Longwood University



Grace BertauxANTH 200 Essay on Family History9 April 2020Essay on Family History? ? ? ? ? ?The main purpose of this paper is to relate the data that I collected about my family to globalization. Guest (2017) defines globalization as the worldwide intensification of interactions and increased movement of money, people, goods, and ideas within and across national borders. Globalization can be attributed to our ever-growing world and the needs of the people in it. The history of industrialization relates directly to my family because we have had a farm in our family for over two hundred years. At the beginning of our family farm, it was important that people lived and worked on it in order to maintain it and keep it running. Due to industrialization, it was not as important or necessary to have people living on it and working as much because machines were invented that could replace human labor. Industrialization also relates to my family because many of my family members worked in the mining industry, both coal and limestone. Many people in this industry were losing their jobs because their jobs were being taken by machines and there was not as great of a need for as many workers. My family history relates to urbanization because my family has been in West Virginia since it became a state. So, throughout time they have seen it grow into more of a city and populated area. Industrialization relied on many things from the colonies such as raw materials, cheaper labor, and the open markets they had. Globalization also led to more communication and transportation options which made it easier for workers, such as farmers and miners. In older generations, my family was more of a stem family. Stem families are families in which a son is chosen, usually the oldest, to stay in his parents’ house and continue his family line while other siblings moved out into their own households (Puschmann and Soli, 2014). These stem families consisted of both extended and nuclear families. In recent generations, my family has transitioned to exclusively nuclear families who live in all different states and have their own families and homes. In the older generations of my family, many kids were being born. Generations in my family recently have not had this many children. Because of this, my family supports principles in both the first and second demographic transition because of the decreased fertility due to declining death rates (Lesthaege, 2014). My family supports the first demographic transition idea of decreased fertility leading to more stable and traditional nuclear families. My family also supports the second demographic transition as my parents have gotten divorced.?Globalization and its effects are evident in my family history through less children being born per family throughout the years, changing family dynamics, and moving from careers in farming and mining to careers in business and law.? ? ? ? ? ?To obtain my information, I called my grandfather, John I. Rogers II on February 12, 2020. He was able to give me the earliest information that he was certain was accurate. The information he provided me with was very extensive. I took the information he gave me and began searching on Ancestry and FamilySearch, but I was not able to find any new information or any information that was different from what he gave me. My earliest known ancestor was Richard Rogers, born in 1704 in Charles County, Maryland. They had a son named William Rogers who continued my line. He had one son John Rogers. John Rogers was the first one to live on our family farm. He had eight children, but the one who continued my line was Nathaniel Rogers. He had thirteen children. Out of his thirteen children, John Skinner Rogers carries my line. John Skinner Rogers also had thirteen children. Out of his thirteen children, my line is Isaac Rogers. He was born on June 21, 1863, which is the day West Virginia became a state, making him the first West Virginian. He had two children. His son, Albin Isaac Rogers, carries my line. They had four children. John I. Rogers is my line. He had two kids. His son, my grandfather, carries my line. John I Rogers II has two kids. My mother, Jennifer Rogers Bertaux has two daughters, my sister and me (John Rogers, Interviewed by Grace Bertaux, February 12, 2020).? ? ? ? ? ?My family has pretty much always been located in the same geographical region. In older generations, my family was more of a stem family. They were born and raised on our family farm and stayed there and had their own families there. A son, usually the oldest, would inherit the farm and live there and raise his own family there while his siblings would disperse among other areas and raise their families. Extended family ties were of importance to them. This stopped at my great-great-grandfather's generation after his uncle, Harry. His family did not own the farm, so he was not born and raised there. More recently, my family has transitioned to more nuclear families who live in their own places and have little ties to extended family. Since my family mostly lives in the same area, we still do have extended family ties. Even though we do live relatively close, we only get together for the holidays. In a sense, extended family ties are not that important in my family. My early family supports Le Play's theory of the stem family and extended family ties being important. My family also supports his theory in the sense that, later on, my family consisted more of just nuclear families with minimal ties to extended family (Puschmann and Solli, 2014, 1-13).?? ? ? ? ? ?The first demographic transition consisted of a decline in fertility and mortality. In the older generations of my family, many kids were being born. Some generations were having between six and thirteen children. In more recent generations, there have been no more than two children born in each family. Because of this, my family supports principles in both the first and second demographic transition because of the decreased fertility due to declining death rates. My family supports the first demographic transition idea of decreased fertility leading to more stable and traditional nuclear families. The second demographic transition was characterized by a decline in mortality and in fertility below replacement, and the second demographic transition is also characterized by changing family dynamics such as divorce, cohabitation, and single parenthood. I can see the shift from the child-king era to the era of having children because they wanted to have children. Especially because my older family lived and worked on our farm, it was important for them to have multiple children that could help and do different jobs that were needed. Once my family moved off the farm in the early 1900s, the number of children in the family decreased because it was not as important to have multiple children to help with the work. This can be directly related to the influence of industrialization. Due to the invention of more machinery, it was not as necessary to have as many children that could work on the farm. Another area of the second demographic transition we support is the idea of Abraham Maslow's theory of changing needs (Lesthaege, 2014). Newer generations in my family attained more education and therefore became wealthier; they did not need to work on the farm and have many kids to get the job done and survive. This shows the process of urbanization. More places and more jobs were being created. Since my family has been in West Virginia since it became a state, they have seen it go from nothing but land to a larger urbanized area with some large cities. My family also supports the second demographic transition as my parents have gotten divorced and my mother is now experiencing single parenthood (Lesthaeghe, 2014,1-5).?? ? ? ? ? ?The topics that I related to my family and researched were the history of mining industries and the politics behind West Virginia becoming a state. In “Community Economic Identity: The Coal Industry and Ideology Construction in West Virginia,” Bell and York (2010) state that changes in the economy and the strategies of the treadmill of production have reduced the number of jobs given by extractive industries, including mining and timber, in the United States as well as other wealthy nations. These industries are no longer as significant to national, regional, and local economies as they once were. I can see this because all that is left where my grandparents live is the remnants of mines and the coal industry. Not many people are still employed in the mining industry. It is not as important to the identity of West Virginia as it once was. The article also discussed the machination of the industry which also relates to industrialization and links my family to it. The split of West Virginia from Virginia can be related to ideology and ideas. The two parts of Virginia had differing views and opinions. Virginia was split into Unionist and Confederate. In the article, “A Reappraisal of Statehood Politics in West Virginia”, Richard O. Curry (1962) states that most individuals who study the history of West Virginia agree on the reasons the split from Virginia occurred. The main reason is that western Virginia held very different interests and ideologies from eastern Virginia. Western Virginia was a more industrialized area while eastern Virginia was a very conservative area where people still owned slaves. In the article, “Lincoln and the Political Question: The Creation of the State of West Virginia” (Riccards 1997), one commentator argues that it is group differences, more so than ideas, that have driven politics in America throughout history. This is exactly what happened in the case of western Virginia splitting from eastern Virginia. Differences in geography, economic interests, and cultural differences drew a divide between the two parts of the state.?? ? ? ? ? ?Since I did not have a history of migration as far back as I went, I focused primarily on industrialization and urbanization and the relationship they have with globalization and the key dynamics. Industrialization and urbanization relate to globalization’s five key dynamics (Guest 2017) in one way or another. Industrialization and urbanization relate to time-space compression in that through industrialization and urbanization, communication has become easier and transportation has become more efficient because we have made significant advances in those areas. Throughout my family’s history, they have seen so many advancements in the ways that people communicate with others and how they get from point A to point B. Flexible accumulation can also be seen through industrialization and urbanization because companies are able to easily transport their businesses to other areas. My family was able to see this domestically with the industries they worked in. The mining and farming industries were rapidly expanding and becoming popular in more areas and reaching a wider area and more people. They are able to do this because of the advances that came about due to industrialization and urbanization. Industrialization and urbanization are related to increasing migration because, due to urbanization, areas are able to accommodate more people. Because of industrialization, they have more options and do not have to stay in the same place they were born. People have more flexibility because of urbanization and industrialization. Industrialization and urbanization relate to uneven development in the way that some areas are more industrialized and urbanized than others. While industrialization and urbanization have progressed some parts of the world, it has not reached all of the world yet. My family could see this because while they lived in the more rural part of West Virginia, they were seeing the creation of larger, city-like areas such as the capital city of Charleston. Urbanization and industrialization are related to the Anthropocene because, due to urbanization and industrialization, we have many modes of transportation and large numbers of people populating areas leading to pollution, which can have devastating effects on our environment and resources. My family was definitely on the forefront of this as many of them were part of the mining industry, both coal and limestone. They saw the effects that pollution and human activity can have on land firsthand.?? ? ? ? ? ?Although there is not a history of migration in my family as far back as I was certain was accurate, my family is heavily related to globalization through industrialization and urbanization. Industrialization and urbanization shaped the history of my family and caused different changes in my family including the reduction of children being born in each family throughout the years, different family structures, and working in more white-collar jobs versus blue-collar jobs. Without these aspects of globalization, my family would still be working and living on our farm. We would not have the machinery we have today, and we would not have the cities that there are today. Generations in my families were not having as many children because there were not as many needs. They gained more education and wealth, and they began having children because they wanted to not because they needed to. Dynamics in my family were changing. We started as stem families, moved to nuclear families, and also have some aspects of unstable families. My family is related to the history and the industrialization of the mining industry because they worked in it until the machines replaced them. My family is also related to West Virginia gaining statehood because they have been there ever since it first became a state. I believe that the evidence in my family supports my arguments well because, in all the articles I read, I was able to find a way that my family related to it. I can see all the changes that took place through the generations to adapt to the different needs and the changes that were taking place in the world.?Works CitedBell, Shannon Elizabeth, and Richard York. 2010. “Community Economic Identity: The Coal Industry and Ideology Construction in West Virginia.”?Rural Sociology?75 (1): 111–43.?, Richard O. 1962. "A Reappraisal of Statehood Politics in West Virginia."?The Journal of Southern History?28 (4): 403-21. Accessed March 25, 2020. doi:10.2307/2205406.Guest, Kenneth J. 2017.?Cultural Anthropology: a Toolkit for a Global Age. New York: W. W. Norton.?Lesthaeghe, Ron. 2014. “The Second Demographic Transition: A Concise Overview of Its Development.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111 (51): 18112–15. doi:10.1073/pnas.1420441111.?Puschmann, Paul, and Arne Solli. 2014. “Household and Family during Urbanization and Industrialization: Efforts to Shed New Light on an Old Debate.” History of the Family 19 (1): 1–12. doi:10.1080/1081602X.2013.871570.Riccards, Michael P. 1997. "Lincoln and the Political Question: The Creation of the State of West Virginia."?Presidential Studies Quarterly?27 (3): 549-64. Accessed March 25, 2020.?stable/27551768.Rogers, John, February 12, 2020, Interviewed by Grace Bertaux ................
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