Digital Anthropology

Anthropology has two main tasks: to understand what it is to be human, and to examine how humanity is manifested differently in the diversity of culture. These tasks have gained new impetus from the extraordinary rise of the digital, and this book brings together several key anthropologists working with digital culture, to demonstrate just how productive an anthropological approach to the digital has already become. Through a range of case studies from Facebook to Second Life to Google Earth, Digital Anthropologyexplores: how human and digital can be defined in relation to one another by looking at avatars and disability; cultural differences in how we use social networking sites or practice religion; the practical consequences of the digital for politics, museums, design, space, and development, as well as new online worlds and gaming communities. It also explores the moral universe of the digital, from new anxieties to new open-source ideals. The book reveals how only intense scrutiny of ethnography can overturn assumptions about the impact of digital culture and reveal its profound consequences for everyday life. Combining the clarity of a textbook with an engaging style that conveys a passion for these new frontiers of enquiry, Digital Anthropologyis essential reading for students and scholars of anthropology, media studies, communication studies, cultural studies, and sociology.

Heather A. Horst is a Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Australia.Daniel Miller is Professor of Material Culture at the Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK