Typing, Clarifying and Anthropological Categories
There are certain tasks which are difficult to accomplish in the village. One of those tasks is typing up our cultural data into the computer program we use. So while in the village, each day, we try to write down some cultural notes in our cultural notebooks. Sometimes all we can squeeze out is 5 minutes to write down the myriad of thoughts running through our heads. But while we are out of the village, we are able to type them up, clarify our thoughts and codify them with anthropological categories to make for an easy search later on.
Though at times, the job of typing up our notes seems like busy work, it is going to pay off huge dividends when I have to track down all the information I have on how visiting and hospitality interact with the overall idea of interpersonal relationships or the different types of adornment including how body alterations factor into the historical perspective of beauty. Riveting stuff, I know.
Okay, so maybe it isn’t the most glamorous part of what we do, but like everything, there are things we do because we love doing them and other things we do because that is what needs to be done.
