anthropology in the news | antropologi.info

Cultures of Music Piracy: An Ethnographic Comparison of the US and Japan

Published on July 22, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, music, technology

Marc Erickson, channels.lockergnome.com

Ian Condry:

“What is this culture of piracy and what is at stake in trying to change it? In this essay, I take an ethnographic look at music file sharing, and compare the situation in the US with Japan. My findings are based on fieldwork in Tokyo, and surveys and discussions with US college students. By considering the ways social dynamics and cultural orientations guide uses of digital media technology, I argue that a legal and political focus on ‘piracy’ ignores crucial aspects of file sharing, and is misleading in the assumptions it makes for policy.”

>>continue incl link to original text (31 pages, 3,8MB!)(via flitzlog.blogspot.com and Voelkerkunde-Forum Wien)

Marc Erickson, channels.lockergnome.com

Ian Condry: "What is this culture of piracy and what is at stake in trying to change it? In this essay, I take an ethnographic look at music file sharing, and compare the situation in the US with…

Music and Socitiety in South Africa – Interview with Jonny Clegg

Published on July 22, 2004 by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology in the news, culture traditions, language, music, Us and Them

allAfrica.com

“I came from a country that forbade the mixing of culture, through cultural segregation and other enforced laws, so I was immediately attracted to the other side. Anthropology was a natural continuation of an interest I developed at the age of 14, hanging out with street musicians.

“We are at a fascinating moment and different South Africans have different ideas of what it is to be a South African. In all of that, I find myself at a very interesting time in South Africa where there is so much flux, change and movement. Languages are breaking down; languages are bleeding into each other. Indian words are coming into Africa. Afrikaans is coming in and a new hip urban kind of verbal style. All of these things for me as an anthropologist are fascinating. >>continue

allAfrica.com

"I came from a country that forbade the mixing of culture, through cultural segregation and other enforced laws, so I was immediately attracted to the other side. Anthropology was a natural continuation of an interest I developed at the age…

Study examines how Inuit coped with contact

Published on July 21, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, history, indigenous people / minorities, inuit, Us and Them

CBC North News

A unique anthropology project is under way in Holman – part of a growing trend to try to understand history from an Aboriginal perspective. Anthropologist Don Johnson is studying the adaptations Copper Inuit made after Europeans arrived in the Arctic. He says in some ways his job is to re-write history – in this case, from the Copper Inuit perspective. >>continue (Link updated)

CBC North News

India considers historic rewrite

Published on July 21, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, history, Us and Them

The Christian Science Monitor

In the past five years, Indian schoolchildren of all faiths have learned quite a bit about the culture of the Hindu majority. Last week, the allies of the newly elected Congress government, the Communist Party of India, called for yet another rewrite of Indian history, this time with a broader view of India’s many cultures instead of focusing on the religion of the majority. >>continue

The Christian Science Monitor

Focus On: New product development with anthropologists

Published on July 21, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, design anthropology

Business Europe

Finding out what the customer wants can be a difficult task. A new approach that is becoming more widespread is to treat potential customers as participants in the product development process. This customer research approach is known as ethnographic research and is defined as “the description and study of human culture”. For the purposes of new product development, customer research is conducted in a much shorter time scale to fit the needs of industry.

The power of taking such an approach is that it provides real life accounts of customers’ everyday activities, needs, desires, beliefs and values; it highlights the differences between what people do and what they say they do, and as a result find needs that have not been directly expressed; and it describes what meanings people place on products and how products are used. It is also cheap as it is purely about observing and listening.

Large multinational companies, including Microsoft, Nokia, Ericsson, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Kimberley Clark, General Mills and Motorola, are using this approach. >>continue

Business Europe