Cyber anthropology
Encyclopedia
The anthropology of and in cyberspace or cyberanthropology is a minor subbranch of sociocultural anthropology
that deals with cybernetic systems, the culturally informed interrelationships between human beings and technologies. These interrelationships include the attempts to fuse technological artifacts with human and other biological organisms, with human society, and with the culturally shaped environment.
In the wake of recent discourses growing around metaphors like globalization
and information age
/information society
especially Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) move into cyber anthropology's focus. The complex 'human beings, anthropologists and ICTs' unfolds its relevance for sociocultural anthropology inside the following three main sectors:
To which degree the three sectors become mutually influential or even inseparable, depends on the specific research projects, the involved methods and the specific desiderata of understanding.
Sociocultural anthropology's unique potentials for contributing to the above mentioned understanding are gradually unveiled. This potential has already have been recognized by neighbouring disciplines. One symptom of this process is the adoption, or even appropriation, of 'ethnography
', a generic method of sociocultural anthropology, by sociology
, media studies
, and other academic endeavours. The engagement by sociocultural anthropology in the last decade was somewhat weaker, but the trend is pointing stoutly upwards.
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
that deals with cybernetic systems, the culturally informed interrelationships between human beings and technologies. These interrelationships include the attempts to fuse technological artifacts with human and other biological organisms, with human society, and with the culturally shaped environment.
In the wake of recent discourses growing around metaphors like globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
and information age
Information Age
The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...
/information society
Information society
The aim of the information society is to gain competitive advantage internationally through using IT in a creative and productive way. An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic,...
especially Information and Communication Technologies
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
(ICTs) move into cyber anthropology's focus. The complex 'human beings, anthropologists and ICTs' unfolds its relevance for sociocultural anthropology inside the following three main sectors:
- ICTs as tools for sociocultural anthropologists both in teaching and research. The spectrum reaches from using a personal computerPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
as a typewriter, using and/or generating online-databases and -catalogues, communicating with colleagues and peers via InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
-services, to keeping in touch with informants online, and the theory-based generation of new forms of representation for anthropological knowledge. The latter should especially profit by the 'writing culture' debate and visual anthropologyVisual anthropologyVisual anthropology is a subfield of cultural anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media...
. - ICTs in the field. The sociocultural anthropological observation, analysis and interpretation of the consequences of the introduction of ICTs into specific societies and/or groups. (It has to be emphasized that this comprises the whole world, and not "just those" in the traditional field of the discipline, but does not exclude "them" as well.) Concepts like 'cultural appropriationCultural appropriationCultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It describes acculturation or assimilation, but can imply a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. It can include the introduction of forms of...
of technology' and 'ethnography of work' seem to be indispensable for this task. - 'CyberspaceCyberspaceCyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...
' as field. The sociocultural anthropological observation, analysis and interpretation of the sociocultural phenomena springing up and taking place in the interactive 'space' ('cyberspace') generated by (computer-) mediated communication (CMC), the Internet-infrastructure and ICTs at large. This comprises national and transnational online-groups, but also movements like e.g. 'Open SourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
' and the according societal, economical, and juridical issues and problems.
To which degree the three sectors become mutually influential or even inseparable, depends on the specific research projects, the involved methods and the specific desiderata of understanding.
Sociocultural anthropology's unique potentials for contributing to the above mentioned understanding are gradually unveiled. This potential has already have been recognized by neighbouring disciplines. One symptom of this process is the adoption, or even appropriation, of 'ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
', a generic method of sociocultural anthropology, by sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, media studies
Media studies
Media studies is an academic discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history and effects of various media; in particular, the 'mass media'. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass...
, and other academic endeavours. The engagement by sociocultural anthropology in the last decade was somewhat weaker, but the trend is pointing stoutly upwards.