Anthropology Of Technology (Anthropology) Research Papers (original) (raw)

This paper arises from a dissatisfaction with the 'Great Divides' created between past and present, self and others, people and material culture in the context of ethnoarchaeology. While conducting ethnoarchaeological research in Spain, Ethiopia and Brazil, I have been faced with the theoretical and practical shortcomings of this field, which is too deeply rooted in modernist concerns and prejudices. I propose a reconsideration of ethnoarchaeology as archaeology tout court - an archaeology of the present - which has to be symmetrical in character. This means that present and past must not be hierarchically conceived - the former in the service of the latter or vice versa - nor strictly separated ontologically, and the relations between humans and things have to be properly problematized.

Como muchos han subrayado, el arte es una palabra –y una institución– demasiado circunstancial e idiosincrásica como para hacer de ella una categoría transcultural. Cuando los antropólogos lo han intentado, su éxito ha sido como mucho relativo. Al definir los « objetos de arte » como aquellos con atributos estéticos y/o semánticos que sirven para representar o presentar (cf. Morphy y Perkins 2006), o bien al definirlos como aquellos que permiten inferir que alguien ha actuado intencionalmente buscando cumplir un fin mentado en relación con un « otro » (cf. Gell 1998) se consigue, en el mejor de los casos, delimitar una clase de objetos bien diferente de la clase, ya de por sí compleja, que recorta el término vernáculo. Usar el término « arte » para hablar de los artefactos, los atavíos y las ceremonias de los indígenas del Paraguay parece una tarea imposible. Con todo, el afamado curador y crítico paraguayo Ticio Escobar encuentra buenas razones intelectuales y políticas para hacerlo.

The ethnographic field guide was a short-lived genre in the annals of anthropology. In this chapter I experimentally attempt to revive it. The original guides provided the ethnographer with a set of practical pointers on how to organise fieldwork, set up camp, maintain relations, and negotiate access in a particular geographical region of the world. The present field guide attempts to do so while entertaining (and eventually discarding) the idea that the World Wide Web has similar areal qualities and constitutes a field in which the techno-anthropologist can go to do work. It is not a straightforward analogy, and although a guide turns out to be somewhat impossible the attempt at writing it casts of all kinds of interesting contradictions. What is highlighted in the process is that the Web is distinctly spatial in ways that must be taken seriously, that it is home to a very special breed of digital natives, and that maintaining relations with these natives presents a challenge of its own. I argue that these challenges must be taken seriously, and that techno-anthropology could be ideally suited to do just that.

The paper proposes a rethinking of the “Techniksfrage” and the “post-humanism” focused on the discussion of the human nature and the man’s place in the world. 0) “Philosophy of technology” went in search of an Universal Essence of The Technology,
ending with the construction of the opposition “techno-phobics/techno-maniacs”: it forgot the plurality of the technologies, and represented the technology as an unsurpassable destiny (Evil or Good). 1) Indeed, a “philosophical anthropology of the technology” makes it possible to think the relationship man/technology in a “soberly realistic” way: if man is naturally un-natural, the technological animal because of his
relational openness to the world, then technai express the modes through which he relates to the world and “declines” his generic nature. 2) Therefore, we cannot oppose a “subject”
(human/natural) to an “object” (artificial/unnatural): we have to understand the faktum of the relation which constitutes both them as always opened (subjectile and objectile). 3) According to this, the post-human could be thought as a overcoming-uplifting (post) of the evolutionary and existential logic that characterizes the human nature (human): a over-humanistic horizon could not be realistically conceived without the body, ec-centric center of human action – of the possible domination of the domination of nature.

Tin-based opacification by tin oxide and lead-tin-oxide particles was used in glass production since the first millennium BC and in ceramic glazes since the eighth century AD. Opacification process is often characterised by significant amounts of tin oxide and lead oxide dispersed into glassy matrices or by identification of the opacifying particles by means of microstructural or (micro-)XRD analyses. The processes of opacification and manufacture are usually more difficult to establish from compositional and microstructural analyses because they leave little diagnostic traces. This review aims to integrate compositional data on archaeological glass and glazes and in particular the Pb/Sn values, with descriptions of the opacification processes in historical treatises, observations at traditional workshops, and the results of previous replication experiments to shed further light on technological issues underlying these methods of opacification and highlight new research perspectives.

Techno-Anthropology recognizes the intertwining of technology with aims, needs, practices, and skills; ‘the techno’ and ‘the anthro’ are not only interconnected, but historically co-constituted. In this paper developments in ‘personal analytics’ are examined with the aim of proposing epistemological and methodological directions for techno-anthropological exploration. Personal analytics refers to the field of interactions that surrounds tracking various bodily and mental functions, including the analysis, visualization, and distribution of the data, thereby encompassing people’s involvements with measuring devices and data movements. By discussing findings from a self-tracking study that focused on heart-rate variability measurement, the article opens for scrutiny ways in which personal data can translate people’s selves into a format that is engaging and actionable. This, in turn, enables researchers to witness and critically assess a terrain where bodily and mental capacities, and life itself, are not taken as given, but become part of the processes of everyday sense-making and contestation.

Analyses of everyday objects (from pottery, flint, stone, osseous materials) form the basis of all archaeological research, regardless of the period, region, methodological approach or theoretical framework. Although methodology went through significant changes in past decades, especially regarding the importance of experimental and ethnoarchaeological methods, many of these analyses still relied on typology, and the theoretical discussions were less diverse and much slower. In recent years, a concept of technology as a cultural-driven phenomenon has become more widely accepted, largely influenced by the technological approach from the French anthropological and archaeological school. The conceptual paradigm of chaine operatoire is today a commonplace in almost every analysis of artefact manufacture, and it also triggered the creation of numerous different models for analyses from raw material managing through to the use and discard of artefacts. This paper discusses past and current approaches towards technology and its role within the given society. The combination of technological and contextual approach may not only improve our understanding of the artefacts in the context of a given society, their value, importance, function, and meaning, but also can help in starting the discussion on the creation of new theoretical frameworks for social phenomena such as raw material procurement, the organisation of craft production, the labour division, etc. The case studies on the bone industry in the Neolithic Balkans will be used as examples of the possibilities of such approach.

A presente série, publicada em fascículos pelos Cadernos do Ateliê de Humanidades, tem o propósito de disponibilizar ao grande público ensaios de antropologia das tecnologias. Ela se propõe a publicar, principalmente, traduções de textos clássicos da história da antropologia (e de suas ciências irmãs, como a arqueologia e etologia) que tenham assumido uma posição do ‘‘ponto de vista tecnológico’’.Pretendemos trazer também ensaios contemporâneos que trabalham com uma abordagem antropológica das técnicas, dos objetos técnicos e das tecnologias

- by André Magnelli and +1
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- Anthropology Of Technology (Anthropology), Sociology of Knowledge, Anthropology of Technology, Marcel Mauss

By the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, strong Cretan influence was evident in the material culture of sites across the southern Aegean. The nature and degree of this influence and the processes by which aspects of Cretan material culture were spread and adopted have been widely debated. Recent approaches to this ‘Minoanising’ phenomenon have examined the choices made by both producers and consumers within southern Aegean communities, in order to develop new interpretations regarding local social and economic strategies. This presentation will discuss the insights that have been gained by applying such an approach to the uptake and use of Cretan weaving technology in southern Aegean settlements during the Middle and early Late Bronze Age (contemporary with the MM I-LM I period on Crete).
Among the ‘Minoanising’ objects present at the southern Aegean sites are discoid loom weights of Cretan type. These were the first loom weights of any form to appear at most of the sites, and represent the adoption of a new loom type: the warp-weighted loom. This form of loom had been in use on Crete since the Neolithic period. Evidence for the adoption and use of warp-weighted loom technology at various sites will be compared and, drawing on recent advances in textile experimental archaeology, the types of textiles that could have been made using the Cretan-style discoid loom weights will be discussed.
Weaving is a complex skill that requires contact between novice and expert practitioner over an extended period of time, and the implications of this with regard to the acquisition of non-indigenous textile craft knowledge and know-how will be examined. Finally, the evidence for the production of textiles will be considered within the context of associated questions of dress and identity, in order to explore possible motivations for the adoption of the new loom type.

Les chants dont les prisonniers texans rythment leurs gestes de travail ont-il quelque chose à voir avec le geste fluide du luthier taillant un violon, celui de la scarificatrice bwaba ciselant les chairs ou celui de l’Homo erectus taillant un biface ? Resserrant la vieille question des rapports entre le beau, l’utile et le nécessaire, ce dossier choisit de privilégier celle de l’esthétique du geste technique. En quoi un tel geste peut-il être jugé beau, et cette beauté tient-elle à des caractéristiques tangibles – régularité, rythmicité, économie… – ou à des traits plus impalpables ? La question est envisagée ici à partir de la distinction opérée par Hannah Arendt entre travail et œuvre. Le travail – l’ensemble des tâches répétitives nécessitées par la survie quotidienne – est parfois sublimé par des chants ou des chorégraphies qui embellissent le labeur et allègent sa pénibilité. Tandis que l’élaboration d’une œuvre – c’est-à-dire la création d’un objet qui viendra s’ajouter durablement au monde – peut être esthétisée par un geste technique hautement maîtrisé. De Boas à Leroi-Gourhan, des auteurs ont lié la valeur esthétique d’un objet à la perfection de sa réalisation technique mais les contributeurs de ce dossier, qui s’étend de la Préhistoire au XXIe siècle, et de l’Europe à l’Afrique, montrent que le geste technique est une composante à part entière du jeu social dans lequel il s’insère et que sa beauté ne se réduit pas à la maîtrise de règles formelles.

Este trabajo presenta los primeros resultados de un proyecto de investigación sobre el léxico de los artefactos en la lengua wichí (familia lingüística Matako-Maká) hablada en el Chaco Centro-Occidental (provincia de Salta, Argentina). Después de definir el objetivo de la investigación, se comenta el punto de vista teórico
que la guía así como la metodología y las técnicas que se emplearon empleadas. En la última parte de la ponencia se describe el cuestionario original que se confeccionó para relevar las expresiones lingüísticas del mundo de los artefactos durante el trabajo de campo. Usando el ejemplo de las expresiones de lingüísticas relacionas con los bolsos enlazados conocidos como "yicas" se discuten los primeros resultados y los problemas surgidos en la aplicación del cuestionario.

Celem wystąpienia jest opisanie źródeł teorii aktora-sieci, prezentacja wyboru kluczowych w jej nurcie badań, w szczególności na polu technologii, oraz przedstawienie części intuicji, kluczowych pojęć oraz akcentów praktycznych ANT (ang. actor-network theory) rozpoznanych przez autora (a nie narzucanych w jej ramach a priori) w toku jej eksploracji przy pracy nad dysertacją doktorską “Zarządzanie mediami społecznościowymi w perspektywie teorii aktora-sieci” (2018).
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Być może jedynie obsesyjnie szczegółowe rozpoznanie i socjalizacja relacjonistycznych i irredukcjonistycznych intuicji ANT oraz zaakceptowanie zawikłanych kluczowych relacji między często stosowanymi w jej ramach pojęciami (strukturalnymi i procesualnymi), pozwala na zgodne z intencjami nurtu przestrzeganie jego głównej - wymagającej o wiele więcej, niż wydaje się, że wymaga na pierwszy rzut oka - dyrektywy: “podążaj za aktorami”. Pomaga w tym również mapowanie akcentów kładzionych na konkretne praktyki badawcze i wskazówki praktyczne odnoszące się do uprawiania ANT takie, jak pięć źródeł niepewności, obszary stosowania, wskazówki dotyczące pisania, przykłady pytań badawczych, zadania nauk społecznych według Brunona Latoura czy robocze kryteria przynależności badania do analizowanego nurtu.
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W konkluzjach wystąpienia wzmacniana jest propozycja traktowania teorii aktora-sieci nie jako teorii, a jako metody, i proponowana jest argumentacja sprzyjająca pojmowaniu jej jako radykalnej antropologii technologii.

Archaeological research often tends to consider ancient techniques as a mechanical process, which simply materializes mental representations. This Cartesian perspective draws the attention away from the human sensual involvement and reduces techniques and in general crafts to externalized knowledge or bare information of mechanical functioning and hence clearly distorts our ideas of ancient crafts. In this regard the paper surveys as a first step the different theoretical currents which have guided our approaches to techniques until very recently and finally proposes how we could further explore and integrate aspects of embodiment and “tacit knowledge” within our reflections about making to finally enrich our often distorted mechanical view on ancient techniques.

- by Carlos Sautchuk and +1
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- Anthropology Of Technology (Anthropology), Environmental Anthropology, Fisheries Management, Amazonia

Focusing on the efforts of the Japan International Cooperation Agency to improve Phnom Penh's run-down sewage infrastructure, this paper offers an example of what a decentred anthropology of infrastructure might look like. The sewage infrastructure brings together a very diverse set of features, including pipes, road networks, economic considerations, demographic change, geography, climate change, flows of sludge and the lives of people in the city. Giving rise to significantly unpredictable and deeply material relations, the paper brings into view infrastructure as sites of immanent ontological experimentation; junctures where relations between society, technology and nature emerge in variable forms. The paper explores these relations by paying close attention to intersecting activity trails. Kandal market in central Phnom Penh is one site where trails of sewage and garbage collection converge with heavy flows of water during the rainy season. Pipe dreams, too, are generated at this conjunction, precipitating out of the pipes.

El arpón precolombino de la costa de Antofagasta significa mucho más que solo caza en el mar. Su cuerpo condensa un cúmulo de saberes, prácticas y técnicas, a la vez que articula materias, seres y paisajes diversos, representativos de la extensa red en la que coparticipaban los humanos de la región. A través del estudio de una colección del Museo de Antofagasta, este ensayo propone un debate sobre el valor del arpón más allá/acá del mar y la caza, al margen de su evidente función práctica, para explorar sus facetas simbólicas y estructurales en tiempos prehispánicos. La historia concluye con una sugerente paradoja: la insospechada preferencia por el desierto y la exclusión del mar en la selección de materiales que da vida a este artefacto emblemático de la cultura litoral.

Abrevando en la etnografía, la etnología comparativa, la arqueología, la lingüística y la filosofía a la hora de lidiar con el viejo problema de la relación entre palabras y cosas, este libro compone una investigación ecléctica en el mejor de los sentidos. Se trata nada menos que de entender la ergología, la cultura material, la tecnología o materialidad de los wichís del Gran Chaco; se trata, por sobre todo, de entender qué significan para ellos las ´cosas´, ´artefactos´ u ´objetos´. ¿Es posible elaborar una traducción que no traicione por completo sus concepciones de lo material? Porque para nosotros es claro que un machete, una red o una pala son ´objetos´ o ´artefactos´. Pero -valga el juego de palabras- la cosa se complica cuando nos referimos a la vida social del fuego, el sendero, los amuletos, el perro, los nombres personales o la propia casa. Ignorando la mezquindad de las jurisdicciones, el libro acomete ese dilema con un rigor descriptivo poco común. Oscilando entre una ´enciclopedia razonada de la cultura material wichí´ y categorías locales como ´morada´, ´recipiente´ o ´instrumento´, nos propone una etnolingüística paciente, meticulosa, detallista, de la cual el mejor elogio que puede hacerse es que resulta demasiado lingüística para los antropólogos y demasiado antropológica para los lingüistas. Una etnolingüística que enfrenta la complejidad de las cosas explicitando las dudas, las lagunas, las zonas grises, las discrepancias, las inconsistencias propias y ajenas, los contrapuntos entre las escuelas académicas, entre los autores y, más importante aún, entre los propios wichís.

- by Diego Villar
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- Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, Latin American Studies, Archaeology

The development of human learning abilities has been changed over the past 60 years of technological innovation starting from the widespread use of the radio, through television, and finally to the mass implementation of computers and information and communication technologies (ICT). This seems to be partially due to the growing functionality of digital technology and the inability to pass on culturally skills from generation to generation. In this paper, I intend on tracing the changing pattern of technological variation through the lens of anthropology, how this is reflected in schools, the changing role of education and how this is changing the way we learn and experience the world around us. The development of technology not only affects the scientific world but also every aspect of social life as well.

Si bien la ecología de materiales apela a la noción de affordances como una manera de explicar la cultura sin reificarla como fenómeno mental, un modelo de evolución cultural basado en affordances requiere tomar en serio el tipo de estructuras que sustentan procesos de aprendizaje y cultura tecnológica. El presente trabajo hará explícitos dos problemas con la ecología de materiales: la normatividad de las affordances y la historicidad de las técnicas. Si pensamos las affordances como funciones, y si concedemos que éstas involucran el establecimiento de técnicas y habilidades (por ejemplo, algún tipo de normatividad dependiente de una historia de desarrollo), entonces la percepción de las affordances dependerá no sólo de revelación, sino de entrenamiento en técnicas y habilidades que respondan a ciertos dispositivos más allá de los materiales, a saber: los artefactos. A la luz de una antropología de la tecnología, se sugerirá el concepto procesual de función como mediador de las affordances entre materiales y artefactos.

Vídeo descrição sobre as pescas de pirarucu e de gurijuba efetuadas pelos habitantes da Vila Sucuriju, situada no estuário do rio Amazonas, litoral do Amapá. Com o objetivo de apresentar a situação etnográfica, o vídeo integra a tese de... more

STUDIES OF TECHNOLOGY IN PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY SUMMARY Key words: anthropology, archaeology, technology, prehistory, Neolithic, bone industry, raw material managment, craft specialization Technology studies have always been... more

Esta tesis presenta el mundo de las “cosas” entre los indígenas wichís del Gran Chaco (familia lingüística Mataco-macá) a partir del estudio etnográfico de sus artefactos y del estudio lingüístico de las expresiones asociadas con dichos artefactos. Inversamente, puede decirse que la tesis ofrece una imagen novedosa de los wichís a través del estudio antropológico y etnolingüístico de lo que suele llamarse su “cultura material”, sus “artefactos”, su “tecnología”, su “arte plástico”, etc. El texto es fruto de un trabajo de campo realizado en varios períodos entre los años 2002 y 2012, fundamentalmente entre los wichís de misión Los Baldes y Morillo, provincia de Salta, Argentina; y es por eso mismo un palimpsesto de traducciones: traducción de la lengua wichí a la española, traducción de registros etnográficos textuales y visuales al discurso argumentado de una tesis, traducción de prácticas y representaciones wichís a los lenguajes analíticos de la antropología y de la lingüística, etc. La tesis está organizada en nueve capítulos, que despliegan un problema (¿qué es el mundo de las cosas para los wichís?) y trazan un itinerario que va desde una reflexión externa sobre el Gran Chaco a los wichís, luego a su cultura material, después a un planteo etnolingüístico de tipo clásico y de ahí nuevamente a una instancia de reflexión externa. O dicho más concretamente: el capítulo 1 presenta el problema general de la obra y las coordenadas teóricas y metodológicas que utilizo para abordarlo; el 2 describe el escenario etnográfico –natural, social e histórico– del Chaco centro-occidental; el 3 estudia las generalidades de la sociedad wichí (su economía, sus tres sistemas de clasificación intraétnica, su política y su religión), y brinda también una caracterización histórica y tipológica de la lengua wichí; el capítulo 4 analiza los artefactos comunitarios centrándose en el concepto wichí de “morada”; el 5 recorre el conjunto de artefactos presentes en la casa (fundamentalmente, el fogón, los recipientes y los instrumentos); el 6 aborda los bienes personales, que son de carácter diverso y sirven para definir directamente a la persona en su dimensión ontológica, étnica, de género y de edad; el capítulo 7 presenta un tipo particular de artefactos definidos por ser medios “figurativos” de otra cosa; el 8 aborda de lleno una pregunta de lingüística antropológica, postulando una relación significativa entre la pertenencia de los nombres de artefacto a una u otra de las dos subclases nominales y la sociocosmología indígena ordenada según relaciones de “maestría” y dependencia; finalmente, el último capítulo ofrece un balance sintético de la naturaleza de las “cosas” wichís y deja abierta varias preguntas para investigaciones futuras. Un diccionario de la cultura material y temas afines complementa la obra (§Apéndice 3).

This article has two objectives: First, the article seeks to make a methodological intervention in the social study of algorithms. Second, the article traces ethnographically how an algorithm was used to enact a pandemic, and how the power to construct this disease outbreak was moved around through an algorithmic assemblage. The article argues that there is a worrying trend to analytically reduce algorithms to coherent and stable objects whose computational logic can be audited for biases to create fairness, accountability, and transparency (FAccT). To counter this reductionist and determinist tendency, the article proposes three methodological rules that allows an analysis of algorithmic power in practice. Empirically, the article traces the assembling of a recent epidemic at the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention-the Zika outbreak starting in 2015-and shows how an epidemic was put together using an array of computational resources, with very different spaces for intervening. A key argument is that we, as analysts of algorithms, need to attend to how multiple spaces for agency, opacity, and power open and close in different parts of algorithmic assemblages. The crux of the matter is that actors experience different degrees of agency and opacity in different parts of any algorithmic assemblage. Consequently, rather than auditing algorithms for biased logic, the article shows the usefulness of examining algorithmic power as enacted and situated in practice.

In this study, we explore the constitution of user representations of robots in design practice. Using the results of ethnographic research in two robot laboratories, we show how user representations emerge in and are entangled with design activities. Our study speaks to the growing popularity of and investment in robotics, robots and other forms of artificial intelligence. Scholars in Science and Technology Studies (STS) have shown that it is often difficult for designers and engineers to develop accurate ideas about potential users of such technologies. However, the social context of robots and design settings themselves have received significantly less attention. Based on our laboratory ethnographies, we argue that the practices in which engineers are engaged are important as they can shape the kind of user images designers create. To capture these dynamics, we propose two new concepts: ‘image-evoking activities’ as well as ‘user image landscape’. Our findings provide pertinent input for researchers, designers and policy-makers, as they raise questions with regards to contemporary fears of robots replacing humans, for the effectiveness of user involvement and participatory design, and for user studies in STS. If design activities co-constitute the user images that engineers develop, a greater awareness is needed specifically of the locales in which the design of robots and other types of technologies takes place.

This article studies human-plant relations as technical phenomena in the context of the pluriethnic communities of the border between Brazil and Guyana. It proposes that we consider a technogenesis of the social at the intersection of technical processes and vital flows of manioc stems-the overground part of the plant that produces manioc (Manihot esculenta). Its starting point is a Wapichana agriculturalist's collection of stem segments. The onomastics of this set provides an idea of the diversity of these plants in the region. However, the article argues that, rather than being referents in a closed classificatory system, names are histories, indexes of ways of knowing and processes of individuation of people and varieties. By emphasising processes of stem manipulation, the article discusses some of the methodological challenges of the ethnography of technique and reflects on contemporary social transformations in dialogue with Indigenous analyses.

Um tema relativamente pouco estudado em antropologia é aquele das técnicas de navegação. Os estudos mais conhecidos sobre o tema referem-se sobretudo à paisagem etnográfica da Micronésia e Polinésia, notabilizada pela habilidade dos nativos em velejar longas distâncias sem a ajuda de ins-trumentos magnéticos, mecânicos ou eletrônicos, em uma vastidão de mar pontilhada de pequenas porções de terra. No que diz respeito à literatura sobre as populações costeiras no Brasil, o assunto tem sido timidamente abordado em comparação com temas como técnicas de pesca, organização social e/ou do trabalho, impactos do mercado e da industrialização, conflitos socioambientais. Este artigo apresenta uma análise das técnicas de navegação, pesca e habilidades perceptuais desenvolvidas por pescadores em jangadas e outras embarcações no litoral norte paraibano e sul potiguar, entre os municípios de Baía da Traição e Baía Formosa. 1 Tratamos aqui da navegação e da localização de pesqueiros à luz do dia e mantendo a costa à vista, ao que parece, no interior de um raio de pouco mais que 12 milhas náuticas, cerca de 25 quilômetros da costa. É a chamada "marcação por terra" ou "mar-cação por caminho e assento". Na navegação em alto-mar e noturna, esta técnica é combinada com outras, como os usos de linha de corso (ver nota 06), "saçanga" e estrelas. Surgidas em meados do século XX, as jangadas de tábuas substituíram as jangadas de pau, também conhecidas como jangadas de piúba (Cascudo 2002 [1957]). De construção e manutenção relativamente fácil e barata, elas são feitas com tábuas pregadas em cavername, formando um pequeno porão, geralmente preenchido com placas de isopor, que serve tanto para flutuação como para a conservação do pescado. Outras invenções sofisti-cadas que conferem enorme eficácia à jangada são: bolina retrátil em um casco chato e resistente, capaz de transpor os arrecifes na costa, ideal para

- by Rafael Devos
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- Anthropology, Anthropology Of Technology (Anthropology), Landscape, Navigation

Sarah Pink is a Professor of Design and Media Ethnography at RMIT University, Australia, and the author or co-editor of several books about digital ethnography.
To approach this area, we get Sarah’s help with some conceptual groundwork about the methods, values, and history of ethnography, and its relation to neighbouring fields such as anthropology or cultural geography. But the conversation focusses on digital ethnography: Information technology changes not only the methods of ethnography by providing tools or modes of expression, but also raises new questions by changing notions of embodiment, geographic place, and social relation, all of which are central themes for ethnographers. We also talk about how an field that largely eschews prediction and hypothesis can reason about future technology such as self-driving cars.
Sarah’s book is Pink et al., Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practice, SAGE Publications, 2016.

Um die prähistorischen Techniken und Werkzeuge zu verstehen, ist der Forscher auf vier Ebenen mit Fakten konfrontiert: auf der Ebene der Wirkung, die das Werkzeug auf das Material ausübt, seiner Funktionsweise, seiner Bestimmung und der... more