Of potential interest to anthropologists looking at culture and communication technologies: UBC Library now has access to the electronic version of the Encyclopedia of Developing Regional Communities with Information and Communication Technology from Idea Group.

A sampling of the many entries:

The URL for the eBook is located in the catalogue record for the print title – search by title in the library catalogue to locate it.

(And we do also have the print volume of this book in Koerner library stacks at HN49.C6 E545 2006.)

A reminder about the upcoming colloquium by Andrew Martindale, this Thursday, February 15, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm in AnSo 205 (show me a map)

Archaeological Uncertainty about Causality in Agency and Structure: Translation Between Anthropological and Ts’msyeen Worlds

My work in comparing archaeological and Ts’msyeen views of history embodies an essential teleology: translation across the fronts of science/anthropology/indigeneity is valid because it is possible. In this paper, I reflect on the parallel narratives of archaeology and oral tradition that I have constructed and address two apparent contradictions.

Although archaeological data and Ts’msyeen adawx frequently conjoin, they are the product of distinct epistemological, perhaps paradigmatic, traditions whose difference, though essential to the process, is obscured and perhaps obviated by the act of conjunction. Is the generation of and comparison between archaeological and indigenous histories translative or hegemonic, and if the former, what is the nature of data in oral records? Second, both views of history are predicated on the assumption of intergenerational continuity­that some kind of structured Ts’msyeen-ness remains despite, for example, changes in fundamental categories of identity through the colonial era. Given the expectation of volatile agency in history, where does our confidence in the persistence of structure originate? What significance to we attach to similarities in materiality and behaviour when oral records make claims of cultural continuity through periods of change in the archaeological record, and vice versa? Using recent data from ongoing research in the Dundas Islands region of Ts’msyeen territory, I explore whether the philosophical anthropology of Paul Ricouer and the model of the reflexive individual suggest a synthesis of causalities between historical structure and agency.

A Forests and Oceans for the Future lecture in collaboration with the Department of Anthropology. For additional information, please contact Felice Wyndham at fwyndham@interchange.ubc.ca or 604 822 2548

The latest issue of Anthropology Today is out. Articles in this issue include:

UBC Library subscribes to Anthropology Today online through Blackwell-Synergy. UBC students and faculty can access these articles off-campus by connecting through VPN.

As a followup to Anth 323’s Assignment 1 (comparison of popular and academic literature), Dr. Blake recommends this article:

Fahnestock, Jeanne. “Accomodating Science: The Rhetorical Life of Scientific Facts.” Written Communication 3.3 (1986): 275-96.

The article “studies the fate of scientific observations as they pass from original research reports intended for scientific peers into popular accounts aimed at a general audience” and argues that the change of genre brought on by the change of audience can have serious consequences.

A link has been posted to the ANTH 323 online course page.

Note: UBC Library subscribes to the ejournal Written Communication. You’ll be able to access the article on campus simply by following the link; off-campus, you’ll need to connect to the VPN before you can get access (setup instructions here).

As part of his research into Digital Ethnography, Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist at Kansas State University created a short video called “Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us“, posted it to the online video sharing site YouTube, and sent the link to a handful of friends and colleages. Within days, the video had spread throughout the blogosphere – a viral video.

The rapid spread of this video nicely illustrates the power of Web 2.0, one of the focuses of Wesch’s class on Digital Ethnography, where students have been researching the social and cultural power of the web alongside related topics such as what makes a viral video.

Wesch’s work was recently profiled in an article on the website Inside Higher Ed. The article also profiles his work with the Digital Ethnography working group at Kansas State University, which examines the impacts of digital technology on human interaction.

In November 2004, Google launched a new search tool, Google Scholar, which indexes scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including articles, theses, books, preprints, abstracts, conference proceedings, and technical reports. In the Google Scholar and More! workshop this Friday, you’ll learn about Google Scholar and other tools for scholarly searching – whether you’re starting with a bibliography, an author’s name, a topic, or just an idea.

The session is on Friday, Feb 9 from 12-1 pm in the Buchanan building, room B114 (show me a map)

This is part of the Arts Outreach program, sponsored by UBC Library, and supported in part by funding from the office of the Dean of Arts.

Looking for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures ? No need to come to the library – this book is now available online.*

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures chronicles Pre-Hispanic, colonial, and modern Mesoamerica in over 600 articles. Encompassing the great civilizations of the pre-Columbian era (including the Olmec, Aztec, and Maya peoples) up through the colonial and postcolonial periods, the Encyclopedia covers art, archaeology, religious studies, anthropology, history, and historiography of the region.

To use the book, you can either Browse by scanning through a list of the entries in alphabetical order or Search for entries. In the left hand column, there is a list of related entries called See also, which is a list of entries related to the one you are currently looking at. Below this, you’ll see a list of Adjacent entries which can be used to browse through nearby entries (alphabetically) just as you might do with the print edition.

Another great feature of this collection is the “Cross Reference” tool. Highlight a word or phrase and then click the blue “Cross Reference” button to search across the entire encyclopedia for that word or words.

One of the lovely things about online resources is the ability to link to related works. In this ebook, the bibliography at the end of each entry provides a link to the UBC Library catalogue for each citation. Simply click the “Find’ icon to search the catalogue for the book.

There are several ways to find this ebook. You can
1) go directly to http://www.oxford-mesoamerican.com, or
2) search for the title in the library catalogue and follow the link in the catalogue record, or
3) Look for the eBook in the listing of Indexes and Databases

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*And if you’d prefer the print book version of the Oxford encyclopedia of Mesoamerican cultures, we have the three-volume set in the Reference section of Koerner Library (on the second floor), at call number F1218.6 .O95 2001.

Tomorrow at the Library: Writing a Literature Review
Wednesday, Feb 7 from 12:15-1:15pm at Koerner Library

For students in all disciplines, not just English literature! Theses and dissertations in many subject areas – including anthropology – begin with a review of what research has been done in the area. Learn the established conventions and patterns that your lit review will follow.

The workshop will be taught by Ramona Montagnes, the Director of UBC’s Writing Centre since 1992.

This is part of the Graduate Student Workshop series.

Tomorrow at the Library: Changes in Scholarly Publishing and the Open Access Movement
Friday, Feb 2nd from 12-1pm at Koerner Library.

The scholarly communication system is going through a process of change across the world. Driven by the escalating costs of journal publication, a revolution in authoring and publishing as a result of new technologies, and a feeling that existing models restrict rather than encourage a free flow of information, scholars are re-evaluating the traditional scholarly publishing process in favour of a freer, open access model. This session will describe the building momentum for change in scholarly communication and how it is expressing itself in the Open Access Movement.

For a list of anthropology journals that have adopted the Open Access publishing model, please see the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) list of anthropology journals. Titles include Anthropoetics: the journal of generative anthropology, Cultural Analysis, and Oral Traditon, to name a very few.