ABSTRACT
Although anthropologists have collected biographical data and life histories since the beginnings of the discipline, and have frequently used life history materials in their work, few have developed perspectives for the systematic use and analysis of life histories in their entirety.* Of such perspectives currently available, the most comprehensive is that of David Mandelbaum (1973:177–196). Mandelbaum distinguishes life passage or life cycle studies—which focus on how people socialize their young to make them viable members of society—from life history studies, which “emphasize the experiences and requirements of the individual—how the person copes with society rather than how society copes with the stream of individuals” (1973:177).
