It is the 1960s, and Ireland is hoping to join what will later become the European Union. The government has devised a plan to protect Ireland's cultural identity and strengthen the Irish language by supporting small factories in the Gaeltacht, traditional Irish-speaking villages in remote western areas. But is the plan working? Will farmers go into the factories? Will their children see factory work as an alternative to emigration? And will a young anthropologist be able to make sense of it all in time to write her thesis?
With her signature humour and charm, Eileen Kane transports the reader to County Donegal with a detailed account of rural Irish life during this period of rapid change. Drawing on traditional anthropological methods, as well as early participatory research, she discovers the cultural gap that exists between local communities and policy makers who are only a generation or two from the countryside.
Sightlines is a story about people living beyond the margins of maps, boundaries, language groups, and government departments people bound by borders that have little or no correspondence to their own cultural, economic, and historical margins. Ultimately, it is a story about life on the edges, and the places and people who fall outside them.
A companion website offers expanded discussions of historical events and study questions that draw connections to the state of the field today.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Prologue
1. November (Mí na Samhna) 1966
2. December (Mí na Nollag) 1966
3. January (Mí Eanáir) 1967
4. February (Mí Feabhra) 1967
5. March (Mí Márta) 1967
6. April (Mí Aibreáinn) 1967
7. May (Mí Bealtaine) 1967
8. June (Mí Meithimh) 1967
9. July (Mí Lúil) 1967
10. August (Mí Lúnasa) 1967
11. September (Mí Mheán Fómhair) 1967
12. October (Mí Dheireadh Fómhair) 1967
13. November (Mí na Samhna) 1967
14. December (Mí na Nollag) 1967
15. January (Mí Eanáir) 1968
16. February (Mí Feabhra) 1968
17. March (An Márta) 1968
Epilogue
Bibliography
About the Author :
Eileen Kane is an applied anthropologist who established and chaired the first department of anthropology in Ireland. She is the author of Trickster.
Review :
" Sightlines provides a window into the experiences of a novice anthropologist working in a region in the midst of industrialization. Eileen Kane is an exceptional and gifted writer. I found myself mesmerized by her prose. Ideal for introductory classes, this book shows how ethnographers can and should be writing."
--Liam D. Murphy, California State University, Sacramento
"Eileen Kane's memoir of an anthropologist-in-the-making will appeal to readers in and beyond the academy. Offering insight into the social histories of both Ireland and anthropology, Sightlines leaves us caring about the outcome for both the anthropologist and the people she writes about."
--Robin Whitaker, Memorial University
" Sightlines is a wonderful book. It is a study of the complicated responses to the Irish government's efforts in the 1960s, and it is the personal story of a young Irish-American anthropologist whose observations are by turns amusing and poignant, but always respectful and deeply sympathetic. Eloquent and insightful, Sightlines is a joy to read."
--Kerby Miller, University of Missouri
"Eileen Kane has balanced her reminiscences of her ethnographic research in rural Ireland a half century ago with a sophisticated and at times touching portrait of an Ireland that is still the bedrock of today's Irish culture. This is a must-read book in participatory research that will greatly benefit students of historical and contemporary Ireland."
--Thomas M. Wilson, Binghamton University, SUNY
