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Digital anthropology | Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology

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‘The digital’ is defined here as new technologies that are ultimately reducible to binary code. These have made many cultural artefacts easier and quicker to both reproduce and to share. The first section of this entry is concerned with populations and worlds that are largely the result of digital technologies. The second section examines the more general use and consequences of digital technologies on diverse populations around the world. Rather than separating off the impact of digital technologies, a major contribution of anthropology has been through holistic ethnography, which demonstrates that we can only understand new digital worlds in the context of wider social relations and practices. Rather than trying to adjudicate digital technologies as positive or negative, anthropology may also focus upon their inherent contradictions. A third section examines the way digital technologies impact anthropological methodology. In the final section the concern is with the impact digital anthropology may have on our conception of anthropology itself and what it means to be human.

Digital Worlds Methods & Methodology Science and Technology Ethics & Morality Knowledge Surveillance Work & Labour Daniel Miller University College London Initially published 28 Aug 2018 Cite as: Miller, Daniel. (2018) 2023. “Digital anthropology”. In The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology , edited by Felix Stein. Facsimile of the first edition in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology . Online: http://doi.org/10.29164/18digital Abstract: ‘The digital’ is defined here as new technologies that are ultimately reducible to binary code. These have made many cultural artefacts easier and quicker

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