In software development the phrase toolchain refers to a set of discrete tools linked in such a way that the output of one tool becomes the input for another tool. As wikipedia notes “A simple software development toolchain consists of a text editor for editing source code, a compiler and linker to transform the source code into an executable program, libraries to provide interfaces to the operating system, and a debugger.” …
This Week in Ethnography: All Tomorrow’s Cultures: Tagging Anthropology
This Week in Ethnography, I have thought about Public Anthropology. Samuel Gerald Collins of All Tomorrow’s Cultures posted a great piece on the subject this week entitled Tagging Anthropology. Public Anthropology is not a new subject by any means. A Google search on the subject will show over 600,000 results and limiting your search to Savage Minds will still give you more than a week’s worth of reading. In fact, this subject is so mature that the The 9th Annual Public Anthropology Conference is just around the corner (not the first or second, but the 9th!) …
The PhD as an Existential Question???
To PhD or not to PhD, that is that a question for you? Well, at Ethnography.com we have years of unsolicited advice to those of wondering if all the uncertainties of grad school are for you or not.
For example those of you have lousy grades for any number of reasons, and question not your own capacity, but that of your chosen profession to give your application a second look, check out “Can Bad Grades and Graduate School Go Together?…
Culture Rears its Head in the US Presidential Campaign
There is a good editorial about that classic anthropological question “What is Culture?” in the New York Times today by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is salient because presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently made assertions about the nature of culture and its relationships to economic activity while he was in Israel recently. His statements, made in the heat of a political campaign, have meant that the Culture Question will at least briefly (and probably ephemerally) push itself again into the national consciousness. …
The Internet Archive
As of this morning, The Internet Archive is now offering content via the BitTorrent P2P networking protocol: Internet Archive Torrents
There is a nice (if unorganized) collection of early anthropology among the 1.2 million books in the archive. As you might expect, there is a large assortment of early journals and classic works. But, there is also a surprising amount of grey literature: lectures, occasional papers, and so forth.
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This Week in Ethnography: Writing Live Fieldnotes With Social Media: Towards a More Open Ethnography | Ethnography Matters
This Week in Ethnography, the big news was Mitt Romney “using” the word culture but that news is already very well described by Jason Antrosio.
So I found another hidden gem that came out this week: a great post on “Writing Live Fieldnotes“. It describes a technique that could solve a challenge I am facing in a research project where I will be tracking the behavior of a group of high school students.…
Anthropological Field Research in the Internet Age
Another classic question in the age of the internet: How do indigenous peoples feel about anthropology graduate students doing fieldwork? Mark Dawson first reported his research about this subject in a classic post here at Ethnography.com on April 1, 2007.…
The Ecological Annum
I have to admit I laughed at the phrase “ecological annum” when James used it as a foil for his post on the duration of fieldwork. The phrase (real or invented) dates from a period when anthropologists primarily studied agriculturists and hunter-gatherers with long trips to the field and little concern for budgets. At first glance it is exactly the kind of old fashioned advice that seems at odds with the realities of conducting fieldwork in the early 21st century.…
Where in the World is Kennewick Man?
Who has recently seen Kennewick Man? Kenny was last seen in 2007, as described in an Ethnography.com classic by Cynthia van Gilder KENNEWICK MAN SIGHTED BUYING GROCERIES IN VIRGINIA. Has anyone else seen him more recently? Is he still in Virginia, or has he moved on?
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Methods to Mind: Long or Short Term Approaches to Ethnographic Research
The following post from culturnicity got me thinking about the ongoing grudge match between those who demand a year in the field [imagine someone with a long beard in an arm-chair saying “to record a full record of experiences during the ecological annum”] compared to those who are more focused on the content and outcomes of the project. In Ethnography as participant listening, Forsey drives this point home with the following point:
…Defining ethnography according to its purpose rather than its method encourages participation in, and engagement with, the lives of our fellow human beings (Forsey, 2011: 569).
Changes at Ethnography.com, and an Invitation to Blog
If anyone has paid close attention, which we doubt, to the “masthead” at Ethnography.com, you will have noticed some changes. Our founder and Czar, Mark Dawson, has been kicked upstairs, and is now, “Czar Emeritus. “ So after stints in California, Iraq, Alaska, Afghanistan, and Florida Mark is now reigning from an undisclosed location where he is preparing for this December’s Mayan Apocalypse on behalf of AAA. In particular, he needs codices about Mayan Magic—you can seek him out at AAA in San Francisco this November—maybe your donation will reach him in time that he can prevent the end of the discipline. …
This Week in Ethnography: Second Digital Ethnography Week _ Trento 17-21 sept. 2012
There is not much to report in “This Week in Ethnography”, a segment I am inventing as a means of reporting on the global pulse of this most important subject. The one item that jumped out of my feeds at me was that I missed the application deadline (of July 22, 2012) for the:
…Second Digital Ethnography Week _ Trento 17-21 sept. 2012
The second “Digital Ethnography Week” (DEW), an intensive week focused on the study of digital methods and digital ethnographic approaches.