The Essential QuestionsThe Essential Questions

"Just as the oral histories of people around the world are disappearing amid rapid change, there is a risk that your family's personal stories, too, will be lost forever. But as you seek to know your own family members better, how do you get beyond familiar anecdotes and avoid the frustration of different generational attitudes that may feel outdated to you? In The Essential Questions, Elizabeth Keating applies the same techniques that anthropologists use to get out of their own frame of reference and better understand entirely different perspectives and cultures. She's developed questions that treat your parents and grandparents not just as the people who raised you, but as individuals of a certain society and time, and as the children, teenagers, and young adults they once were. This book helps you better understand the forces that shaped your family history and your own identity." -- From publisher's description.