Family Life

2 Prints of a Sole Amerindian in a Canoe
These images of a man in a canoe come from the work of the Spanish official, historian, and botanist Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo (1478-1557), who created many images of Amerindians while he was in the Caribbean during the 1520s.

Quilted bedcover of Elisabeth Chapman
This quilted bed cover was likely made for the marriage of John and Elisabeth Chapman on September 19, 1829.

Togo farm families cracking oil palm kernels
This photo was part of a short photo series documenting palm oil production in the German colonies in Africa, included in a report by a special oil commission of the German Colonial Society (Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft) in 1913.

Analyzing Personal Accounts
Personal accounts, including memoirs, journals, diaries, autobiographies, and life histories, are important historical sources that help us understand the human condition. These are the stories we tell about our lives that usually portray a larger picture of a life in historical context.

Nisa, The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman by Marjorie Shostak
Made up of a series of analyses and personal interviews conducted by Marjorie Shostak, Nisa, The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman is an anthropological work about women of the !Kung tribe of the Kalahari desert in southern Africa told through the perspective of one individual, Nisa.

Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Mernissi
Written by Moroccan feminist and sociologist Fatima Mernissi, Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood is a semi-fictional tale about a young girl growing up in a traditional Moroccan harem in the 1940s and 1950s.

Patience and Power by Susan Davis
Patience and Power, Women's Lives in a Moroccan Village is an anthology of anecdotes, interviews, and observations by American anthropologist Dr. Susan Schaefer Davis.

Calendar from Cham manuscript, early 20th century
An image of the Cham calendar from an early 20th century Cham manuscript. The column on the left and top row indicate measurements of months of the calendar drawn from the Islamic lunar calendar. Numerals written in Cham script in the middle are symbolic of the Cham Hindu solar calendar.

Ariya Cam Bini
Ariya Cam Bini is one of the few ariya that has little to no historical references in the poem. It is possible to deduce from the language of the poem and from the study of extant versions of the manuscript that its origins likely lie in the 19th century.

Short Teaching Module: Ariya Cam Bini, a 19th century Cham Poem
Ariya Cam Bini is a 19th–century epic poem written in the Austronesian Cham language of mainland Southeast Asia. The poem comes from the area called Pāṇḍuraṅga or Nâgar Cam, a pluralistic society in terms of culture, religion, and identity.