(Photo above: Fiji child, by Peter Devine '04)
John Thompson went to Fiji
last winter term for a wedding of sorts, the unlikely marriage of high
technology and Fijian village culture.
His project, an independent study titled “A Digital
Ethnography of Rakiraki, Fiji,”
used digital cameras and recording equipment to create what he calls “a
web-based interactive cultural learning environment.”
The website – at http://fiji.union.edu/ — explores the cultural identity of Fiji through the perspective of both the local Fijians and the
Union students. The term abroad students and members of the Rakiraki village
were instructed in the use of digital cameras and camcorders with the goal of
recording their reactions and experiences. Through photos, videos, audio
interviews, and field notes, this site provides a unique comparison between a
native view and an American student view of Fijian culture.
If, as the adage goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words,”
the question for Thompson was, “Who can best create those pictures?”
So, on the three-month Fiji
term, Thompson had Union's 10 student-ethnographers
record Fijian culture with photographs, videos, audio and field notes.
But he did something else: he empowered the research
subjects to portray their own culture. “I wanted to give them the means to show
their own culture, to show what is important to them, rather than just having
our students portray it with cultural relativism,” he said. “I wanted [the
Fijians] to establish a cultural identity through their own eyes.”
Under the direction of Professors Steve Leavitt and Karen Brison, 10 Union
students live with Fijian families in a small village, learning effective
research methods and conducting their own individual research projects. The
professors and students set up “FijiNet” during a 1999 trip to the Pacific
island. Thompson's project builds off that earlier effort.
Planning for Fiji
Thompson's project took a lot of advance work. He carefully
researched equipment, being careful to bring digital equipment that was
durable, flexible and easy to use in the field. He had to make sure the cameras
could take the knocks of use, that the batteries could be recharged on the
Fijian power grid, and that the memory cards were large enough to hold a large
number of photos. The equipment purchases were supported by a grant from the
Keck Foundation through the office of Doug Klein, director of the Center for
Converging Technology.
He also had to set up the shell for a web site that would be
at once comprehensive enough to represent a large ethnography, and flexible
enough that it could be updated from the field using laptops and slow Internet
connections.
And somewhat as anticipated, things did not go perfectly. As
Thompson says, “Whatever you think you're walking into, you're not walking
into.” Or, “If you plan for one thing, something else will happen.”
For example, Thompson was surprised to find that the very
technology that was to convey the ethnography may have altered the way Fijians
recorded it. Fascinated with the digital technology and the “instant
gratification” it affords, some of the early results were “goofy photos” of and
by the Fijians, something that would not have been an issue with SLR film
cameras, Thompson said.
“I expected them to make decisions about what is important
to show about their culture,” he said. “I wanted to give them very few
guidelines.
“One of the goals of
ethnography is to not change the environment you are observing, but the
very technology you bring can have that effect,” he said.
Web site focuses on
three groups
The web site was (and is) aimed at three audiences: students
in Prof. George Gmelch's introduction to anthropology course, who corresponded
with the students about the challenges of field work; students at Niskayuna
High's Global Studies class, who corresponded with their counterparts in a
Fijian school (Nakauvadra High School, where Thompson helped teach a computer
course); and family and friends who wanted to follow the Fijian adventures of
the Union students.
Among the highlights are photos and field notes from Union's
student-ethnographers, Fijian recipes, maps of the Rakiraki area, samples of
Fijian music and video clips of Fijian life. The site also features photographs
of Union student adventures during the term, as well as slide shows of a Fijian
funeral, the slaughtering of a cow and a New Year's celebration.
“John has developed a shell that people in other terms can
use,” said Leavitt. This site is a good
model that can be used by other terms, both for sharing the international
experience with those on campus and for involving the local people in the
project, he said.
Thompson, a native of Litchfield,
Maine, is a computer information systems
major and economics minor. As a Seward Fellow, he is also earning
interdepartmental minors in computer science and anthropology.
He is a Union Scholar and a Steinmetz Scholar. Among his other research
projects at Union were “Aesthetics in Nature,” a
photographic exploration in Galway, Ireland,
into the aesthetics of nature. See the results at: http://cs.union.edu/~thompsj2/photo.php.
(He did a similar project in Athens, Greece,
on the aesthetics of photography.) He also did a project on the role of
information technology, with a paper concentrating on information technology's
role in transforming the Tibetan struggle for independence.
Among his many activities, Thompson has been a member of the
College's Planning and Priorities Committee; the Alternative Social Spaces
Planning Committee; vice president and treasurer of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity;
volunteer for the Boys and Girls Clubs; and a member of the ultimate Frisbee,
ski and whitewater kayaking clubs.
Thompson was an alternate for junior fellow for the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, a Washington
think tank. He is considering a career in international business.
He also is a frequent panelist for admissions events. What
does Thompson say to prospective students about getting the most out of the
Union experience? “Most of the learning you're going to do in life isn't done
between walls and in chairs. Take advantage of it.”