Digital Anthropology is Here
Digital Anthropology is an important new
field of study deserving increased recognition. The Information Age phenomenon
of information-overload is relentlessly advancing in a new way, one that our
ancestors could never have adequately prepared us for. “Knowledge is power” is
now “Knowledge is endless”, and endless consumption is exhausting. Things like
endlessly cross-referenced wikiwalks, endless music and podcast options,
endless online interest groups, etc. - options, if virtually limitless in
quantity - are then necessarily limited by our own finite human capacity to
partake in them. The myriad ways in which we do this, and in which we share in
these experiences, are the subject of this new field of study known as Digital
Anthropology.
Digital and Cyborg Anthropology are two
aspects in this emerging crossing of fields that study how social media,
electronic communications, telepresence, interactive robotics, big data, and
emerging technologies influence and are influenced-by anthropology both in our
relationships, and in our own identities, respectively. These emerging fields
essentially study the living of modern man as-identified-with all of his
ever-expanding means of presence and communication. Digital Anthropology defines
and supports this exciting evolution in human culture, and merits increasing
attention as a field of research just as our capacity to relate to others also
increases.
The Ethnography of Digital
Anthropologists –that is to say, the field-work of documenting and
understanding cultural phenomenon- tends to have similar methods as to
traditional forms of anthropology, though with new tools for the same purposes:
Unlike
a traditional anthropologist who might go to another country, city, or place to
do their research, the digital anthropologist must travel through the Internet
to locate the field site. And just as a traditional ethnographer has their set
of tools (tape recorder, field notebook, videocamera, kinship diagrams) the
digital ethnographer must have a set of tools for understanding and recording
the digital space. Screencapture software, website archiving tools, servers,
blogs and content management systems are common tools of digital ethnographers.
They are the equivalent of the audio recorder and journal. (Case)
Personally, I have ever been
surrounded-with and have identified with in-groups and out-groups, in every
aspect of my life: I am a son of immigrants though not an immigrant, an English
speaker whose first and family tongue was Spanish, a faithful believer enrapt
of the simplicity of the natural world, an introvert always appreciative of
social graces and the sharing of beauty. In politics, in race, in language, in
religion, in interpersonal dynamics, I have always been either caught-between
or embracing both sides of most dualities. Now, seeing how advancing high
technology in-my-lifetime ever-more encroaches from the disparaged realm of
rocket-scientist pocket-protector nerd-dom, to the now polished and refined
image of always-connected cyber-geekery by way of Apples and Androids, I am
fascinated by this phenomenon unprecedented in human history of exponential
connectivity. As the rowers keep on rowing, and they show no sign of slowing,
and as the zeitgeist of power moves ever into the field of connectivity (if not
always with a humane awareness), I throw-in my lot to studying and advancing
our adapting to these ever-expanding means within our limited natural and
cultural abilities.
I first considered my interest in
psychology rather narrow, as the individual is always present in many groups,
and groups are often divided against one-another, drawing stark contrasts
between themselves that we as individuals so often identify with. Being an
online student, I have seen every day how social media such as text messaging,
facebook and twitter are becoming not just more a part of daily life, but also
a factor affecting daily life via news reports on trends, and how big-data is
being ever more used for everything from marketing to census-data and health-care.
We have always identified with our effects, from philosophy, to law, to
religion and politics. Now that our effects and abilities are extending
well-beyond our physical presence, the bridging fields of electronic
communications and anthropology are necessarily interacting more and faster to
keep up, with an information age phenomenon that none of our ancestors could
have properly equipped us to deal with. Our modern society is suffering growing
pains to adapt.
Even within the world of Anthropology
and social science, how best to formalize and expand the methods and character
of Digital Anthropology has been a topic of discussion. While the Digital
Anthropology Interest Group (“DANG, for fun”) has become an established
interest group that is both within and without the American Anthropology
Association (Thompson, Some DANG history: Who
are we and what are we doing here?), even if they should
participate within the structure of the Association at all has been something
of a concern, since there are plenty of means available for those with this
interest to communicate their research and findings. Working within established
structure, if not solely within, is one way DANG has decided to best be of
service to their goal of Open Access of research, and though the interest group
is exclusive to AAA members -as-an-interest-group-, they also share and blog
online to meet this goal, as well as to animate the AAA, as Matt Thompson of
DANG puts it “kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century”:
We want a different publication
regime that includes Open Access principles and more recognition paid towards
legitimating online activities for hiring, promotion, and tenure; we want
everyone from the rank-and-file to Big Name Professors to join us in using net
platforms for teaching, research, and communication.
These changes are not going to
happen on their own. The AAA is not going to see the light unless WE flip the
switch. Instead of giving up on our admittedly stodgy professional association,
I am suggesting that we get inside the damn thing and take it over.
If the primary focus of this
interest group lies outside the AAA then we shouldn’t organize under the AAA in
the first place. If everyone is envisioning a collective that joins forces with
international, cross-disciplinary organizations embracing all the net has to
offer in linking everything and everyone in a new and truly global
anthropology… fine. But then we’re talking about a whole other ball of wax. In
that case the AAA would be a burden and we should just bypass it entirely.
If people want a AAA interest group
then we’re going to have to be much more circumspect in what we actually do. As
a AAA interest group our energies must be directed towards (1) fomenting change
within the AAA, to bring it kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century,
and (2) serving the AAA membership, so that those of us who are wired can share
our expertise and that others might be educated on why the issues that matter
to us are important.
Is this parochial? Indubitably. Is
this going to change the world? No, its only going to change our small part of
it. But you gotta start somewhere, right? (Thompson)
In similar fashion to the ongoing work
of Digital Anthropology and related emergent fields in understanding and
learning about how we use and identify with technology more and more, Digital
Archaeologists are reviving one of the earliest open-access online social
platforms from twenty years ago, in 1994 Amsterdam, the Digital City:
This
rudimentary social-media platform, launched in Amsterdam twenty years ago and
known as the Digital City (or by its Dutch acronym DDS), was one of the
earliest virtual public domains and a precursor to the modern Internet. But the
software that kept it buzzing with activity until 2000 is now virtually lost.
The challenge of retrieving and preserving this and other web artifacts has
given rise to a new profession: web archaeologist.
“If
we don't do anything, then an important piece of digital cultural heritage will
be lost,” says Tjarda de Haan, the first official web archeologist at the
Amsterdam Museum. She is leading a far-ranging effort to rebuild the Digital City
for virtual tours by future generations.
When DDS opened in 1994, it was
one of the first social media platforms in the world, the first Dutch virtual
community and the world’s first public-domain virtual city. Conceived as a
virtual space for independent groups, from artists to culture organizations,
the hub grew from 10,000 members in 1994 to 400,000 by 2000. (Teffer)
Digital Anthropology is here. It has
arrived as celebrated and intrusive to all that has come before it as the
Information Age, Refrigerated Transport, Television, and the Railroad. Be it in
the study and reviving of its earliest forms for posterity, or its vanguard in
ushering in a new age of global understanding, Digital Anthropology is here to
stay. It is best we take notice.
Works Cited
Case, Amber. "Digital Ethnography." Cyborg
Anthropology. 25 04 2014. Web Article.
<http://cyborganthropology.com/Digital_Ethnography>.
Teffer, Peter. "In Amsterdam, web archaeologists
excavate a digital city." The Christian Science Monitor 29 03
2014. 25 04 2014. <http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2014/0329/In-Amsterdam-web-archaeologists-excavate-a-digital-city>.
Thompson, Matt. "Digital Anthropology Group: Are we
sure we want this thing inside the AAA?" 29 02 2012. Savage Minds:
Notes and Queries in Anthropology. anthropology community weblog. 25 04
2014.
<http://savageminds.org/2012/02/29/digital-anthropology-group-are-we-sure-we-want-this-thing-inside-the-aaa/>.
—. Some DANG history: Who are we and what are we doing
here? 17 08 2012. 25 04 2014. <https://01anthropology.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/some-dang-history-who-are-we-and-what-are-we-doing-here/>.
