Computer-Mediated Anthropology

An Online Resource Center

CMA Introduction, Part 2: A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED ANTHROPOLOGY

by Noah Porter, July 2004

(Continued from page 1)

 

In December 2000, Stephen Jackson wrote: "AnnoTape: Software for Ethnography." In this short article, he describes how lugging around cassette tapes in a war zone and transcribing them later would be a "nightmare," which led him to ask: "Couldn't I just record 100 hours of interview straight to a laptop's hard disk, avoiding cassettes and recorders altogether?" (p. 27). This in turn led him, with the help of a colleague, to develop a software program called AnnoTape that would allow him to record interviews straight to his computer and add markers to certain points in the conversation.

Miller and Slater came out with The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach in 2000. In his review of the book, Marshall writes: "This is easily one of the best ethnographic studied of Internet usage. However, a more accurate titled would be something like: Uses of the Internet in Trinidad and the Trinidadian Diaspora, as this is the book's main focus, and the authors disagree with those analysts who suggest that the Internet produces its own conventions and society" (Marshall 2003: 432).

In March 2000, Brian Fagan discussed the role of the Internet in teaching archaeology in his article, "Education is what's left: Some thoughts on introductory archaeology." He found that pedagogical practice was undertheorized. Similar to a point raised by David Zeitlyn (1998), Fagan drew a connection between growing class sizes and the difficulty of utilizing hands-on methods, and concludes that the Internet will help archaeology students become more engaged with the material.

Trias i Valls made some more progress on setting up the first on-line degree in Anthropology around this time: "January 2001 we put several bids to HEW and the University of Wales. We obtained approximately £30,000 for our distance learning in March 2001. With these funds we acquired a domain name, set a mirror site, learned new software, and prepared the courses. We based our project on the idea that knowledge should not have to 'fit in' a particular software size. Instead of relying on technology-vendors...we developed our own visual and conceptual strategies for delivering anthropology, which adapted to our views od teaching and learning anthropology" (2002: 43-44).

In September 2000, Nichols wrote "Buying and Selling the Past on www.com." In this article, she denounces the practice of selling artifacts on sites like Amazon.com and Ebay.com. She draws a connection between the creation of an online marketplace for artifacts and increased looting of archaeological sites.

In 2001, Tapper wrote: "Anthropology and (the) Crisis: Responding to Crisis in Afghanistan." Tapper felt like his past fieldwork experiences in Afghanistan were too far removed from the present to offer much useful commentary beyond what experts had already said; he also felt that Internet communities offer a way for "important voices that are not being heard" (p. 13) to be heard, as "few Afghans from inside or outside Afghanistan, have been asked their views" (p. 13). In the virtual Afghani community he studied, he found news articles were circulated, films were discussed, and moderators resolved contentious debates with appeals to Afghani solidarity. He gives some concluding remarks on "Internetography" based on these experiences: "Here, for what they are worth, are my reflections. Much of the small but growing literature on ethnography of the Internet is concerned with issues of ethics, anonymity, and credibility: in a virtual community, some or all members may themselves be more or less imaginary. In the case of 'Afghaniyat', many members, including the moderator(s), are open about their identities, even including a business address in their messages. Others obviously disguise their identities, but are open with their feelings and opinions, while in 'real life' they might do the opposite. I am reasonably sure that, even if some identities are disguised, all are 'real' individuals, dealing with real problems and issues" (p. 16).

Also in 2001, Sorenson and Matsuoka wrote "Phantom Wars and Cyberwars: Abyssinian Fundamentalism and Catastrophe in Eritrea." Questioning "[t]heorists of transnationalism [who] have considered the Internet as a site for new forms of communication and community" (p. 38), they instead find that: "Neither the experience of life abroad nor the supposedly boundary-transgressing qualities of cybercommunication created any alternatives to Abyssinian fundamentalism among Ethopian exiles. Indeed, rather than posing any challenge or counter-narrative to Ethopian nationalism and the regional cult of militarism, the Abyssinian cybernauts reinforced and intensified this discourse" (p. 60-61). The Ethopian "cybernauts" they quote in their article are quoted as saying some rather chilling comments, nearly calling for outright genocide against Eritreans for their perceived betrayal of Ethopia.

Keith Hart wrote "Money in an Unequal World" in 2001. In this article, he examines the rise of the Internet from a Marxist perspective. He describes human society as entering the third stage of the machine revolution, corresponding to steam power, electricity grids, and digitalization (p. 311). We are in the midst of "virtual capitalism," according to Hart, where currency is further divorced from the exchange of goods and services, allowing speculative money markets to create huge profits and losses for corporations that are increasingly less constrained by governments. "[I]f one thing can be said with confidence about the internet, it is that it offers a means of escape from land shortage; indeed from spatial constraints in all their forms... Territorial states... [ability] to extract taxes...becomes more difficult when the source of value shifts from car factories and downtown shopping centers to transactions of money and commodities conducted at the speed of light without regard to borders" (p. 315-6). However, in spite of overwhelming inequality, Hart seems upbeat about the Internet's possibilities: "The one strategic asset we have is the fast-breaking medium of the internet, and, at a time when society increasingly takes the form of a world market, our efforts at self-emancipation must be focused on the money instruments themselves" (p. 322-3).

Mizrach wrote "Lost in Cyberspace: A Cultural Geography of Cyberspace" in 2001. On this web page, he argues that even though cyberspace cannot be mapped in the same way as physical space can, "[t]here can be (perhaps must be) a geography of cyberspace, for the simple fact that it (like the real world) is discontinuous. People cannot experience a virtual world in its entirety all at once." He explores the concept of presence in relation to cyberspace, and notes that the role that power plays in shaping the landscapes of cyberspace; he writes: "The point I want to emphasize is that the cultural changes wrought by cyberspace cannot be seen as purely accidental. They are the result of social choices; they occur through the agency of the institutions that are allowed to direct how cyberspace is developed and used."

Pink et al (2002) write a guest editorial for a special issue of Anthropology in Action about visual and virtual pedagogy in Europe. They claimed that "anthropology has an ethical responsibility to participate in and critique the new contexts that are being created" (p. 2). They claim that the interest in visual and virtual technologies has taken four pedagogical forms: 1. visual materials to complement lectures; 2. courses in visual anthropology and computing; 3. training in visual media production techniques; 4. e-learning.

Also in 2002, Ardevol wrote "Teaching Anthropology Virtually: Learning Communities at Work" in which he defended e-learning based upon his personal experience with online teaching. Arguing that critics of e-learning have idealized traditional pedagogical models, he instead starts with the premise that: "the creation of a context of intelligibility through social interaction is at the core of the teaching-learning process, whether it be at a distance, virtual, or face-to-face" (p. 33). He then describes two approaches to e-learning, collaborative thinking and experience sharing, that he has used when he taught anthropology courses online.

In 2002, Trias i Valls wrote: "Online Teaching: The Role of Visual Media in the Delivery of Anthropology Online." She argued that just putting text online does not equal interactivity, and calls into question whether the classroom is necessarily an interactive context. Her point is that: "Interactivity, through visual media, at the point of creating the material (as opposed to the point of delivery) if often ignored" (p. 44), and furthermore, "Interactivity should be mostly defined through reflexive engagement that students make with their own learning experience" (p. 45). After reviewing some elements that aid interactivity in e-learning, such as iconography, she concludes: "One of the lessons from anthropology-online is that what we make of the Internet, daily, is making it a social media rather than just a 'virtual' place" (p. 47).

In Spring 2002, Forte wrote "'We are not Extinct': The Revival of Carib and Taino identities, the internet, and the transformation of offline indigenes into online 'N-digenes'". In this article, he contends that anthropologists have understudied the Internet because it is considered a tool of the elite, with out 8.46% of the world's population having access, few of which are marginalized populations. The globalization of indigineity, however, is leading to Trinidadian Amerindians seeking alliances and symbolically representing themselves in a similar fashion to North American Native Americans. (As noted earlier, Fair [2000] found similar processes of representation among Native American groups.) Noting the transnational nature of the Amerindian virtual communities, he writes: "I would argue that we need not let rigid definitions of 'tribal nation' and idealistic evaluations of the 'true community' impair our analysis of the actual means and processes by which online Taino bodies form a collectivity" (2002a).

David Jacobson wrote "On Theorizing Presence" in 2002. In this article, he discusses presence, defined as "the experience of being engaged by the representations of a virtual world." Experiences of presence are explained by "optimized self-presentation" and "overattribution", which refer to the selective presentation of information about the self to others, and to imagining others in an idealized fashion based on the selective information they present about themselves, respectively. However, Jacobson contends that while such explanations show how presence can occur, they are not sufficient to explain constraints and failures in this process, and he examines some theories in cognitive psychology to explain this.

In December 2002, Maximilian C. Forte wrote an article in Anthropology News entitled: "Another Revolution Missed? Anthropology of Cyberspace." In the article, he points out: "There are anthropology courses on every country, region tribe in the world, but virtually none on Cyberia, the planet's third-most-populuous "nation," and one that has the highest population growth rates of all the countries on the planet. As things stand, anthropology is missing the biggest revolution of the last (and this) century. It's time for anthropology to 'unthink' itself." He surveyed 50 anthropology department, and came up with a list of reasons they gave for dismissing the anthropology of cyberspace. These included: "It's already one in other departments"; "You can't have a whole course on the topic"; "It is a very narrow specialization" and "It has little relevance to the dominant paradigms in anthropology."

Wilsona and Peterson wrote an Annusal Review of Anthropology article entitled: "The Anthropology of Online Communities" in 2002. They wrote: "The revolutionary claims made for the Internet...have faded in recent years. The realization has grown that though online communication havbe happen faster, over larger distances, and may bring about the reformulation of some existing power relationships, the rapid and fundamental transformations of society that some foresaw have not come to pass. Inter-networked computers are cultural products that exist in the social and political worlds within which they were developed, and they are not exempt from the rules and norms of those worlds" (p. 462). They also find that: "...a coherent anthropological focus or approach has yet to emerge. Despite the early interest in new media and Internet phenomena and on emerging anthropological literature, there have been relatively few ethnographic works on computing and Internet technologies within anthropology" (p. 450). Wilson and Peterson suggest that because of obsolescing technologies, "we are suggesting research that focuses on social processes and emerging communicative practices rather than specific user technologies" (p. 453). They criticize CMC scholars for "position[ing] online communication away from other social interactions" (p. 454) and call for more localized and nuanced studies.

Bird (2003) found that many of the aspects of community assumed to be missing from virtual communities were present in the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman online fan group she studied. The DQWM fans would emotionally support each other, and were angered by the cancellation of their show. They did not keep themselves anonymous, and they transcended the online-offline dichotomy by visiting the set where the show was filmed.

In April 2003, Stanlaw and Peterson wrote an article in Anthropology News entitled: "To Be (Online) or Not to Be (Online)...Is THAT the Question?" In the article, they review the arguments made both for and against online book reviews by anthropologists.

In 2003, Michael F. Brown wrote "Weaving a Book into the Web" in Anthropology News. In the article, he talks about his experience with publishing a web site to supplement his recently published book. Despite some concerns by his publisher about impinging on book sales, he found the experience to be worthwhile overall.

In August 2003, Jonathan Marshal wrote "The sexual life of cyber-savant." He argues that "netsex is one of a number of ways which are used to frame and explore the occurence of diverging meanings and vague boundaries, the paradoxical conventions of authenticity (depending on such things as strong emotion, body feeling, typing errors and gender), and the oscillating and uncertain relationship between online and offline life" (p. 229).

Nicole Constable wrote Romance on a Global Stage: Pen Pals, Virtual Ethnography, & "Mail-Order" Marriages in 2003 as well. She writes: "This book is meant to contribute to a growing literature on the engendering of transnational processes. Overall I argue that women involved in correspondence relationships are not merely pawns of global political economy or the victims of sexual exploitation, nor are the men simply the agents of western sexual imperialism.... I aim to convey some of the complex and subtle ways in which personal experiences and life trajectories articulate with historical factors, political economy, and global imaginaries to produce (and sometimes deter) relationships between Chinese women, Filipinas, and U.S. men" (p. 30). She utilizes virtual ethnography as part of her methodology, noting that: "Traditionally oriented ethnographers may be surprised (perhaps appalled) at the notion of conducting ethnographic research in virtual communities in cyberspace. Yet many scholars have shown that these communities are complex, organized, and worthy of study" (p. 33).

Gerald Gold wrote "Rediscovering place: experiences of a quadriplegic anthropologist" in 2003. He found that the traditional anthropological concept of fieldwork excluded research done by disabled anthropologists, and that "some of these barriers to fieldwork lessen by extending the conventional understanding of place" (p. 477). He also found similarities between ethnic communities who are spatially dispersed and virtual communities.

Also in 2003, Lysloff wrote "Musical Community on the Internet: An On-Line Ethnography." In the article, he compares and contrasts his online fieldwork in the "mod scene" with studying music in rural Java. He writes: "I wonder whether what I was doing really was fieldwork because I never had to go anywhere physically, never had to make demands on my body or endure the tangible hazards that field researchers routinely face" (p. 235), but concludes that "on-line communities, such as the mod scene, are as 'real' (or imagined) as those off line" (p. 236). One particularly interesting aspect of his findings are that in the mod scene, a prestige economy develops based upon one's knowledge and contributions to the "scene."

In February 2003, Davis wrote: "An Electronic Portal to Anthropological Knowledge." He talks about how a survey was conducted of AAA members, which lead to a number of features being implemented on the AAA web site. His major findings include: 87% of respondents using the Internet in their literature reviews, but the availability of anthropological materials online left a lot to be desired.

In the summer of 2003, I finished my thesis on Falun Gong. Also known as Falun Dafa, Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that originated in China in 1992, but quickly became a transnational phenomenon. It was outlawed in China in 1999, but in large part to the Internet, it continues to exist, still publishing information on the persecution at www.clearwisdom.net that mainstream media does not report. In my thesis, I demonstrate how Falun Gong's incredible growth and continued challenge of the Chinese government's propaganda at a grassroots level is attributable to the Internet.

In December 2003, Panagakos wrote "Anthropology for the Cyber Masses." In this article, she reviews the state of how anthropology is represented on the web. She finds many problems with the websites that exists, including plagiarism undermining confidence in the information, a lack of updating, jargon-filled sites, and tourism sites being far more prevalent than anthropological sites when searching for information on other cultures. She asks: "What messages do our websites give fledgling anthropologists and an interested public? Are we incapable (or just unwilling) to descend the steps of our ivory towers to write for the cyber masses?"

In 2004, James M. Milne, a USF student, completed his dissertation on blogs, entitled: "Weblogs and the Technology Lifecycle: Context, Geek-Chic and Personal Community." He writes: "The outcome of this study is a redefinition of technological innovation. The study shows that the tools and techniques that come to be known as technology follow the creation and adoption of the practices they contain" (p. 2). Furthermore, "Blogging is a practice that evolved into a technology. In the context of the society in which it was born, it makes perfect sense. People and institutions in that society at that time were experiencing a variety of disconnections and alienations from themselves and each other. There were long-term developments in mass media, online environments, and social life that provided Web-enabled environments for experimentation in social form and practice, Blogging developed as an extension of these forms and practices, one in a lineage" (p. 155).