< SE300 Part Two

Oct 10, 2006

Contents page | Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4

SE300 - Computing for Anthropologists 2007-8

Autumn: - Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 - Week 6 - Week 7 - Week 8 - Week 9 - Week 10 - Week 11 - Week 12

Spring: - Week 13 - Week 14 - Week 15 - Week 16 - Week 17 - Week 18 - Week 19 - Week 20 - Week 21 - Week 22 - Week 23 - Week 24

Michael Fischer, Simon Platten and Christine Eagle

Part 2: Detailed Outline

All lectures are in Keynes Lecture Theatre 5 on Friday at 2PM - All labs/classes are in Marlowe Room 116 at your assigned time. The Lecture for a given week relates to the class in the week following. Reading for a given week should be done prior to the lecture for that week.

Autumn Term

Week 1
Class: None
Exercises:
Lecture: Fri. 29/09/06 Introduction to Course - Anthropological Computing - What is culture and a 'cultural context'?
Reading for Lecture:
Week 2
Class: An introduction to the facilities, including logging on to the Mac OS X network.. Using Adobe Golive. Setting up your Web files and folders. Work on your Home Page, including links. Start your blog.
Exercises: An introduction to the Mac's and the facilities available to you in L49; logging on to the Mac network; using Appleworks as a word-processor; saving files in your personal space; using a Web browser to look at some of last year's work; using a search engine; storing search results in a wp document. An introduction to Go-Live, a web authoring program; making web html files; formatting text; making links to local files; making links to external sites; viewing HTML files with a browser; making changes and viewing the effect of those changes.. Start work on the Home Page/Cultural Context - part of the Autumn assessment.. Compile a brief description of your cultural context for use in next week's class.
Lecture: Fri. 06/10/06 Kinship and Relationship Using Kin - a discussion
Reading for Lecture:
Week 3
Class: Introduction to the Yanomano Interactive CD
Exercises: Yanomamo Interactive CD. Write brief summary of observations on the role of kinship and gender in the "Ax Fight" (see assessment 2 at http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/Courses/SE300/CourseBook/SE300Pt3.html). Bring Headphones!
Lecture: Fri. 13/10/06 Modelling Kinship: the future of Kinship
Reading for Lecture:
  • M.D. Fischer, 'Representing Kinship' at http://era.anthropology.ac.uk, select from menu. First section on Kinship Editor pp. 87-100 in AICSA.
  • Pitt-Rivers, J. (1973) 'The Kith and the Kin' in The Character of Kinship. Ed. Goody, J., Cambridge: CUP pp. 85-105.
Week 4
Class: Using the Kinship Editor
Exercises: A brief discussion on the importance of kinship and kin obligations in the present day. A review of making links; setting up the files and folder for the kinship assessment. An introduction to using the Kinship Editor; practise in making, saving and opening Kinship Editor files. Linking your kin to your web page . Start work on your family tree (part of the kinship assessment) See Assignment Notes. Download Kinship Editor Applet Template
Lecture: Fri. 20/10/06 No Lecture in Week 4
Reading for Lecture:
Week 5
Class: Continue with Kinship Editor, You MUST have this done for next week as the results are used in the class --- drop in Reading Week: No formal class - Mentors will be available from 2-5 on Tuesday and Wedsday in the Computer Lab.
Exercises: Work on Yanomamo and Kinship Editor assignments You must have your kinship data entered for Week 6 (the next week)
Lecture: Fri. 27/10/06 Calculating Kin. Programming and relationships.
Reading for Lecture:
Week 6
Class: Calculating Kin. Programming and relationships. --- Tutorial ---
Exercises: Calculating Kin. Programming and relationships Complete defining in Prolog the relationship terms assigned in the class. Write a brief account of what this approach to looking at kinship produces that is different from using diagrams ERA Representing Kin page - Calculating Kin subsection Work on Prolog

Download KinProlog.zip
Lecture: Fri. 3/11/06 Culture as a System - Dynamic kinship and cultural symbols
Reading for Lecture:
  • Read more AICSA Chapter 6 and First Section, Chapter 7. M.D. Fischer, 'Representing Kin' at http://era.anthropology.ac.uk, select from menu.
  • All sections, especially last one on terminologies. the Kinship Algebra Expert System pages: KAES
Week 7
Class: Calculating Kinship Terminologies
Exercises: Calculating Kin. Programming and relationships Complete defining in Prolog the relationship terms assigned in the class. Write a brief account of what this approach to looking at kinship produces that is different from using diagrams
 Work on Prolog - ERA Representing Kin page - Calculating Kin subsection
Terminology subsection
Download Kinship Editor Applet Template
Download Prolog Applet Template
Lecture: Fri. 10/11/06 Ethnographic research: art or science ... the future of anthropology Ethnographic Research as a Science
Reading for Lecture:
  • Reading: Kuznar, Lawrence A. (1997) Reclaiming a Scientific Anthropology London: Altamira Press read pp. 17-90.
  • Lewis Wolpert (1992) The Unnatural Nature of Science London: Faber & Faber HRAF onLine Chapter 5 AICSA
Week 8
Class: Putting assignments on the web. See Assignment Notes.
Download Kinship Editor Applet Template
Download Prolog Applet Template
Exercises: Begin taking fieldnotes for Week 10
Lecture: Fri. 17/11/06 Introduction to Ethnographic Research
Reading for Lecture:
Week 9
Class: Fieldnotes
Exercises: HRAF online / coding ethnographic data in anthropology
Lecture: Fri. 24/11/06 A look at some software tools for ethnographic research
Reading for Lecture:
    Chapter 5 AICSA
Week 10
Class: write up and coding fieldnotes
Exercises: Paul Stirling's fieldnotes. Other fieldnotes. Searching, coding, metadata.
Coding and metadata for anthropological research materials

 write up own fieldnotes and code them (but notes are from observations carried out in small groups of 2-3)
Lecture: Fri. 1/12/06 Visual Anthropology
Reading for Lecture:
    Chapter 5 AICSA
Week 11
Class: Introduction to visual anthropology
Exercises: different forms of presentation, refering back to cultural symbols from week 6. Match up fieldnotes to photos from Paul Stirling's work. Adding metadata to photos. Making a podcast.
Lecture: Fri. 08/12/06 Visual techniques in anthropology
Reading for Lecture:
Week 12
Class: The Fieldnotes assignment. The Biblography assignment. Wrapping up other assignments. Other bits on visual.
Exercises: Add metadata and fieldnotes references to photos. Start work on the Bibliography assignment Links to AIO, IBSS, WoS are on the student page as well as information about citing elctronic resources.
Lecture: Fri. 15/12/06 No lecture
Reading for Lecture:
(week 13)
  • Huff, Darrell (first pub. 1954) How to Lie with Statistics London: Penguin
  • Moroney, M.J. (first pub.1951) Facts from Figures London: Penguin
  • Rowntree, D. (first pub. 1981) Statistics without Tears London: Penguin These are three classic introductions to statistics aimed at the general reader. They are very simple, fun to read, and all available in the library.

Spring Term

Spring Term Assessment The assessment sheet for this section (weeks 12-15) must be picked up at a class or lecture.
Week 13
Class: No Class - Do some reading for Friday's lecture ... you'll be glad you did
Exercises: There are a number of good websites with basic statistical instruction: try the following, or search yourself for something useful
  • http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/hill/dstat/dstat.html
    • Lecture: Fri. 12/1/06 An Introduction to Sampling and Surveys (plus questionnaire)
    Reading for Lecture:
    • Huff, Darrell (first pub. 1954) How to Lie with Statistics London: Penguin
    • Moroney, M.J. (first pub.1951) Facts from Figures London: Penguin
    • Rowntree, D. (first pub. 1981) Statistics without Tears London: Penguin These are three classic introductions to statistics aimed at the general reader. They are very simple, fun to read, and all available in the library.
    Week 14
    Class: Questionnaire design.
    Exercises: Looking at some example questionnaires and designing one yourself. Start work on the statistical part of the Spring assessment.
    Lecture: Fri. 19/01/06 An Introduction to Inferential Statistics
    Reading for Lecture:
      As week 13
    Week 15
    Class: Doing very simple statistics with a spreadsheet and statistics package; making simple graphs using a spreadsheet; inserting graphs into GoLive documents
    Exercises: Continue work on the statistics part of the Spring assessment
    Lecture: Fri. 26/01/06 Statistical inference: Hypothesis testing
    Reading for Lecture:
    • Chapter 3, Quantification in Cultural Anthropology A.W. Johnson Harrison, S. 1995 'Transformations of Identity in Sepik Warfare' in Strathern, M. (ed.) Shifting Contexts. London: Routledge
    Week 16
    Class: Hypothesis testing. (deja vu to you ... Groundhog day)
    Exercises:
    Lecture: Fri. 2/02/06 Classification: tools for thinking like an anthropologist. The Ethnographic Atlas
    Reading for Lecture:
    Week 17
    Class: Working with rhe Ethnographic Atlas
    Exercises: Using the Ethnographic Atlas database to make crosstabulation tables; merging variables; Start work on the Ethnographic Atlas part of the Lent assessment.. See Assessments Term 2.C.2b. Due Thurs, week 25 of Summer Term.
    Lecture: Fri. (9/02/06) Building knowledge using comparative Anthropology
    Reading for Lecture:
      As week 16
    Week 18
    Class: Using cross-cultural data to build knowledge. Making and testing hypotheses about cultural similarities and differences;
    Exercises: Exercises Continue work on the Ethnographic Atlas part of the Lent assessment.. See Assessments Term 2.C.2b. Due Thurs, week 25 of Summer Term.
    Lecture: Fri. 16/02/06 Testing anthropological theories: Introduction to Modelling
    Reading for Lecture:
    Week 19
    Class: Reading week. Complete work on Bibliography [ Assessment Term 2.A] and Stats [ Assessment Term 2.B] - due on Thurday, midnight.- half credit for previous missed work. for week 14
    Exercises: Continue work on the Ethnographic Atlas part of the Lent assessment.. See Assessments Term 2.C.2b. Due Thurs, week 25 of Summer Term.
    Lecture: Fri. 23/02/06 Expert Systems: How do people think?
    Reading for Lecture:
    Week 20
    Class: Building models of human knowledge ( http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/ExpertSys/ExpertSys)
    Exercises: Building an Expert System. See assessment D.1. Due Thursday of Week 25.
    Lecture: Fri. 2/03/06 Simulating Social and Cultural Issues
    Reading for Lecture:
    Week 21
    Class: In class demonstration and discussion of two simulations. See Gender Preferences for Children and Harvest and Population
    Exercises: See assessment D.1. Due Thursday of Week 25. Notes on Simulations for D.2 are here
    Lecture: Fri. 9/03/06 Non verbal data: the use of material culture
    Reading for Lecture:
    • Reynolds, B., & Stott, M. A. (1987). Material anthropology, contemporary approaches to material culture
    • Lanham, MD , London: University Press of America,
    • Schlereth, T. J. (1982). Material culture studies in America. Nashville, Tenn.: American Association for State and Local History,
    • Barringer, T., & Flynn, T. (1998). Colonialism and the object, empire, material culture, and the museum. London, New York: Routledge,
    • Pearce, S. M. (1997). Experiencing material culture in the western world. London: Leicester University Press,
    • Miller, D. (1997). Material cultures. London: UCL Press,
    • Stocking, G. W., Jr. (1985). Objects and Others. Essays on Museums and Material Culture. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, http://www-learning.berkeley.edu/as10/notes/matcult.html
    Week 22
    Class:
    Exercises: A discussion of material culture in preparation for the exam
    Lecture: Fri. 16/03/06 Natural and artificial Intelligence
    Reading for Lecture:
    Week 23
    Class: Natural and Artificial intelligence
    Exercises: None
    Lecture: Fri. 23/03/06 Literacy and its Implications
    Reading for Lecture:
    • Online: http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/LOCAL-ONLY/CSA/RRR/
    • Reading in the Modern world: Anthropological Perspectives on Writing and the Virtual World. In the Library:
    • Goody, J.R. 1973. 'Evolution and Communication: The Domestication of the Savage Mind'. British Journal of Sociology 24, 1-12.
    • Goody, J.R. 1977. The Domestication of the Savage Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
    • Halverson, J. 1992. Goody and the Implosion of the Literacy Thesis. Man 27(2), 301-317
    • Street, B.V. 1984. Literacy in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: CUP
    • Theall, D.F. 1992. Beyond the orality/literacy dichotomy. Postmodern Culture 2(3), 1-34
    • Finnegan, R. 1988 Literacy and Orality. Oxford: Blackwell.
    • Goody, J.R. 1986. The Logic of Writing and the Organisation of Society (Studies in Literacy, Family Culture and the State). Cambridge: CUP
    • Goody, J.R. 1987. The Interface Between the Written and the Oral (Studies in Literacy, Family Culture and the State). Cambridge: CUP
    • Graff, H.J. 1987. The Legacies of Literacy. Continuities and Contradictions in Western Culture and Society. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

    Online Reading

    Jonathan Haas     Power, Objects, and a Voice for Anthropology Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 1, Supplement: Special Issue: Anthropology in Public. (Feb., 1996), pp. S1-S22.

    J. H. Hutton The Place of Material Culture in the Study of Anthropology Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 74, No. 1/2. (1944), pp. 1-6.

    Bryan Pfaffenberger     Social Anthropology of Technology Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 21. (1992), pp. 491-516.
    More Online Reading

    Week 24
    Class: Literacy Discussion in prep for exam
    Exercises: None
    Lecture: Fri. 30/03/06 None
    Reading for Lecture:
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