Digital anthropology /

Coeditors Horst and Miller introduce this volume with a programmatic essay outlining requisite features that define digital anthropology as a distinct new subfield. The 13 chapters that follow are organized in four sections: positioning, socializing, politicizing, and designing digital anthropology. Taken together, the chapters suggest the depth and richness of texture that anthropology can bring to understanding the pervasive impact of digital technologies on social life. Unlike established anthropological subfields such as law, medicine, or education, which are defined by specific structural functionalist boundaries, digital anthropology addresses the deepest, universal element of culture, namely, the production of shared meaning. While the pervasive character of digital technology's impact can lead to its being taken for granted, each chapter author demonstrates the value of a specific focus on digital technology. For example, Haidy Geismar situates digital technologies historically and critically in terms of museum practices and goals, and she argues that they are modifying the fundamental idea of what constitutes an object in museum curation, research, and communication. Like language itself, digital technology is not a transparent medium, but actively participates in the creation of meaning. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. A. Arno University of Hawai'i at Manoa