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Contents
1. RELEVANCE
a) OBJECTIVES
● An open database
● Why collect
observations from people who
have no training as
anthropologists?
●
How is it possible to make scientific use of such disparate,
unverified and disorganised data?
b) CROSS-DISCIPLINARY
● A flexible,
multi-disciplinary tool
2. VALIDITY
a) CURRENT
RESEARCH
b)
METHODOLOGY
● Criteria
● Procedure
3. IMPACT
a) SCOPE AND
ACCESS
b) RESEARCH
c) FUTURE
TRENDS
Typical travellers
(from the Luttrell Psalter, c1325AD, British
Library)
Baskets are flexible tools
(from the Luttrell
Psalter, British Library)
Collecting material is a
chore
(from the Luttrell Psalter, British
Library)
Organising is another
chore
(from the Luttrell Psalter,
British
Library)
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CULTURES
OBSERVATIONS DATABASE
Detailed
presentation
1.
RELEVANCE
a)
OBJECTIVES
● An open database
The Cultures Observations Database is an open database of observations
made by travellers and other observers, from ancient times to the
present day, describing the behaviour of people in other (and their
own)
cultures. These
observers may include anthropologists and other professionals, but are
mainly ordinary people who have been in a position to
note variances of behaviour between their own cultures and others.
The bulk of the observations in the database will consequently concern
cultures in
accessible regions of the world, such as Europe, where voyagers have
been able to travel in large numbers. This is in contrast to other
collections of ethnographic information, which contain a majority of
anthropological studies of relatively isolated cultural groups. Such
collections are
traditionally poor in European, "modern", or "western" culture studies.
● Why collect observations from people who
have no training as
anthropologists?
In the same way as historians do not always get their evidence from
other historians, those investigating the phenomenon of human cultures
need raw material. The database itself has no other function than to
collect and safeguard examples of this material and to render them
freely accessible to scholars. Much historical material of this kind
has no doubt already
disappeared, but an enormous amount can still be saved. It is to be
found in well-known classics of travel literature but also in obscure
books and other publications, in private letters, in broadcast and
other documentary material, and in commercial studies.
●
How is it possible to make scientific use of such disparate,
unverified and disorganised data?
This is a collection of observations made by travellers about behaviour
in other cultures. The individual observations have little
apparent scientific value, being the product of many possible
influences, such as the native culture of the traveller, his particular
personality, his status, the circumstances of his voyage, the
particular people that he had interactions with, even the climatic
conditions at that moment... However, when a large number of such
observations is available concerning a particular culture, patterns of
behaviour in that culture, if they exist, may be discernible,
thrown into light by a significant number
of concurring or complementing observers.
A multi-cultural analysis might show
which "observer cultures" (the
native culture or country of the person making the comments) were in
broad agreement concerning the
behaviour characteristics of a "subject
culture" (the country or culture which is being commented on) at
a particular period, and which were not. It is statistical data that we
are
looking at, which gives this
examination a possible validity despite the fuzzy nature of the
definitions and categories which must be invented.
The subject in hand is definitely not "national character" (a concept
pursued by a number of researchers, particularly in the period
following the second world war). The subject is how people from
different cultures see each other, what differences they remark
compared to their own culture, and how this situation changes across
time.
b) CROSS-DISCIPLINARY DIMENSION
● A flexible, multi-disciplinary tool
Researchers will be able to draw on these units of data according to
their needs, filtering for example by the observer's culture, by the
culture which is the subject of observations, by behaviour trait, by
behaviour category, by
date, and by observer.
In view of the current interest in evolutionary analysis, based on
quantifiable observations in the fields of biology and animal and human
behaviour, a database of this nature can be an aid in the formulation
and control of theories in history, psychology, sociology, anthropology
and cultural evolution.
It would equally be of value to students of intercultural relations and
political science, in particular in the investigation and comprehension
of different cultural groups such as, for example, the multi-faceted
European Community.
For more precise examples of possible research themes see section 3
(IMPACT).
2.
VALIDITY
a) CURRENT RESEARCH
This is a path-finding project in the sense that there are no
antecedents of this nature. The closest parallel as far as raison
d'être goes would be the long-established and monumental Human
Relations Area Files (HRAF) at Yale University. The HRAF Collection
of
Ethnography contains over 800,000 pages of indexed information on more
than 365 different cultural, ethnic, religious, and national groups
around the world. The collection was set up in 1949 as a centralised
repository for cultural and behavioural data and has more recently been
successfully transformed into an easily-accessible eHRAF website of
inestimable value to researchers.
An earlier version of the HRAF User Guide stated that
development of the HRAF Collections
began with the belief that valid generalizations about human behaviour
and culture will emerge from a wealth of knowledge about the ways in
which the different peoples of the world live. The idea behind the
Cultures Observations Database is to assist in this mission by
collecting information about the ways in which different peoples of the
world see, and have seen, each other. But apart from this broad
correspondence of
utility, there is little similarity between HRAF and the Cultures
Observations Database (COD) project. Most studies included in HRAF
concern non-national, relatively discrete and homogeneous cultures,
which permits them to be rigorously academic and subject to close
peer-appraisal. It should, however, be noted that HRAF does not exclude
the idea of using the observations of non-academics:
"The ideal document is
one which consists of a detailed
description of a culture, or of a particular community or region within
that culture, written on the basis of prolonged residence among the
people documented by a professional social scientist. Many documents
which do not meet all the criteria are included in the Collection of
Ethnography because they are still important pieces of information-in
fact, it is likely that they may be the only sources available for
particular time periods, regions, or subjects. Thus the collection for
each culture may contain documents written by travelers, missionaries,
colonial officials, traders, etc." (from User's
Guide: HRAF Collection
of Ethnography - section A Basic
Guide to Cross-Cultural Research by Carol R.Ember and Melvin
Ember)
Descriptive documents written by anthropologists on the
basis of prolonged residence in, for example, France, Germany, Italy,
England or Spain are rare. These politico-cultural entities are too
diffuse and heterogenous for classic anthropological study. On the
other hand, documents written by
non-professionals are legion, ranging from profound historical and
social studies to comments made by tourists after their first visit to
a foreign place. It is the premise of the Cultures
Observations Database that all such documents and observations
have
intrinsic value within their special
context and can be informative. The objective of the pilot
version of the database, programmed in Access 2000, is to find efficient
ways to collect and organise such material.
b) METHODOLOGY
● Criteria
The individual units of data, the observations,
consist of one or
several paragraphs of text containing descriptions of one or several
behaviour traits. These texts are stored in their original language,
together with a translation into English.
Certain minimum criteria need to be met for observations to qualify for
entry in the database:
- Approximate date of the observation
- Name of the observer and biographical details if
available
- Native culture of the observer
- Details of publication: when, where, how published
- Name and details of the contributor (the person
who proposed the data for inclusion in the database)
- Name and details of the translator into English.
- An essential requirement is that the observer
is writing from personal experience and is not quoting a third party or
hearsay.
- Depending on the funding available, it may be
possible and it would be desirable to associate with the
database the original physical material and publications from which the
observations were drawn.
● Procedure
Data-entry window for
adding a publication or an observer
Here, briefly, is the procedure for adding an observation to the
database:
1. A new, empty record is opened by using the New Record
button: 
2. The text of the observation, usually an extract of several
paragraphs from a book
or other publication, is entered into the Observation
box's text window
on the main page. A short extract is pasted into the Snippet box.
3. If the publication has already been cited in the
database, which is often the case
where multiple extracts are taken from the same book, these details can
simply be selected from the drop-down Existing Publications
list.
4. If the publication or observer has not yet been cited in the
database, a click on the Add publication or
Observer button obtains the data-entry window shown
above.
Details of the observer, date and place of publication, etc., are
entered here.
5. The names and details of the
collaborator (the Contributor)
who sent in the data and the Translator
(if the original is
not in English) can be entered if changes
are needed. By default, these items do not change and are entered
automatically.
6. The name of the culture being commented on (the Subject Culture) is
entered separately from a drop-down list.
Now comes the hard part...
7. The behaviour traits mentioned in the text being treated must
now be identified in the text and entered in the database.
First, it must be ascertained if the traits mentioned have
already been used in the database. This
task is facilitated by:
- word-searches through the list of traits already
noted by observers,
or
- searching in the Trait Groups.
The trait groups are created or
added-to by the operator when new traits are added. They currently have
no
purpose other than that of helping to find if traits are already in the
database. By examining the
list of traits in the group which seems to be most appropriate as a
"family" for the trait in question, the
operator can locate the trait if it already exists in the
database, or if not, start the procedure for entering a new trait.
Here are the current trait groups:
  
As an example, here are the five traits currently in the Integrity trait group:
If a trait mentioned in the text is nowhere to be found (neither in the
general list of traits, nor in the list of traits already assigned to
that subject culture, nor in one of the groups (all of which are
consultable in the handy Traits Viewer
pop-up box), then it is necessary to enter the trait in the database as
a new trait by clicking the New Trait button
on the Traits
from this Observation box.
8. An additional classification of the observation is
possible but by no means mandatory in the Observation Category
list. In the pilot database this list
currently contains the following categories:
| Observation Category |
| Arts & architecture |
| Attitude to other cultures |
| Cause and effect theory |
| Child rearing |
| Clothing Dress |
| Cultural Change |
| Culture characteristic |
| Education & science |
| Etiquette |
| Food and drink |
| Funerals |
| Language |
| Morals |
| Nation characteristic |
| Physical characteristics |
| Politics & government |
| Poll material |
| Press TV radio |
| Professional group |
| Religion |
| Research Data |
| Role of women |
| Social classes |
| Sports and Pastimes |
| Stereotypes |
| Vocalisation and speech |
| Wealth and money |
These categories, like the Trait Groups, can be changed or enlarged
according to the preferences and needs of the user.
They are essentially boxes for classifying
comments which do not take
the form of simple traits, or which develop broader themes. A
researcher using the COD data can create his own list of
Observation Types and Trait Groups from the basic data.
Data in the COD will inevitably in some cases be unreliable or false.
However, as mentioned earlier (see 1.Relevance/Objectives)
the
trait-based nature of the collection will help sift valuable
observations from the more biased or inaccurate ones. The sheer
quantity of data will enable researchers to refine controls for
identifying observations which, by force of repetition by independent
observers from different cultures, are evidence of real phenomena.
Observations which are not repeated or rarely repeated will carry less
or no weight.
3.
IMPACT
a) SCOPE AND ACCESS
Internet technology means that the information gathered in this
database can be freely and instantly accessible to researchers
everywhere. It also means that an international network of contributors
can be created, feeding data into the COD through an administrator
or administrative committee responsible for the final selection and
entering of the data.
The database can begin in a relatively modest way with inclusion of the
better-documented European cultures, the USA, and perhaps an Asian
culture and an African culture. If its usefulness is proven it can be
expanded to any number of cultures where sufficient observations are
available.
Even where no historical data is available, contemporary data from
travellers can be gathered expressly for the purposes of the Cultures
Observations Database.
In its initial pilot form the database is downloadable here as an
integral database file for independent use by researchers and
those who wish to collaborate in this project. Future
versions will permit on-line data searches and other manipulations by
researchers.
b) RESEARCH
Human behaviour has typically been studied in small-scale
societies
(anthropology), in controlled laboratory experiments (social sciences),
in clinical situations (psychology), in questionnaires on attitudes
(opinion polls), and no doubt in many private and undisclosed consumer
studies (commercial enterprises). The Cultures Observations Database
proposes the addition of another dimension, that of the quantitative
analysis of travellers' comments.
This is not a new idea, but the methodology, using a trait-based
multi-cultural database, is ground-breaking.
The usefulness of the comparative approach is best illustrated by
taking a recent example of the use of travellers' comments, the book Englishness Identified
by Paul Langford, Professor of Modern History at
Oxford University (OUP 2000).
Here is an extract from Langford's introduction:
"By Englishness I mean those
distinctive aspects of national life that
struck either outsiders or insiders or both as characteristic. I give
outsiders higher priority than they would normally be accorded by
historians of English nationalism or patriotism. .. There
is, after all, the freshness of perspective that foreign views bring,
as intermediaries between the historian and his subject. .. There is
also the likelihood that if their testimony is not objective, it is at
least disengaged. And above all, they shine light where it would not
occur to their English counterparts to do so. Things that are taken for
granted as part of the fabric of everyday life may to outsiders be
sufficiently novel to merit scrutiny. .."
In analysing several hundred travellers' comments Langford found that
between the 17th and the 19th centuries "ideas of what constituted
Englishness changed from a stock notion of waywardness and
unpredictability to one of discipline and dedication". As a historian
he discusses these changes and their possible causes and effects.
It is clear that the conclusions of a long and detailed historical
study of this nature have implications in other fields than history.
The existence of databank tools containing both historical and
contemporary multi-cultural observation data can facilitate research in
those areas which cross the frontiers between history, biology,
anthropology, psychology, sociology and evolutionary studies.
Why do "stock notions" change in this way? Has behaviour changed, or
perhaps the perception of behaviour (as may be expressed in
stereotypes), or both? Is the phenomenon (the drift from waywardness
towards dedication) to be seen in other cultures? Researchers who ask
themselves these questions may be from any of the above-mentioned
disciplines.
Emic and Etic
Anthropologists distinguish between the emic approach (the insider view,
which seeks to describe another culture in terms of the categories,
concepts, and perceptions of the people being studied), and the etic approach (the outsider view,
in which anthropologists use their own categories and concepts to
describe the culture under analysis). By including comments on the
observer's own culture, COD provides a pathway towards understanding
the relationship between these two points of view.
c) FUTURE TRENDS
It seems likely that there are patterns of human behaviour, both
at
personal and cultural levels. Looking at travellers' observations
on other cultures will no doubt tell us as much about the travellers
themselves, or their cultures, as about the cultures they are
commenting on. But in order to investigate this we need data on
frequencies, and analytical studies of this data by historians,
anthropologists, biologists, psychologists, economists, sociologists,
and maybe philosophers. The Cultures Observations Database aims to help
in consolidating one of the essential foundations: the data.
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