Science, Technology and Society Revisited:
What is Happening to Anthropology and Ethnography?
Marietta Baba
Science, Technology and
Society Revisited:
What’s Happening to
Anthropology and Ethnography
Marietta L. Baba
19th Century Anthropology
 Anthropology was a
19th century project
focused on human and
cultural evolution
 Anthropological texts
and ethnographic
practices were distinct
 Anthropologists drew
upon the ethnographic
writings of other
professionals
Ethnographic Tradition in Anthropology:
Bronislaw Malinowski
 Long term observation
and participation in the
field
 Detailed recording and
description of microprocesses of everyday
life
 Interpretation of the point
of view of people being
observed
 Production of a
monograph offering a
holistic account of their
practices
The Rise of Academic Anthropology:
1920-1960
 Ethnography became
part of anthropology as
positivist social science
grew in academia
 Anthropology arose as a
unified intellectual
endeavor that combined
empiricism and theory
 Scientific legitimacy of
anthropology validated
British claims of
economic development
in its African colonies
American Anthropology
 “Four fields” united
by question: What is
the nature of
humanity?
 The “most scientific
of the humanities and
most humanistic of
the sciences”
 Materialist vs.
mentalist theories
diverge (1960s)
Interpretive Theory of Culture:
1960-1990
 Metaphor of culture as




text – Clifford Geertz
Culture could be “read”
for meaning by the
observer
The observed also
interprets the culture
The anthropologist works
from interpretations of
the observers
Led to critical reflections
on ethnographic
practices
Postmodernism
 A set of critical and
rhetorical practices that
tend to destabilize
epistemological
certainty
 Called into question
some of anthropology’s
most fundamental
conceptual
architectures
 Loosened the bonds
entwining anthropology
and ethnography
Colonial Critique
 Anthropology does not
acknowledge the
history of global
inequality that has
produced the subject of
ethnography
 Anthropology distances
itself from history by
“essentializing”
selected traits of
observer and observed
Crisis of Representation
 Ethnography embeds a
dyadic relationship with a
less powerful person
who is a co-producer of
knowledge but receives
no recognition or voice
 Ethnography also
embeds an
unacknowledged
relationship with a reader
 On what grounds does
the anthropologist
assume authority for
representing the Other?
Crisis of Representation
 The most public form of
such criticism was Derek
Freeman’s re-study of
Margaret Mead’s Coming
of Age in Samoa
 Freeman charged Mead
with misrepresenting
Samoan society based on
her youth, lack of access to
key members, and
romanticizing naiveté
 Devastating criticism for
anthropologists at the time
Ontological Status of Culture
 An “essentialized”
unchanging and integral set
of traits ascribed to the
subject became suspect
 Anthropologists were
caught in a dilemma of
“salvaging” such traits in
societies that their own
countries might be trying to
“develop”
 Anthropologists could no
longer represent “cultures”
as pristine isolates with
integrated features in an
equilibrium state
Anthropology as Cultural Critique
 Anthropology had lost
its raison d'être
 Public no longer
fascinated with exotic
cultures and weren’t
sure they mattered
 A new vision for
anthropology:
 Cultural critique -social criticism of the
contemporary with a
cross-cultural twist
Anthropology as Cultural Critique
 Two potential pathways
to cultural critique:
 1) de-familiarization by
epistemological critique
 2) de-familiarization by
cross-cultural
juxtaposition
 Unfortunately, no one
had as yet
accomplished either of
these feats
Enter Foucault
 Foucault introduced
to American
anthropology by Paul
Rabinow
 Foucault’s method of
analysis and
language have been
widely adopted
 Responds to Marcus
and Fischer
The Foucault Phenomenon
 Foucault’s brand of
“problematization”
 Second order
observation
 Analytics elevated
over theory
 Flexible and
contingent methods
Foucault’s Language and Vision
 Biopower
 Power/knowledge
 Governmentality
 A post-theoretical
vision of social
science
 Boutique-like
exposition and
critique of
singularities
Anthropology and Ethnography:
Quo Vadis?
 Ethnographicallyinformed design
 Techno-ethnography
in corporate branding
 Data analytics or
(“Big Data”)
 Ethnography
 Anthropology
Diaspora and the Institutional
Anthropologies
 Laura Nader:
“Study Up”
 Diaspora and the
“Institutional
Anthropologies”
 Anthropology at
Xerox PARC
 Work Practice and
Technology Group
Ethnographic Practice and
Participatory Design
 Participatory design
practices at PARC
gained through
collaboration with
Scandinavians
 Collaboration with
civil engineers on site
developed prototypes
through cooperative
design-in-use
Ethnographically Informed Design
 Ethnography is a
resource for the
design industry
 Ethnographic Praxis
in Industry
Conference – EPIC
 Critical reflection is
an aspect of this
practice
Ethnography-Branded Firms
 Rise of branding and
the ethnographybranded firm
 Brand distinctions
based upon technoethnography
 Fast technology
keeps brand fresh
 Cut out the “middle
man” observer
•Techno-ethnography
 Re-naming
ethnography in terms
of technology
 Connect self-aware
consumers directly to
client without “bias of
outside observer”
 Consumers monitor,
organize and assess
their own thoughts
Why Eliminate the Observer?
 Firms reify a vision of
social relations based
on technology,
progress and
innovation
 Commodification of
ethnography
 “Problematization” of
technology as an
object of inquiry
National Science Foundation:
SBE 2020 Initiative
 Call for papers on
future of social
sciences
 252 “white papers”
 Topic extraction
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/
sbe_2020_
 Predicting data
intensive research
Data Analytics or “Big Data”
 Increasing volume
and detail of digital
information
 Health care, retail,
manufacturing,
personal location,
public sector EU
 Aggregate, analyze,
interpret (includes
access, sensitivity)
Electronic Health Records
 Analyzing large data
sets to identify
patterns and trends
could reduce costs
 To what extent are
cultural assumptions
encoded in these
data?
 Potential role for
anthropology
Literature on EMR/EHR
 Ethnographers are
well represented in
the emerging
literature
 There is a scarcity of
anthropologists
 Foucault’s concept of
power/knowledge
should be taken
seriously
Science, Technology and Society Revisited:
What’s Happening to Anthropology and Ethnography?
DISCUSSION