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Ethnographic study: Social network sites are “virtual campfires”

Published on May 21, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, internet, journal articles / papers, media, Us and Them, websites, youth

After five years participant observation, anthropologist Jenny Ryan has published her masters’ thesis about the social network sites Facebook, My Space and Tribe.net. She created a beautiful web version of her thesis at http://www.thevirtualcampfire.org/

In her thesis, she proposes that everyday involvement with these sites can be metaphorically represented as a “virtual campfire” that “bridges the gap between the place of the hearth and the space of the cosmos, potentially reversing what has been called “the disintegration of the public sphere” (Habermas 1962: 175).

She explains in her introduction:

Thousands of years ago, our early human ancestors gathered around campfires, creating communal hearths of warmth and light. There they might tell stories, converse about the day’s events, perhaps engage in shamanistic rituals involving plants, music and dance, or simply gaze silently at the flames in collective meditation.

Today, the fireplace in my family’s living room shares its centralizing power with the television, around which we gather with our laptops and cellphones by our sides. Our time spent together is increasingly mediated by new technologies, enabling new forms of storytelling, altering our processes of individual and collective identity formation, and extending the possibilities for creating and maintaining social relationships.

(…)

My central argument in this thesis is that online social networks can potentially serve as both places of the hearth and avenues to the cosmos. Over time, these sites function as personal records of one’s experiences and relationships. These archives are made up of a variety of forms akin to older modes of record keeping, such as address books, journals, diaries, photo albums, personal correspondences, and yearbooks.

Additionally, they serve as gateways to the greater milieu, enabling the circulation of information about the world and granting members the capacity to participate in various ways. For teenagers and marginalized groups, in particular, these sites can be safe spaces for exploring and experimenting with identity, as well as for connecting to new people and ideas.

Ryan plans to add interactive features to the website version of her thesis, maybe she’ll turn it into a wiki, she writes in her blog.

>> visit The Virtual Campfire

>> Jenny Ryan’s bog

The Birth of a Cyberethnographer: The MU5 is to Blame

Interview with Michael Wesch: How collaborative technologies change scholarship

Why anthropologists blog: Blogs more interesting than journals?

Another way of doing fieldwork: Developing websites with your informants!

Ethnographic research on Friendster’s online communities

How internet changes the life among the First Nations in Canada

Ethnographic Study About Life Without Internet: Feelings of Loss and Frustration

The Internet Gift Culture

After five years participant observation, anthropologist Jenny Ryan has published her masters' thesis about the social network sites Facebook, My Space and Tribe.net. She created a beautiful web version of her thesis at http://www.thevirtualcampfire.org/

In her thesis, she proposes that everyday…

Anthropology blogs more interesting than journals?

Published on May 19, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, internet, journal articles / papers, media, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

Have anthropology journals ignored students? Is this one of the reasons for the popularity of anthropology blogs? Anthropology journals are not well known among students, Owen Wiltshire writes in his class assignment Why do anthropologists blog? A mini ethnography, a story, and a field report:

A restrictive publishing environment gives little voice to students. Not only that, but anthropology journals have ignored students and perhaps in doing this they have missed out on generating a name for themselves. As more and more material becomes freely available online, it becomes a matter of knowing where to look – and my small survey of students revealed that journals are not well known.
(…)
My small survey revealed that students had a hard time identifying a prestigious journal in their field, and the survey from Savage Minds shows that graduate students make up a large percentage of the readership. In my exploration of blogs I found a number of graduate students writing them. So perhaps the limited distribution of academic publishing contributes to the desirability of the blogsphere.

Owen Wiltshire found much “interesting thought” in the blogosphere and wonders if journal publications would only serve for the purposes of gaining prestige: “Everything is being said in conversations elsewhere, but is ‘proved’ in journals”.

In his text, he discusses several reasons for why anthropologists blog – or do not blog. Among other things he talked to several anthropologists who wish there was more room for new ways of writing anthropology.

Several students don’t want to share their thoughts online because they fear of having ideas “stolen”:

Another anthropology professor discussed the way societies he had studied were hierarchical, depending on secrecy and not necessarily the democratic exchange of knowledge – but as my interviews revealed many students worry that ideas can be stolen, and this is perhaps another reason people might have to not blog. Anthropologists in this sense are a hierarchical organization too, and secrecy is indeed a reason many do not feel comfortable sharing or discussing their ideas.

Here is his prelimarlary summary:

Why do Anthropologists Blog?

Public engagement – feedback from beyond the discipline
Less formal – much broader range of style, more complex ways of manipulating knowledge
(video, text, dynamic content)
Community, feedback. Enjoy discussing ideas with others.
Prestige – great place to get known, at least by other anthro bloggers
Younger generation growing up with online publishing – not worried about privacy as much
Perhaps an escape from work/professionalism when reflecting on anthropological ideas

Why Don’t Anthropologists Blog?

Fear that their work isn’t good enough
Do not want to have their name associated with it
Generally not part of internet culture – accessibility
Lack of time – anthropology is a professional topic – there aren’t many “amateur
anthropologists” – although this is one thing many bloggers want to change
Fear of having ideas stolen – desire to “own” ideas.
Prefer traditional publishing mediums – books
Desire for more filtered knowledge
Desire to maintain privacy outside of work

Wiltshire explored this issue by participation in the blogosphere through his own blog, and reading and writing on numerous other anthropology blogs. He also discussed blogging, sharing information, and public engagement with a focus group of six students, and multiple interviews with students and one professor – all at Concordia University.

>> read the whole text on Wiltshire’s blog

>> Follow-up post: forced vs free writing: “Students ignore journals, just as much as journals ignore students”

Interview with Michael Wesch: How collaborative technologies change scholarship

antropologi.info survey: Six anthropologists on Anthropology and Internet

Paper by Erkan Saka: Blogging as a Research Tool for Ethnographic Fieldwork

On fieldwork: “Blogging sharpens the attention”

Blogging and Public Anthropology: When free speech costs a career

Danah Boyd on Open Access: “Boycott locked-down journals”

Success in publishing defined by quality? Anthropology Matters on “The Politics of Publishing”

Lila Abu Lughod: “In Israel and Palestine we have an amazing opportunity”

Published on May 19, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, books, Middle East, persons and theories, politics, Us and Them

(via CultureMatters) While Israelis celebrate the 60th anniversary of their state’s founding, Palestinians around the world are mourning the “Nakba” – or “catastrophe” – that drove so many into exile. SPIEGEL ONLINE interviewed anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod on the Nakba and today’s Palestine.

Together with Ahmad Sa’di, she published the book “Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory”. Abu-Lughod’s father was Palestinian.

“I don’t see the anniversary as a time of mourning but as an occasion for trying to get the world to listen to what really happened and to think about how this should shape our vision of a solution”, she says:

Palestinians and Israelis are tightly entangled. Any resolution must involve a recognition of the fact that Israel was founded on the expulsion of Palestinians. Then we can think and talk together about restitution, redress, compensation, or whatever it takes for a more just way forward. In Israel and Palestine we have an amazing opportunity — to think about changing history by considering a democratic state with a living future for everyone.

The number of those who actually lived through the Nakba decreases every year. The Nakba commemoration has spurred storytelling, the anthropologist says:

Dr. Rosemary Sayigh, who has been interviewing Palestinians about their experiences for decades, describes her work as a race against time. But Diana Allan, an anthropologist from Harvard who has been videotaping old men and women in the refugee camps all over Lebanon to create a Nakba Archive, would be the first to insist that though it is important to get these stories, it should not distract us from the contemporary problems Palestinians face, in Lebanon and elsewhere.

I have been following with interest, though, the way this particular Nakba commemoration has galvanized people and spurred storytelling: a good example is the series of “untold stories” on the Web site of the Institute for Middle East Understanding.

>> read the whole interview in SPIEGEL ONLINE

For information on her book on Nakba, see the Columbia University Press blog, The Institute for Middle East Understanding, This Week in Palestine and the review on H-Net.

New book by Lila Abu-Lughod: The Politics of Television in Egypt

Interview with Lila Abu-Lughod on women and Islam in the wake of the American war in Afghanistan (Asiasource)

Anthropologists on the Israel-Lebanon conflict

“Voices”: Anthropologist publishes e-book about Palestinian women

(via CultureMatters) While Israelis celebrate the 60th anniversary of their state's founding, Palestinians around the world are mourning the "Nakba" - or "catastrophe" - that drove so many into exile. SPIEGEL ONLINE interviewed anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod on the Nakba and…

"Dreamtime" no longer an acceptable term

Published on May 18, 2008 by lorenz Posted in aboriginees, anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, language, Pacific Oceania

The West Australian and South Australian education departments have made lists of appropriate and inappropriate words to describe Aboriginal people and culture, The Australian reports.

– Dreamtime is no longer an acceptable term to describe the collection of Aboriginal creation stories, and should be referred to as The Dreaming or The Dreamings.

– The structure of traditional Aboriginal society should not be described as primitive – but as complex and diverse

– The term native should be replaced by indigenous groups or language groups.

– Instead of saying myths and legends, teachers should say Dreaming stories, teaching from The Dreaming or creation stories.

– Aborigine should not be replaced by the term Aboriginal person.

– Rituals should be called ceremonies

– religion should be avoided in favour of spirituality

– tribal should be shunned for traditional.

– tribe should be replaced by Aboriginal people,

– horde should be replaced by language groups

– instead of clan the term family groups should be used

The list of terms was developed with input from a wide variety of sources, including departmental staff, Aboriginal organisations and academics.

>> read the whole story in The Australian

>> Download “Aboriginal Education for all Learners in South Australia” including the section on sensitive terms and issues (pdf)

The West Australian and South Australian education departments have made lists of appropriate and inappropriate words to describe Aboriginal people and culture, The Australian reports.

- Dreamtime is no longer an acceptable term to describe the collection of Aboriginal creation stories,…

Forsker på synske dansker

Published on May 18, 2008 by lorenz Posted in Danmark, religion kosmologi, sosialantropologi i Norge, Sverige og Danmark

De kan enten se, høre eller føle avdøde personer, ånder eller energier fra ”den andre siden”. Antropolog Vibeke Steffen har vært på feltarbeid blant dem. Hun er nemlig midt i forskningsprosjektet Ånder og parapsykologiske fenomener – om synskhet i Danmark, melder forskning.no.

Steffen har hittil snakket med 14 medier fra 30 til 65 år. Felles for dem er at de ble rammet av et alvorlig tap, har en historie med spesielle opplevelser eller bare en fornemmelse av at sansene deres var annerledes:

– De fleste forteller at de som barn så nisser, ånder eller spøkelser, som de trodde at alle mennesker kunne se. Enkelte har forutsett begivenheter. En person drømte at presten ville bli skilt. En annen var ute og reiste, og drømte at hesten deres døde.

– De har en forestilling om at de har fått evnen, er født med den eller at en opplevelse ga dem evnen. En mistet en bestefar som overførte noen evner. Så går de ut og utforsker evnene, og langsomt blir de overbevist.

Antropologen ble forundret over effekten av en seanse:

– Jeg ble veldig overrasket over hvor mye mening det gir når man er der – uansett om det foregår i Daniel-kirken eller på et home party med fem kritiske kvinnelige forskere, som jeg selv har prøvd.

– Hvis man endrer rammene rundt seg, kan alt skje. Det er nok det samme som når man går i kirken på søndagen eller begynner å studere eller går på fotballkamp eller ser på tv-serien X Factor. Man trer inn i en verden hvor alt kan skje. Det er det samme universet som reklame alltid spiller på, fordi det virker.

>> les hele saken på forskning.no (eller originalen på videnskab.dk)

SE OGSÅ:

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– Moderne arbeidsliv er preget av new age

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Magi og trolldom i Hallingdal: Pass deg for Haugafolket!

De kan enten se, høre eller føle avdøde personer, ånder eller energier fra ”den andre siden”. Antropolog Vibeke Steffen har vært på feltarbeid blant dem. Hun er nemlig midt i forskningsprosjektet Ånder og parapsykologiske fenomener – om synskhet i Danmark,…