Genevieve Bell is an anthropologist who works for Intel [via misbehaving]. What a cool job! That Intel has such a position is interesting in itself, even if her job is just to make dossiers of potential customers. But she does reach for more tantalizing questions:
What if our vision of ubiquitous computing is so secular, so profoundly embedded in a set of Western discourses, that we've created a vision of the world that shuts out a percentage of people in a way we can't really even begin to articulate?
That's a good question, but awfully vague. Couldn't I winnow that down to "What if... we don't know anything at all about other cultures?" I wonder if her work has uncovered any particular set of Western discourses that might be suspect? Or is this just a general worry? What if?
Do non-industrial cultures ever inquire into the culture of ("do anthropology on") the industrialized West? Do they write what they find? Does that research ever get translated into (e.g.) English?
Ms. Bell shouldn't have to look very far. I consider myself rather a geek, and yet this vision of ubiquitous computing tends to shut me out. I despise, for example, the ubiquity of cell phones.
Your real question, though, is a great one. People in all cultures are naturally curious about people of other cultures. The most common codification for this form of cultural anthropology is jokes: pointing out the irony of another's habit relative to your own.
I find it curious, though, that you implicity identify industrial cultures with English.
Ah, I have merited a close reading! This is a milestone.
I didn't want to identify English as the "home" language of anthropology. I was only wondering if X had been translated into a language I could read, you see. I tried to dodge that implication with my "(e.g.)"—but I should have known better than to shift the question so abruptly.
Now I wish I had written, "Does that research ever get translated into either English or kana-only Japanese?"
Good blog! I like your posting style, so your wording. It's good that people are so different and everyone has his own story.
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