the study. She also wrote herself into the story as another character. This was a new and important way of doing anthropology. Because the book was so popular, Myerhoff began teaching workshops. These workshops focused on performance, life stories, rituals, and storytelling.
Myerhoff continued working with the elders until 1981. In 1980, she organized an art show at USC called "Life not Death in Venice." It featured art by elderly Jewish artists. In 1981, she also helped adapt Number Our Days for the stage. It was performed at the Mark Taper Forum. Myerhoff wrote about how the elders reacted to all the publicity. They wanted to make sure their stories were told accurately.
Myerhoff shared stories about the challenges of representing people. For example, Manya was upset she wasn't in the film. Rebekkah didn't want her real name used in the play at first. Myerhoff talked with them, explaining that more publicity would help other seniors. She also offered gifts and friendship. Myerhoff realized that the seniors would rather be shown in a way they didn't fully agree with, than not be shown at all. She learned that representing people's stories requires ongoing discussions and understanding.
During this time, Myerhoff also created a graduate program in visual anthropology at USC. This program combined film production with anthropological theory. She also brought in famous filmmaker Timothy Asch to teach.
Myerhoff's last project began in 1982. She started studying and filming the Jewish community in Fairfax, California. She planned to focus on how Russian Jews adopted Jewish traditions. However, in 1984, Myerhoff was diagnosed with cancer. This changed her project. Instead of just focusing on different Jewish groups, she and Lynn Littman turned the camera on Myerhoff's own search for healing. She sought spiritual guidance from the Lubavitch Hasidic community in Fairfax. Myerhoff explained that her illness made her work directly connected to her own life. She passed away from lung cancer on January 7, 1985, at age 49, before finishing the film In Her Own Time.
Works
- Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians (1974)
- "We Don't Wrap Herring in a Printed Page: Fusions, Fiction and Continuity in Secular Ritual" in Secular Ritual: Forms and Meanings edited by Sally Falk Moore and Barbara Myerhoff (1977)
- "Bobbes and Zeydes: Old and New Roles for Elderly Jews" in Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles, edited by Judith Hoch-Smith and Anita Springs (1978)
- Number Our Days (1978)
- In Her Own Time, with Lynne Littman (1986)
- Remembered Lives: The Work of Ritual, Storytelling, and Growing Older, edited by Mark Kamisky (1992)
Awards
- 1977: Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject for Number Our Days
- 1979: Pushcart Prize for Number Our Days
- 1980: Woman of the Year by the Jewish War Veterans of America
