Don A. Dillman

Janet Keller

Robert W. Marans

In response to concerns resulting from changes in metropolitan growth during the past decade, and the concomitant gain in population of nonmetropolitan areas, this study was conducted in an effort to understand the effects of such growth on the quality of rural life and the physical environment. Data analyzed dealt with safisfactions, perceptions, evaluations, behaviors, and environmental characteristics, as seen by rural residents in three national and one regional (northern Michigan) surveys conducted between 1971 and 1976. The studies, which included questionnaires, personal interviews, and telephone interviews, defined the population groups by age, race, income and educational levels, job status, and occupation, with the last three categories looked at separately for men and women. Results indicated a somewhat "mixed picture" of life in rural America. In most instances, a greater satisfaction than dissatisfaction was seen in rural areas than in urban areas, but rural residents taken as a whole were seen to be neither better nor worse off than urban Americans. Stemming from limitations of using available national data in characterizing life in rural America, six issues concerning research tasks were identified which should be addressed by policy makers and other groups and individuals concerned with the quality of rural life. (JD)

An Analysis of Survey Data from Four Studies

Perceptions of Life Quality in Rural America

Daughter of the Moon

That time is not: distance is a resounding message inherent in Janet Keller's novel of an era rarely fictionalized: The century spanning the fall of the Assyrian and neo-Babylonian empires. In Daughter of the Moon, Keller relates the life story of Shumua-damqi, a remarkable woman who lived through the downfall of three dynasties. The events which took place thousands of years ago in dying cities seem no less real than events transpiring in the Middle East today. After surviving the ravages of a fire that left her scarred for life, Shumua-damqi entered the Temple Inanna in the City of Uruk where she learned the scribal art, astrology, astronomy and dream divination and became a gifted story teller-captivating King Ashurubanipal, the last great Sargonid King of Assyria. When he died unexpectedly, the world was in chaos. Wars were exploding everywhere and many of Assyria's one-time allies were uniting to destroy Nineveh. After three years she went to the City of Harran to be close to the Moon God Sinn and the Moon Goddess Ningal in their Temple Elhulhul, House of Joy, where the King's brother was High Priest. But Harran was poverty-stricken and the Temple in shambles. When the King's brother went to Egypt to lead an army in war against the Babylonians, Shumua was named High Priestess of the temple. She spent the rest of her life in Harran counseling Kings, educating new Priestesses and her son, who eventually became King of Babylon-and restoring the Temple to its former beauty.

Janet Keller

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