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How to survive in a desert? On Aboriginals’ knowledge of the groundwater system

Published on March 15, 2006 by lorenz Posted in aboriginees, anthropology in the news, ecology nature, indigenous people / minorities, Pacific Oceania, technology

Indigenous Australians dug underground water reservoirs that helped them live on one of the world’s driest continents for tens of thousands of years, new research by hydrogeologist Brad Moggridge shows, according to ABC News. The study indicates Aboriginal people had extensive knowledge of the groundwater system. European settlers owed their subsequent knowledge of groundwater to the indigenous Australians, and even much of Australia’s modern road system is based on water sources identified by the original inhabitants.

Moggridge based his work on oral histories, Dreamtime stories, rock art, artefacts and ceremonial body painting as well as written accounts by white missionaries, surveyors, settlers, anthropologists and explorers.

>> read the whole story at ABC: Aboriginal people built water tunnels

In the article, there’s an interestring link to the research network Desert Knowledge that is “linking Indigenous and local knowledge with science and education to improve desert livelihoods”. (Link updated 3.9.2022)

SEE ALSO:

“Aboriginal knowledge is science”

Approaches to Indigenous Knowledge – conference papers in fulltext

Indigenous Australians dug underground water reservoirs that helped them live on one of the world's driest continents for tens of thousands of years, new research by hydrogeologist Brad Moggridge shows, according to ABC News. The study indicates Aboriginal people…

INTEL is hiring more than 100 anthropologists

Published on February 23, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, technology

LINKS UPDATED 19.4.2022

(via Gumsagumlao and anthropology.net ) It has become so commonplace to read about INTEL using anthropologists, that I’ve overlooked this news: INTEL in the process of hiring more than 100 anthropologists and other social scientists to work side by side with its engineers according to Technology Review.

The reason is simple: Anthropological research pays off – although Pat Gelsinger, a senior vice president at Intel, was sceptical in the beginning: “It’s much harder to justify and measure the qualitative research.”

Anthropologists had useful insights into a variety of emerging markets:

Intel viewed China and India as countries where people were simply too poor to buy its products — until anthropologists showed them that extended families in Asia will invest in a PC if it’s viewed as helping their children to succeed.

Intel has already released several products shaped by anthropological research:

In February 2005, it worked with a Chinese PC maker to release the China Home-Learning PC; and in October 2005 it launched the iCafe initiative in China, which involves a platform for improving how Internet café owners deploy and manage their technology. Intel has also repeatedly demonstrated early production versions of a Community PC, which is aimed at markets where infrastructure is not as well developed as in the West.

(…)

The rise of the anthropologists may come just in time for Intel. Its traditional Western markets are largely saturated, while many parts of the developing world use cell phones for e-mail and other forms of communication. And Intel’s efforts to gain share in the cell-phone market have not been strong. Thus, developing new approaches to potentially huge markets like India and China may help Intel grow faster in the future.

>> read the whole story at Technology Review

INTEL-ethnographers challenge our assumptions of the digital divide

Anthropologist helps Intel see the world through customers’ eyes

INTEL and Microsoft conference “a coming-out party” for ethnography

When cultures shape technology – Interview with INTEL-anthropologist Genevieve Bell

Research at INTEL

LINKS UPDATED 19.4.2022

(via Gumsagumlao and anthropology.net ) It has become so commonplace to read about INTEL using anthropologists, that I've overlooked this news: INTEL in the process of hiring more than 100 anthropologists and other social scientists to work…

"A unique art form" – Anthropological Research on Anime

Published on February 7, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, art, Asia, cyberanthropology, internet, Northern America, technology

An old drawing style in Japan is being reintroduced as new in the United States, and USC anthropology research scientist Mizuko Ito presented the development of Anime at the UCLA Faculty Center, UCLA University writes on their homepage. Academics should view anime fan art as its own unique art form, she said: “It is important for academic institutions to acknowledge popular culture (such as anime).”

Ito is known for her research on mobile phones. Currently she is part of the research project Digital kids.

The article also mentions Rachel Cody, a research assistant who works with Ito and studies the interaction of anime enthusiasts on the Internet and in front of the computer in private rooms.

>> read the whole story

>> read “Anime and Learning Japanese Culture” by Mizuko Ito

SEE ALSO:

Pop goes Japanese culture

Ethnographic Study on “Digital Kids”

Technologies of the Childhood Imagination- new text by anthropologist Mizuko Ito

Why cellular life in Japan is so different – Interview with anthropologist Mizuko Ito

Mizuko Ito’s homepage

LINKS UPDATED 5.1.2023

Capitalism and the problems of “High speed ethnographies”

Published on January 18, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, design anthropology, fieldwork / methods, technology

“If armchair anthropology was a product of colonialism, then design ethnography is a product of capitalism”, writes Anne Galloway, inspired by Jan Chipchase’s post on Tour Bus Ethnography:

Looking at my travel schedule for the next few months I’m left wondering what can I expect to learn from the relatively short amounts of time spent the field in different countries? At what point does spending a few days in a culture become nothing more than tour bus ethnography?

Galloway comments:

When I read posts like the one above, I remember being taught how the discipline of anthropology really only emerged when we gave up the colonial past-time of “armchair” anthropology and actually got out in the field ourselves.

But spending too much time analysing data outside the field might have some other implications:

When scholars were tasked with making sense of all the data brought back from the colonies, they had plenty of time to reflect on it. (In fact, I’ve always suspected that the sheer amount of “down” time and distance from the people studied actually encouraged anthropologists to come up with those complex hierarchies of cultural traits that became so instrumental in the administration of the colonies and the oppression of so many people. You know, idle hands and all…)

>> read her whole post “Design ethnography and the crisis of time”

Jan Chipchase (seems in fact to be his real name) reveals some of his field technics >> read his post “Tour Bus Ethnography”

"If armchair anthropology was a product of colonialism, then design ethnography is a product of capitalism", writes Anne Galloway, inspired by Jan Chipchase's post on Tour Bus Ethnography:

Looking at my travel schedule for the next few months I'm left wondering…

Virtual Ethnographer’s Toolkit: Invitation to a software fantasy

Published on January 16, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, internet, technology

Cyber Ethnography both resembels and differs from traditional fieldwork. Livejournal user closedistances is beginning his /her dissertation research and designs the (imagined) ideal software tool for cyberanthropologists:

“I have found myself wishing on more than one occasion that I had software capable of automating certain tasks. With this in mind, I want to use this entry to imagine a software package, which I will call “The Virtual Ethnographer’s Toolkit” (VET for short) that would be able to perform the tasks that existing programs do not seem able to do.”

His or her expectations are quite detailed. Much is related around search and content grabbing. I guess, a part of it could be solved via RSS – at least this wish:

If I wanted to do a textual analysis on SavageMinds.org, VET would be able to generate a text file consisting only of posts within the “Technology” category, only posts containing the phrase “virtual ethnography” within them, or only posts by Rex.

The post ends with an invitation:

If you have ever done a virtual ethnography, I invite you to participate in this fantasy and add whatever features you think VET should have that I did not already think of.

>> read the post: Virtual Ethnographer’s Toolkit: a software fantasy

"I have found myself wishing on more than one occasion that I had…