Bryan Pfaffenberger
Biographic Data
| ID | 76567 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bryan Pfaffenberger |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bryan |
| FAMILY NAME | Pfaffenberger |
| SIGNATURE | PFAFFENBERGER B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Virginia |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 669 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Metallurgy in prehistoric heterarchical societies: Response to Higham
The anthropology of technology and a new paradigm for archaeometallurgical research
The Sri Lankan Tamils: Ethnicity and Identity
Sri Lankan Tamils: Ethnicity and Identity
The Factory as Artefact
If there is an advantage to backwardness, or so argues I. M. D. Little, it is that modern techniques can be acquired from abroad far more cheaply than they can be developed and invented in a Third World country (Little 1982) . So it would seem inevitable, as Marx predicted ( Marx 1853 ), that industrial technologies transferred to the Third World would “take root” and engender a sustained process of industrial growth. With the exception of the As…
Broken Ballots: Will Your Votes Count? by Douglas W. Jones and Barbara Simons (review)
Reviewed by: Broken Ballots: Will Your Votes Count? by Douglas W. Jones and Barbara Simons Bryan Pfaffenberger (bio) Broken Ballots: Will Your Votes Count? By Douglas W. Jones and Barbara Simons. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012. Pp. xiv+446. $30. In Broken Ballots, two respected computer scientists and election-reform activists—Doug Jones of the University of Iowa and Barbara Simons, formerly of IBM Research and a past president of the…
Electric Dreams: Computers in American Culture (review)
Reviewed by Bryan Pfaffenberger Electric Dreams: Computers in American Culture. By Ted Friedman. New York: New York University Press, 2005. Pp. x+275. $22. This engaging but ultimately unsatisfying book examines the "utopian sphere"—a public forum in which alternative futures can be imagined and debated—that arose in response to computing innovations, ranging from Charles Babbage's Difference Engine to web logs. It is of interest, writes Ted Frie…
Global Control: Information Technology and Globalization since 1845 (review)
In this provocative synthesis, Peter McMahon (who is affiliated with the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy at Murdoch University, in Perth) examines the history of information technologies having global reach. Global Control focuses on the roles these technologies have played in building or undermining transnational control systems, such as those used by financiers and corporations, that are capable of establishing hegemonies tha…
Mining communities, chaînes opératoires and sociotechnical systems
Is the term ‘mining community’ an oxymoron? Any meaningful discussion must begin by challenging the myth of the isolated ‘mining camp,’ in which are found-putatively-the rude cabins and tents of temporary residents, exclusively male. In place of community, or so goes this myth, there is only an aggregate of adventurous, violent men, united only by greed and the pursuit of some valuable metal. Their society, if it can be so dignified by the use of…
New Technology and the Workers' Response: Microelectronics, Labour, and Society
Introduction - Amiya Kumar Bagchi Coping with Technological Change Notes on Dynamic Flexibility, Cooperation and Economic Efficiency - Jose Ricardo Tauile Nation, Distribution and Machinery - Partha Sarathi Banerjee Managing and Organizing for Advanced Manufacturing Technology - Per Lindberg Technology Import and Skill Development in a Microelectronics-Based Industry - Sunil Mani The Case of India's Electronic Switching Systems Output Growth, Tec…
New Technology and the Workers’ Response: Microelectronics, Labour, and Society ed. by Amiya Kumar Bagchi and Ranabir Samaddar
358 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE New Technology and the Workers’ Response: Microelectronics, Labour, and Society. Edited by Amiya Kumar Bagchi and Ranabir Samaddar. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1995. Pp. 367; tables, notes, index. $39.95 (hardcover). For developing countries trying to chart a course through the con fusing waters of global competition, new technologies present dis tressing challenges as well as promising opportunities. T…
Key Priorities for Social Science Research on Cyberspace
Social science research on cyberspace should concentrate on theory development, a national baseline survey of current networking practices, ethnographic case studies of businesses and other networked organizations, the implications of the National Information Infrastructure and multimedia technology for education, and policy options for mitigating socioeconomic and other inequalities that new communication and information technologies exacerbate
If I Want It, It's OK: Usenet and the (Outer) Limits of Free Speech
Usenet is an international communications system composed of thousands of topically named discussion groups, called newsgroups, which enable anyone with an Internet connection and the proper software to read messages, post new messages, or reply to existing ones. Remarkable for its culture of ''anything-goes'' free speech, Usenet tradition recognizes only one kind of legitimate restriction on content: that which is abusive to the Net's ability to…
The second selfin a third world immigrant community
In "The Second Self, Sherry Turkle depicts the computer as a physically opaque and evocative object. Like a Rorschach diagram, it encourages North American users to employ the computer as a means of self-identification. Do people from other cultures respond to the computer in the same way? American responses take place in the context of American ideas about technology. In this study of Sri Lanka Tamil computer users in London, it was found that T…
The Use of Tools by Human and Non-Human Primates
General/Theoretical Anthropology: Technological Perspectives on Behavioral Change. Michael Brian Schiffer
Technological Dramas
This article examines the technological construction of political power, as well as resistance to political power, by means of an "ideal-typical" model called a technolog ical drama. In technological regularization, a design constituency creates artifacts whose features reveal an intention to shape the distribution of wealth, power, or status in society. The design constituency also creates myths, social contexts, and rituals to legitimate its in…
Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali
Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali by J. Stephen Lansing
TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 613 of U.S. industrial history weary of the all-consuming organizational paradigm will find in Richard Whipp’s Patterns ofLabour a refreshing and thought-provoking alternative. Regina Lee Blaszczyk Ms. Blaszczyk is a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. history in the Hagley Program at the University of Delaware. Priests and Programmers: Technologies ofPower in the Engineered Landscape ofBali. By J. Stephen Lansing. Princet…
Social Anthropology of Technology
At the onset of the 20th century, anthropologists such as Balfour, Marett, and Haddon could readily identify three spheres of strength in anthropological research: material culture, social organization, and physical anthropology (49). The study of and material culture, however, was about to be jettisoned, and with stunning finality. By 1914, Wissler (103:447) complained that the study of these subjects has been quite out of fashion. Researchers w…
Computers in the Human Context: Information Technology, Productivity, and People ed. by Tom Forester
1132 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE weaponry, concentrating on military secrecy enforced through ex treme fragmentation of labor and self-censorship. Vincent Mosco regards as secondary the debate over whether SDI (“Star Wars”) could ever work. Rather, he insists, we must look at its profound ability to institutionalize further militarism in Western society. Other essays by Tom Athansiou and Paul Edwards explore the fetishization of artifi …
The hindu temple as a machine, or, the western machine as a temple
Computers in the Human Context: Information Technology, Productivity, and People
From the Publisher: Our technical knowledge about computers is not matched by a knowledge of their social consequences and possibilities. Computers in the Human Context provides a challenging reappraisal of the information technology revolution. It shows that many companies and organizations are using computers ineffectively, wasting much of the over $300 billion that is being spent each year on computer and communications hardware and software. …
The Long Interview
The Harsh Facts of Hydraulics: Technology and Society in Sri Lanka's Colonization Schemes
From the close of the First World War to the present, the government of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) has attempted a series of ambitious irrigation and resettlement projects, called in the literature.' These projects seek to settle landless Sri Lankan peasants in Sri Lanka's sparsely populated Dry Zone, where ancient Buddhist civilizations once flourished in valleys watered by rivers flowing from the central mountain massif.2 (See fig. 1.) The col…
Social Anthropology of Technology
At the onset of the 20th century, anthropologists such as Balfour, Marett, and Haddon could readily identify three spheres of strength in anthropological research: material culture, social organization, and physical anthropology (49). The study of and material culture, however, was about to be jettisoned, and with stunning finality. By 1914, Wissler (103:447) complained that the study of these subjects has been quite out of fashion. Researchers w…
Fetishised Objects and Humanised Nature: Towards an Anthropology of Technology
Technological Dramas
This article examines the technological construction of political power, as well as resistance to political power, by means of an "ideal-typical" model called a technolog ical drama. In technological regularization, a design constituency creates artifacts whose features reveal an intention to shape the distribution of wealth, power, or status in society. The design constituency also creates myths, social contexts, and rituals to legitimate its in…
The Sri Lankan Tamils: Ethnicity and Identity
The Kataragama Pilgrimage: Hindu-Buddhist Interaction and Its Significance in Sri Lanka's Polyethnic Social System
Tamil Hindu and Sinhalese Buddhist pilgrims gather each year at Sri Lanka's most important polyethnic shrine, Kataragama, where they worship the deity Skanda (or Murukanṉ). The remarkable tone of ecumenism and tolerance there stands in clear contrast to the mutual mistrust which has recently characterized Tamil-Sinhalese interaction in other social institutions. Does Kataragama help to quell mistrust and to create a bond of common identity betwee…
Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali
Serious pilgrims and frivolous tourists the chimera of tourism in the pilgrimages of Sri Lanka
The Social Meaning of the Personal Computer: Or, Why the Personal Computer Revolution Was No Revolution
Bryan Pfaffenberger, The Social Meaning of the Personal Computer: Or, Why the Personal Computer Revolution Was No Revolution, Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 61, No. 1, The Center in American Culture: Analysis and Critique (Jan., 1988), pp. 39-47
Caste in Tamil Culture. The Religious Foundations of Sudra Domination in Tamil Sri Lanka
Caste in Tamil Culture: The Religious Foundations of Sudra Domination in Tamil Sri Lanka
If I Want It, It's OK: Usenet and the (Outer) Limits of Free Speech
Usenet is an international communications system composed of thousands of topically named discussion groups, called newsgroups, which enable anyone with an Internet connection and the proper software to read messages, post new messages, or reply to existing ones. Remarkable for its culture of ''anything-goes'' free speech, Usenet tradition recognizes only one kind of legitimate restriction on content: that which is abusive to the Net's ability to…
The Harsh Facts of Hydraulics: Technology and Society in Sri Lanka's Colonization Schemes
From the close of the First World War to the present, the government of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) has attempted a series of ambitious irrigation and resettlement projects, called in the literature.' These projects seek to settle landless Sri Lankan peasants in Sri Lanka's sparsely populated Dry Zone, where ancient Buddhist civilizations once flourished in valleys watered by rivers flowing from the central mountain massif.2 (See fig. 1.) The col…
The Political Construction of Defensive Nationalism: The 1968 Temple-Entry Crisis in Northern Sri Lanka
In the same year (1968) that students blockaded the streets of Paris, the formerly somnolent Jaffna Peninsula-the center of Tamil culture in Sri Lanka-was rocked by its own version of civil unrest. Led by an activist affiliated with the "Peking wing" of the Ceylon Communist party, several hundred "Minority Tamils" (mainly of the traditionally "untouchable" Paḷḷar and Naḻavar castes) sat in nonviolent protest (satyagrãha) before the gates of Jaffn…
Sri Lanka in 1987: Indian Intervention and Resurgence of the JVP
Research Article| February 01 1988 Sri Lanka in 1987: Indian Intervention and Resurgence of the JVP Bryan Pfaffenberger Bryan Pfaffenberger Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1959) 28 (2): 137–147. https://doi.org/10.2307/2644815 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions …
The Cultural Dimension of Tamil Separatism in Sri Lanka
Research Article| November 01 1981 The Cultural Dimension of Tamil Separatism in Sri Lanka Bryan Pfaffenberger Bryan Pfaffenberger Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1952) 21 (11): 1145–1157. https://doi.org/10.2307/2643999 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Sea…
Fourth world colonialism, indigenous minorities and Tamil Separatism in Sri Lanka
Despite the withdrawal of colonial power from Third World countries, forms of oppression that might well be termed “colonial” still persist in many of them—the oppression wrought by nationalist Third World governments whose regimes fail to respect the rights of indigenous minorities. In their zeal to reassert their civilizational identity, their sense of their historical mission, and their desire to be “important in the world,” Third World people…
The Use of Tools by Human and Non-Human Primates
The hindu temple as a machine, or, the western machine as a temple
Guidelines for Alcohol Abuse Prevention on the College Campus: Overcoming the Barriers to Program Success
Additional informationNotes on contributorsKenneth C. MillsKenneth C. Mills is associate professor of psychology in psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Bryan PfaffenbergerBryan Pfaffenberger is assistant professor of anthropology, Knox College.Dennis McCartyDennis McCarty is social psychologist, Center for Alcohol Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Social Communication in Dravidian Ritual
Throughout the Hindu cultural universe, rituals carried on by village folk seem to display a fundamental distinction between the rites of the great Hindu deities, in the custody of pure Brahman priests, and the rites of lesser godlings or goddesses, worshipped via the ministrations of non-Brahman--and often impure--ritual functionaries. This essay examines the utility of the notion that, underlying the patterning of Hindu ritual and the social or…
A Humanistic Approach To Ritual In South Asia
A Humanistic Approach To Ritual In South Asia
Community Colleges Fear PhD Teachers
Fieldwork and the Classroom
The Kataragama Pilgrimage: Hindu-Buddhist Interaction and Its Significance in Sri Lanka's Polyethnic Social System
Tamil Hindu and Sinhalese Buddhist pilgrims gather each year at Sri Lanka's most important polyethnic shrine, Kataragama, where they worship the deity Skanda (or Murukanṉ). The remarkable tone of ecumenism and tolerance there stands in clear contrast to the mutual mistrust which has recently characterized Tamil-Sinhalese interaction in other social institutions. Does Kataragama help to quell mistrust and to create a bond of common identity betwee…
A Reply to LaFleur
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
A Reply to LaFleur
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Social Communication in Dravidian Ritual
Throughout the Hindu cultural universe, rituals carried on by village folk seem to display a fundamental distinction between the rites of the great Hindu deities, in the custody of pure Brahman priests, and the rites of lesser godlings or goddesses, worshipped via the ministrations of non-Brahman--and often impure--ritual functionaries. This essay examines the utility of the notion that, underlying the patterning of Hindu ritual and the social or…
Guidelines for Alcohol Abuse Prevention on the College Campus: Overcoming the Barriers to Program Success
Additional informationNotes on contributorsKenneth C. MillsKenneth C. Mills is associate professor of psychology in psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Bryan PfaffenbergerBryan Pfaffenberger is assistant professor of anthropology, Knox College.Dennis McCartyDennis McCarty is social psychologist, Center for Alcohol Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Cultural Dimension of Tamil Separatism in Sri Lanka
Research Article| November 01 1981 The Cultural Dimension of Tamil Separatism in Sri Lanka Bryan Pfaffenberger Bryan Pfaffenberger Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1952) 21 (11): 1145–1157. https://doi.org/10.2307/2643999 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Sea…
Serious pilgrims and frivolous tourists the chimera of tourism in the pilgrimages of Sri Lanka
Caste in Tamil Culture. The Religious Foundations of Sudra Domination in Tamil Sri Lanka
Caste in Tamil Culture: The Religious Foundations of Sudra Domination in Tamil Sri Lanka
Fourth world colonialism, indigenous minorities and Tamil Separatism in Sri Lanka
Despite the withdrawal of colonial power from Third World countries, forms of oppression that might well be termed “colonial” still persist in many of them—the oppression wrought by nationalist Third World governments whose regimes fail to respect the rights of indigenous minorities. In their zeal to reassert their civilizational identity, their sense of their historical mission, and their desire to be “important in the world,” Third World people…
Sri Lanka in 1986: A Nation at the Crossroads
Research Article| February 01 1987 Sri Lanka in 1986: A Nation at the Crossroads Bryan Pfaffenberger Bryan Pfaffenberger Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1958) 27 (2): 155–162. https://doi.org/10.2307/2644610 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cit…
Sri Lanka in 1987: Indian Intervention and Resurgence of the JVP
Research Article| February 01 1988 Sri Lanka in 1987: Indian Intervention and Resurgence of the JVP Bryan Pfaffenberger Bryan Pfaffenberger Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1959) 28 (2): 137–147. https://doi.org/10.2307/2644815 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions …
High-Tech Society: The Story of the Information Technology Revolution. Tom Forester
The Social Meaning of the Personal Computer: Or, Why the Personal Computer Revolution Was No Revolution
Bryan Pfaffenberger, The Social Meaning of the Personal Computer: Or, Why the Personal Computer Revolution Was No Revolution, Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 61, No. 1, The Center in American Culture: Analysis and Critique (Jan., 1988), pp. 39-47
Fetishised Objects and Humanised Nature: Towards an Anthropology of Technology
The Long Interview
The Harsh Facts of Hydraulics: Technology and Society in Sri Lanka's Colonization Schemes
From the close of the First World War to the present, the government of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) has attempted a series of ambitious irrigation and resettlement projects, called in the literature.' These projects seek to settle landless Sri Lankan peasants in Sri Lanka's sparsely populated Dry Zone, where ancient Buddhist civilizations once flourished in valleys watered by rivers flowing from the central mountain massif.2 (See fig. 1.) The col…
The Political Construction of Defensive Nationalism: The 1968 Temple-Entry Crisis in Northern Sri Lanka
In the same year (1968) that students blockaded the streets of Paris, the formerly somnolent Jaffna Peninsula-the center of Tamil culture in Sri Lanka-was rocked by its own version of civil unrest. Led by an activist affiliated with the "Peking wing" of the Ceylon Communist party, several hundred "Minority Tamils" (mainly of the traditionally "untouchable" Paḷḷar and Naḻavar castes) sat in nonviolent protest (satyagrãha) before the gates of Jaffn…
Computers in the Human Context: Information Technology, Productivity, and People ed. by Tom Forester
1132 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE weaponry, concentrating on military secrecy enforced through ex treme fragmentation of labor and self-censorship. Vincent Mosco regards as secondary the debate over whether SDI (“Star Wars”) could ever work. Rather, he insists, we must look at its profound ability to institutionalize further militarism in Western society. Other essays by Tom Athansiou and Paul Edwards explore the fetishization of artifi …
The hindu temple as a machine, or, the western machine as a temple
Computers in the Human Context: Information Technology, Productivity, and People
From the Publisher: Our technical knowledge about computers is not matched by a knowledge of their social consequences and possibilities. Computers in the Human Context provides a challenging reappraisal of the information technology revolution. It shows that many companies and organizations are using computers ineffectively, wasting much of the over $300 billion that is being spent each year on computer and communications hardware and software. …
Technological Dramas
This article examines the technological construction of political power, as well as resistance to political power, by means of an "ideal-typical" model called a technolog ical drama. In technological regularization, a design constituency creates artifacts whose features reveal an intention to shape the distribution of wealth, power, or status in society. The design constituency also creates myths, social contexts, and rituals to legitimate its in…
Sociology (28 works) · Computer Science (21 works) · Political science (19 works) · History (17 works) · Law (17 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Anthropology (10 works) · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography (10 works) · History (10 works) · Library science (9 works)