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Final

Chris Wallace
ANTH374S18
Published in
1 min readMay 10, 2018
Ethnocentrism is the practice of evaluating other cultures according to one’s own, rather than within its own context. It, and its opposite virtue, cultural relativism, are important when studying science and technology to give a counter balancing viewpoint in explaining attitudes on both sides of research. The DNA study on Chacoian remains, reported on at Sapiens.org, highlights why cultural relativism is important for all researchers to keep in mind. The research team did not appear to discuss using destructive sequencing tests on ancient remain with the indigenous population, who regarded the tests as desecration. The scientists either failed to consider the ramifications of their research from a non-Western perspective, or did, and decided the scientific gain outweighed the cultural cost. Cultural relativism is especially important when studying Western science, which likes to consider itself a culture of no culture. Emily Martin illustrates how untrue that idea is in “The Egg and the Sperm,” where she discusses the use of gendered language attributed to reproductive cells. Sperm are assigned the stereotypical male characteristics of agency and imitative, needing to “rescue” the sedentary egg. When later research revealed the egg is much more active that previously thought, the egg was recast as a predatory, swooping down on the unsuspecting sperm. Such language clearly precludes the idea of a “culture with no culture.” Image ©Darby Conley
Holism refers to the concept of studying an object or system as a whole, rather than reducing it to it’s component parts. As Aristotle said, “The whole is more than the sum of it’s parts.” Holism is important in studying science and technology because new developments do not appear in a vacuum; the are products of the culture that produced them and the researchers who worked on it. In “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” Langdon Winner explores how certain types of objects necessitate a certain human response. He talks about the it bridges over Long Island, too low to allow mass transit vehicles to pass beneath. Are the bridges themselves classist, discriminating against those not well off enough to eschew buses? No, but the city planner who built them was. Are atomic bombs autocrats? No, but such a powerful destructive device necessitates a strong authority to ensure it isn’t used frivolously. No scientist can afford to pretend their work isn’t culturally motivated. In her ethnography of high energy physicists, “Beamtimes and Lifetimes,” Sharon Traweek mentions her subjects’ refusal to work on military projects any longer. This demonstrates that the high energy physics community has taken responsibility for the awesome power of their field, and are unwilling to suborn that power for new weapon systems. Image from Wolf media
Postcolonialism is broadly a study of the legacy of imperialism and colonialism. In this context, it is used to describe emerging ideas of mixing Western scientific ideals with local or native knowledge. In “Is Science Multicultural?” Sandra Harding explores the origins of Western science, and calls for projects that focus on the Third World to draw on local practices to increase efficacy. Western scientists studying the fauna of the American Arctic have begun relying on Inuit hunters to take samples of caribou, as well as their accounts of the animals’ behavior in their research. Reardon and Tallbear discuss the discrepancies between local creation myth and tale told by genetics, and question the West’s right to force science on indigenous peoples. It’s important to keep postcolonialism in mind, as local practices are well adapted to their environment, and natives know their needs better than anyone. The Zimbabwe bushpump is an example of well adapted technology, made for the actual needs of the population who will be using it, not what the West perceives those needs to be. Image from Environment Canada
Silos are societal constructs that keep specialists separated. Silos could be seen as the opposite of holism. In her book “The Silo Effect” Jillian Tett explores the concept of the Silo in depth. In one chapter, she discusses how the Japanese corporation Sony went from a tiny, intimate company to a huge corporation, with many divisions segregated from each other. In 1999, Sony tried to create a digital version of it’s flagship product, the Walkman. Sony should have been positioned to corner an unexploited market, between its extensive music library and in-house hardware divisions. However, Sony’s record label didn’t want to cannibalize it’s own sales, and refused to work with the other divisions. In the end, Sony would up announcing 3 entirely separate products, that used different music codecs, and had different proprietary power cables. None of the products could get off the ground, because the company was competing with itself, rather than working together for a common goal. These silos appear in many other facets of life, including academia. It’s important to keep anthropology and sociology in mind when researching new technologies, but equally important for social scientists to have a good grounding in the hard sciences their subjects are experts in. By working together, experts of different disciplines can see their work in new ways, and find new breakthroughs they wouldn’t have considered otherwise. Sony logos © Sony, composite by author
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Anth374s18 Final

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Chris Wallace
ANTH374S18

Written by Chris Wallace

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