Learning from the Inside Out: A Prairie Quilt for Applied Anthropology

Howard F. Stein

This paper inquires into how we come to know what we know in applied anthropology. “Experience” and “process” are discussed in relation to ethnographic “findings” and to applied problem-solving. Donald Winnicott’s “squiggle game” (1971) is described as both a rich 1) data-generating and –gathering, and 2) collaborative problem-solving methodology. An extended vignette on health, cancer, dying, death, and mortuary rites on the North American Great Plains is presented to illustrate the utility of this approach.

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