What I Told the Stanford Anthropology Department

byRosanaHart

1.4K followers

3 years ago

I went to Stanford, graduating in 1964. Just the other day I received an email from the Anthropology department, that they were featuring students in my class in their next newsletter. We could write about anything, and I did. After I finished it, I thought it would interest some of you here. So here it is...

I became interested in anthropology after taking a basic class in it during the spring quarter of my freshman year. I was off to Stanford-in-France the next year, and I took spring term off. When I got back to the campus at the start of my junior year, I threw myself into anthropology classes and loved them. After graduating, I went to U.C. Berkeley as a graduate student in anthro, but it didn't hold my interest, so I went off to live in Europe with my boyfriend of that era. I had taken LSD as a research subject and that turned my attention to more spiritual matters.

I returned to Berkeley a couple of years later and got a MLS, Master's of Library Science. My career path became one of librarianship. First, I was a children's librarian, then a reference librarian and branch head. Later I became a self-publisher and writer, activities which I still continue. I married a man named Kelly Hart. He had a daughter, whom I helped to raise.

Anthropology has shaped my thinking in more ways than I can count! It helped me become concerned about world population, part of why I never had biological kinds myself. Beyond that, I've remained interested in how culture shapes people's thinking. But not just people -- for some years Kelly and I had a llama ranch, and I was interested in how our llamas thought about things. I wrote a book, Living with Llamas: Adventures, Photos, and a Practical Guide. It's out of print now, but I am writing my memoirs in a series of books and will revise the llama book when I get to it chronologically.

In my 20s, I changed my name to Rosana, so I am now Rosana Hart, and I write my books under my nickname of Zana Hart. They are all on Amazon and on my site zanahart dot com where snippet of the books, and photos, can be found. Before I got into memoirs, I wrote three cozy mysteries, in a series I called the Curious Librarian. My memoirs have the series title Moved by Curiosity, so I have to admit to curiosity being a driving force in my thinking.

My husband and I have traveled and lived in Mexico (five years living there) and Guatemala (a couple of months). In this photo, I am wearing the headdress of a Mexican friend of mine, one which she wore for dancing.

I had gone around the world in connection with Stanford-in-France, and the next year I spent the summer in Sierra Leone, West Africa, on a work camp run by a group called Crossroads Africa. Now that I have just passed 80 years of age, I am mostly content to stay home in Silver City, NM, and keep writing memoirs.