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Studying and Mobilizing the Impacts of Anthropological Data in Archives

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Anthropological Data in the Digital Age

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the impacts of anthropology’s digital data, and the particular challenges anthropological and ethnographic data held in archival repositories present for anthropologists, information scholars, and institutions. Over the past 20 years, the field of anthropology has changed dramatically, as have the records anthropologists produce. Today, the preservation and stewardship of anthropological records face new challenges as anthropologists create records in a wider range of formats, the reuse of these materials changes, and both researchers and repositories shift their ethical attitudes. We share new research as well as applied approaches to understanding the impact of these shifts drawing on two current research projects and an interdisciplinary Wenner-Gren–sponsored workshop held in June 2016 to revitalize the Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records (CoPAR). This chapter has two parts. First, we discuss two research projects tracking trends and impacts in reuses of anthropological data in digitized archival collections: “Valuing Our Scans: Understanding the Impacts of Digitized Native American Ethnographic Archives” and “Researching the Digital Turn: Documenting the Impacts of Digital Knowledge Sharing in Indigenous Communities.” Second, we highlight our applied work to revitalize CoPAR and how CoPAR aims to address the challenges outlined in our research by creating professional consensus around data access and reuse.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    By non-tribal or non-Native, we mean the colonial libraries, museums, and archives that have historically collected Indigenous materials and removed them from their communities of origin. Throughout this chapter we also make reference to Native or Indigenous community users or researchers, or users from “source communities” often interested in reconnecting heritage materials to their home communities or communities of origin. See Peers and Brown (2003).

  2. 2.

    For a full account of available resources, see our work in Punzalan et al. (2017) on “Extant Resources.”

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA

    Diana E. Marsh

  2. University of Maryland College of Information Studies, College Park, MD, USA

    Ricardo L. Punzalan

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  1. Diana E. Marsh
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  2. Ricardo L. Punzalan
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA

    Jerome W. Crowder

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Mike Fortun

  3. Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA

    Rachel Besara

  4. University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Lindsay Poirier

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Marsh, D.E., Punzalan, R.L. (2020). Studying and Mobilizing the Impacts of Anthropological Data in Archives. In: Crowder, J., Fortun, M., Besara, R., Poirier, L. (eds) Anthropological Data in the Digital Age. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24925-0_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24925-0_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24924-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24925-0

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