2015 UW Anthropology Winning Essay about Stanley Ann Dunham
The Woman Who Walked on Her Own: Stanley Ann Dunham
by, Lena-Easton Calabria
Stanley Ann Dunham was an anthropologist, activist, and the mother of our
President, Barack Obama Jr. She was born in 1942 and grew up in Kansas, California,
Texas, and Washington, before moving to Hawaii with her family after high school. Ann
was a woman of great strength and courage, and demonstrated these values throughout
her lifetime. One example of this strength is that she had her first child, President Barack
Obama, at age 18, and cared for him while going through her undergraduate education.
She also married Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan man, when there were still laws against
interracial marriage in almost twenty-four states.
Ann had an bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD in anthropology, and took her first
anthropology class at the University of Washington. She studied the exclusively male
craft of blacksmithing in Indonesia and received her PhD from the University of Hawaii
with a 1,000-page dissertation entitled Peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia: Surviving and
Thriving Against All Odds. Ann was very serious about her work and had a lot of respect
for the communities in which she conducted research. This is incredibly important,
especially when we look back at the history of our discipline and the atrocities that have
been committed in the name of anthropology.
A friend said of her work in Indonesia, “She spoke the language, ate the food, sat
with her legs folded under her on the floor…she ran her household in an informal, open
Indonesian style” (pp.200). Ann immersed herself as fully as an outsider can in the
communities in which she worked, and with the utmost respect for the culture she was in.
All of us within the field of anthropology can learn from her example.
The work that Ann did throughout her life has made a lasting impact on our
world. She wanted to improve women’s lives, and worked for the Ford Foundation in
Indonesia studying women’s employment issues. Between 1988 and 1992 she worked to
install a microfinance program in Indonesia, a model that is still used today. Many people
credit her work for being the main reason that Indonesia is currently a world leader in
microfinance loans.
Ann was not afraid to walk her own path. She completed her work when
international travel was much less common than it is today and when women especially
had fewer means to travel. She lived in villages in which a white person, let alone a white
woman, was quite rare. Ann was a living example of Albert Einstein’s quote that “the
woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.”
As I complete my undergraduate education and move out into the world, her story
inspires me to follow my own path, beyond the challenges and fears that arise.
The values that Ann Dunham displayed throughout her life are ones of the utmost
importance today. Out of all the values that she held, it is clear that Ann was a person
who did not let fear stand in the way of what she wanted to do. Growing up in today’s
society, many of us have been surrounded by news of wars, oppression, and more, for
much of our lives. Hearing this news repeatedly can paralyze us with fear and
helplessness. Ann was a person who faced fear head on and did not let it change her path.
Let us keep her story in mind as we wake up and step out of the idea that we are helpless,
that we are victims, that we do not have the power to transform our own lives and, as a
result, the world.
Barack Obama said that Ann believed “we can reach across the void and touch
each other and believe in each other and work together” (pp. 357). She took herself on an
incredible journey that touched many and continues to inspire us today. Barack Obama
says that many of his life choices were made from Ann’s example, and he is now
President of the United States. May Stanley Ann Dunham be an example for all of us,
both within and outside the field of anthropology. Let’s see where we go!
References
Scott, Janny. A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother. New
York:
Riverhead, 2011. Print.