ANTHROPOLOGIST IN A SYNTHETIC WORLD

Text topic: Culture Studies

Text author: Љиљана Гавриловић

Entering a completely new field of research, such as the research of synthetic worlds, places unique methodological challenges before anthropologists: it would seem that a new medium, which defines a new space and allows creation of new cultures, requires new methodological tools for fieldwork and data collection. However, a careful observation of the conditions of motion through synthetic worlds shows that, in this field, a researcher is faced with the same methodological problems as in any “classical” study of individual, specific culture, opening up even questions of validity of many previous RL researches. Analysis, as well as former practice, shows that observation with participation – as defined by Malinowski back in 1922 – is still a valid fundamental principle of ethnographic field research. Furthermore, with researching in virtual/synthetic worlds, it has become clear that participation is crucial for full understanding of any researched culture – a detail that is consistently neglected in many (primarily domestic) ethnographic researches.