Reading in the modern world

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individual to the marriage record that was being edited (if the second scheme described above is

being used).

Databases have useful options to help the consistent and accurate entry of data. A unique id

number can be automatically generated and the user prevented from accidentally deleting it.

When setting up the database you can decide which sorts of data must be present in every case

(there are not many of these apart from the unique ID), as well as designating a required format

in some cases at least - so, for example, the database can check that dates have been

consistently entered, that, for example, the letter 'o' has not been used accidentally instead of

'0', or the places entered must be items on a designated list -new entries can be added, but

because the computer program queries new entries you are given a check that would otherwise

have passed a simple mistyping of a place name - this strategy allows you to decide that a place

name with variant spellings will always be typed in the same way, so that later on you can be

more confident of retrieving all the people with the same place of birth and so on.

To use the examples above we may set up the following conditions:

Individuals

Field name Data Constraints

Unique Id Required in every case. Must be

unique, number only

Sex Required - must be one of 3 values

m,f,?

Name (s) Text

Date of Birth Date format only

Place of Birth Must be in list of place names

Date of Death Date format only

Place of Death Must be in list of place names

Current Residence Must be in list of place names

Time at current residence Date format only

Education
Religion
Economic Data
Genetic/Medical Data
Gossip/Other Information

Marriages

Marriage Id Required in every case. Must be

unique, number only

Husband Number only but must already be

in the individuals files

Wife Required in every case. Number

only but must already be in the
individuals files

Date of start Date format only

Date of end Date format only

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Offspring set of Individual

Numbers only but must already be

ID nos...

in the individuals files

Gossip/Other Information

Note that only the wife but not the husband must have a required value. This reflects the

common occurrence where fatherhood may be unknown, uncertain or not admitted. There are

social systems where even this requirement may have to be relaxed - in strongly patrilineal

societies the identity of a wife may be implicit from the fatherhood of a child but the actual

identity of the mother may be unknown.

A final variation on the way in which the data is organised demonstrates how different files

each containing a limited set of data can be linked, so the sum of the data in the files in

conjunction with the web of their relationships provides an economical way of storing

genealogical data. Consider three different linked files:

The first records personal information about individuals, the second lists the marriages of an

individuals parents, and any that they themselves participate in (it therefore links the

generations). The third file contains information about marriages.

These files may be summarised as follows:

Individual Data

Unique Individual Id
Sex
Name (s)
Date of Birth
Place of Birth
Date of Death
Place of Death
Current Residence
Time at current residence
Education
Religion
Economic Data
Genetic/Medical Data
Gossip/Other Information

Generation Links

Individual Id
Parent's Marriage Id
Own Marriage Id (to be repeated as many times as marriages)

Marriage Data

Marriage Id
Husband Id
Wife Id
Date of start
Date of end

Other information e.g. place of marriage, dates of prenuptial events, divorce etc.

One of the advantages about using this sort of data structure is safety: it is relatively

straightforward to take data stored in such a fashion and transform it into the format used by

any particular database programme. This therefore ensures flexibility, and some basic

insurance against future developments. The real work of collecting the data (leaving to one side

the onerous chore of typing it all in to the machine) will not be wasted or become unreadable

when machines change.

Browsing

When discussing data entry I said that typing long ID numbers could be avoided. The machine

could present a list of names, one of which being selected would automatically insert the ID

number associated with that name into the relavant record. The technical term for the lists of

names is 'browsable lists or indexes'. The user can browse through a list of individuals, or a

list of places of birth, or whichever aspect concerns them. The database automatically

generates an index from the data already entered, and this provides and instant and very

powerful means of accessing the data. From an entry on a list one can go to the full set of data

about an individual and possibly then choose to browse a different list starting from that

individual. Or one may wish to move from an individual to their parents or siblings. The

computer can automatically (invisibly) combine the data from the two types of data described

above (individuals and marriages) so as to display what looks like a vary conventional sort of

data card about an individual including names for parents, and cross references to siblings. But

when entering the data the names of parents were not entered in the same way that they are

displayed. That is a critical step that computers facilitate. We can design the process of entering

data to reduce duplicate typing and errors. This is completely separate from the way we access

that data once it is safely in the machine! Access and entry can be separated in computer in a

way that is impossible on paper.

I have already commented about how powerful a representation the genealogical tree is.

Computer databases can be made to generate diagrams which act as indexes in the same way as

browsable lists - clicking on a symbol for a person takes you to the data for that individual.

The graphical representation can be altered at will which is not possible for a tree drawn on

paper. One can instruct the computer to lay out the diagram to stress patrilineal, matrilineal or

cognatic descent. Individuals without descendants (who add density but do not contribute to

the overall topology of the tree) can be omitted as can those in certain types of marriage.

Finally, one can search all the data and select those that satisfy particular criteria. This could

range from common searches, such as, for all individuals called 'David' to (in some systems)

searches that allow one to extract particular types of marriage. So, for example, one could find

(and then get the computer to draw) all those individuals in a population who had married a

particular type of cousin. This is of interest both to alliance theorists and to geneticists! The

ability to extract information in arcane ways gives the system the power to be flexible, to

respond to the vagaries to be found in different individual circumstances.

Chapter Seven: Models and simulations

Most readers will be familiar with models in one form or other. Barbie dolls, HMS Victory

made of matchsticks, Douglas Bader's fighter plane from the second world war. All of these

are models, but so too are the summary accounts that anthropologists give of different

societies. A model is a smaller and necessarily incomplete representation of something else.

The necessity of incompleteness is worth stressing since it is often misunderstood. A model

has to be reduced in some form or other else it would be a replica. If a model is really complete

then it simply reproduces its object without needing any analysis. A model is smaller than the

thing it represents - either physically or conceptually. In order to reduce then some features

must be omitted: Barbie dolls lack freckles, moles and reproductive organs. Anthropological

models of society lack reference to individual psychological quirks. A particular model has

been developed for a particular purpose. This may lead to some features being preserved at the

expense of others. Toys for children often preserve surface appearances at the expense of

inner structure. Anthropological models reflect the theoretical preoccupations of their creators;

an economic model will seek to give an accurate albeit imperfect and reduced representation of

an economic system - if this is an anthropological model then necessarily aspects of other social

formations such as kinship and religion will occur but they may not be central. A model

presents a perspective on its object, it is, if you like, a theoretical summary. The attraction is

that by reducing the scale, by summarising and leaving things out we are helped to understand

some of the basic mechanisms at work, unencumbered by the mass of detail. Of course there

is a lot of theoretically controversial work to be done since the detail of everyday life is what

we have to deal with. The models we create must be able to account for the ways in which the

underlying armatures they identify both produce and are constrained by the flux of everyday

life.

The point of discussing the status of models is that they can be more or less formalised, and

they have an interesting relationship to simulations. Most anthropological accounts of societies

are models in the widest sense of the term. Some models may be called formal models. These

have the terms of the account explicitly laid out; the it is made clear exactly what is being

discussed;, they state which aspects they are trying to understand and which they are leaving

out. Strictly a formal model must be more than that: it must be defined in terms similar to a

formal logic. I note that nothing I have said so far requires quantification, although most

formal models do use numbers. It is simply easier to construct a formal model using numerical

data, but kinship algebras and the like demonstrate that one can formalise a completely non

quantified domain. There are several advantages to formalising (whether or not one quantifies,

whether or not one fully succeeds). The exercise of attempting to produce a formal system

helps in making conscious the background assumptions that would otherwise not be clearly

stated. It is far easier to see if a formal model succeeds in representing its object than an

informal model where it is possible to produce an account that sounds impressive but ends up

saying little of substance. In short, aspiring to formal systems -where they are possible - and

taking some steps towards realising them where they are not can increase rigour. It makes it

harder to hide behind a comfortable smokescreen of obscure jargon and fancy hegemonic

concepts which cannot withstand scrutiny.

If a model has been sufficiently formalised it can be tested by using simulations: a computer

can be instructed to behave like the model and the effects of varying starting points can be

investigated. One controversial subject in anthropology has been the relationship of

demography - patterns of populations structure - and kinship, particularly when there are rules

for selecting marriage partners from designated kin categories (such as second cousins).

Simulations have been used to show how population size affects the number of possible

marriage partners which then raises questions of the adequacy of the models themselves. So if

a population of a certain size cannot generate enough people in a certain kin category of a

marriageable age, then if an actual population is of a similar size and describes themselves as

marrying that kin category then the model must be incomplete - something else must be going

on. The combination of simulation and formal model can thus generate further research

questions. Another example may be found in the use of expert systems as a device to formalise

and systematise the patterns of inference that people use. An expert system is a computer model

of a set of rules for making inferences from observations. Again the point of trying to develop

an expert system as a model of some aspect of society is not that it will necessarily be

complete and compelling but that it provides a very useful discipline, and by imposing a set of

rigorous standards it forces us to be explicit about what is going on. We may not notice that

the accounts we are give (that we ourselves may give) are incomplete. They may sound, they

may feel complete. But if the exercise of formalising as an expert system results in an

incomplete or inconsistent model then we need to reflect and to deepen our understanding -

there is something going on which we have not understood, or that we are not conscious of.

Such conclusions make for better anthropology!

It looks and sounds like this An introduction to multimedia

Anthropology is an extremely literate subject - like most subjects taught in universities, so

perhaps this should not come as much of a surprise. But its subject matter is extremely

unliterate and this should give us pause for thought. Physicists study atoms and molecules,

geologists rocks neither of which actually speak talk or argue - so its not the mere absence of

literacy I'm talking about. The products of physics are full of diagrams, equations and

illustrations whereas published anthropology seems to a large extent to be just bare words.

There are a variety of histories here - for example ethnographic film has more or less as long a

history as anthropology itself - and Marcus Banks' archival work cataloguing early

ethnographic film reveals a richness of sources that certainly has not been explored. That

failure is the issue that multimedia can help address. As human social actors we do far more

than just talk (let alone write) and somehow in the way that anthropologists reduce social living

to words too much drops out. Although certainly something must go. The complaint I want to

pursue is that the words do not do justice to the experiences they are based on, that there is

more data available, and that both anthropological analysis and the communication of the

results suffers as a result.

To that gloomy reflection multimedia may appear as the perfect solution. But before I get too

carried away let me try first of all to be clearer about what I am talking about then to assess its

attractions (and limitations).

What is multimedia?

By multimedia I mean a system in which both analysis and communication use more than

just written words. So, on this definition, most publications in physics are multimedia since

they use graphs and photos quite heavily. Anyone who has produced documents with photos

and with graphs is a multimedia author! However, there is a little more to it than that.

In order to explore what else is going on I will try and make some links with other themes of

this book, to try and tie things together. The sorts of data that get analysed in multimedia

anthropology are sound recordings, photographs, films, videos, maps, drawings, objects, as

well as fieldnotes and other texts. Some, but not all, of these can be dealt with computers.

Others, particularly objects, need complex display and analysis infra-structures which I call

'museums'. In all cases there is an issue to do with how we can keep track of the data - let

alone think about it.

Multimedia, classifying and juxtaposition

Recall the idea of hypertext - in which one thing can be linked to another. Books have long had

a working system of hypertext - via the system of footnotes with which you are all now

familiar. By this account the library is a working hypertext system by which you can follow the

web of links from your starting point in one book or article to the things mentioned in its

footnotes or bibliography. You start one place and end who knows where.

Critical but unacknowledged in the model of the library as a hypertext system is the catalogue -

when you use the library OPAC in order to locate a book or journal you are using it to make the

hypertext link work - the shelf mark or library index number is the library equivalent of the

WWW URL. Books are easy to catalogue - they are built around a set of structured

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information - they have authors titles publishers dates. So a book - an object - as being

locatable by virtue of a set of attributes that it possesses which are indexed by card catalogue or

by computer.

BOOK

Indexed

BOOK

Attributes

From this point it is not such a big step to replace books by photos or film clips and the result

are multimedia catalogues. So my first, very modest, claim is that by cataloguing photos in

ways hitherto impracticable, access is achieved and the use of photos and films as research

material becomes serious in a way not previously possible. For example, a collection of photos

can be searched by keyword to turn up relevant items.

Having found a set of items that satisfy the criteria the next step is to juxtapose. The idea of

putting similar things together to emphasise their similarities AND to reveal the ways in which

they differ is basic to anthropology. The comparative method hinges around trying to hold

some features constant and then see what else differs. For example, consider the way that the

ethnography of gather-hunter societies constantly revolves round the three-way contrast of rain

forest pygmies, those living in semi-desert areas in southern Africa and Australian aborigines.

Some features vary others are held constant. Now if that idea holds true of ordinary

anthropology how much more so does it apply to visual anthropology! We want to juxtapose

photographs, film clips and sound recordings with texts and with other clips or prints. There is

an analytic point to be gained - we can see patterns - we can begin to detect patterns of influence

and of contact by examining different ways of doing things, such as different ways of dancing

or decorating pots. The patterns alone are ambiguous and inconclusive - you need lots of

textual material as well to help interpret what you see but the basic questions revolve around the

identification of visual patterns - of asking questions in a non-verbal manner. And my basic

point is that electronic access greatly aids the work of doing this sort of visual anthropology

More on photos and recordings -sound and video

Dealing with images

Problem of indexing - retrieval is still awkward - even if storage problems are far less pressing

than they were a few years ago. But still the work involved in putting images or sounds into

computers is not negligible - the best use of time may be to enter just an index into computer so

you can benefit from the access to conventional photographic, video or taperecorded material.

Even an index in the form of a word processor file increases access to such material.

The creation of working indexes to research material (whatever form it may be) provides the

researcher with means to retrieve relevant material in a timely fashion. What does one do then?

With visual and aural material the ability to juxtapose small pieces is often a critical part of both

analysis and the presentation of the results of that analysis. Much archaeology, visual

anthropology as well as parts of the anthropological study of ritual and art comprise, in part or

whole, of comparisons between images which may be separated by space or time but which the

analyst brings together for the sake of their argument. Nothing that computers do changes that

but digitised imagery facilitates the task at hand. For, rather than having to laboriously draw by

hand, or organise the making of prints, it is easy to incorporate digital images into word

processor documents, and these can be manipulated in a graphics program (replicating the

actions of skilled photographers in the darkroom) to crop out irrelevant material and to adjust

the brightness and contrast (among other variables) to make clear the features of interest. This

way of dealing with still-images replicates the way in which images have been used on paper -

but simply reduces the production costs. When we turn to video and sound recording there is a

quantum leap. For, in exactly parallel ways, sound recordings and digital video clips can be

incorporated into computer documents. This means that a wider variety of information can be

made available to other anthropologists who make up the main readership of anthropological

literature. By making a wider range of material available two things happen. First, it changes

the types of criticism that are possible: when I made a digital recording of a published transcript

available in 1993¹ it became possible for linguists to claim that I had incorrectly transcribed the

recording - previously they had to take the transcript on trust. Second, it can save a lot of effort

at making verbal descriptions of non-verbal actions. Rather than have to try and describe every

movement made by the actors in, for example, a complex ritual or a dance, the use of short

video clips can accurately and vividly convey the aspect that is being described - and these clips

can then be referred to as part of the analysis. Here the metaphor of pages becomes inadequate.

The sorts of things that are possible (and now some cheap easy-to-use software makes this

easy to perform) are to annotate photographs, sound recordings or video clips. Texts

containing a commentary or an analysis can linked to particular sections of images, or to

particular frames of video so the reader can read the commentary at the same time as they see

the image or hear the sounds in question. Works such as the Yanomano Axe fight in which

Asch took a few seconds of film, and in order to analyse it, repeated the film several times,

become easy to replicate. Asch's film has been widely used in teaching. The example it

provides has not been widely adopted mainly, I believe, because it was extremely hard to

realise using film. The Axe fight has recently (1997) become available as a multimedia CD-

ROM where it joins some other examples such as Wiyuta in which Assibone storytelling and

sign language is presented and analysed. Here we have come along way from the word

processor and indexes to fieldnotes, but let us not be misled. The types of multimedia

document that I have been describing are boons to anthropology, they encourage the process of

analysis and its communication, but in no wise do they replace or alter the essentially human

relationship that is at the heart of the anthropological encounter.

Oxford - Casole D'Elsa - Canterbury - Somie 1992-8

¹The transcript was published in Zeitlyn 1993 and the digitised audio recording is available from the Virtual

Institute of Mambila Studies via the following URL: 'http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/dz/'

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