Linguistic and Material Intimacies of Cell Phones
Linguistic and Material Intimacies of Cell Phones offers a detailed ethnographic and anthropological examination of the social, cultural, linguistic and material aspects of cell phones. With contributions from an international range of established and emerging scholars, this is a truly global collection with rural and urban examples from communities across the Global North and South. Linking the use of cell phones to contemporary discussions about representation, mediation and subjectivity, the book investigates how this increasingly ubiquitous technology challenges the boundaries of privacy and selfhood, raising new questions about how we communicate.
Joshua A. Bell is a Cultural Anthropologist and Curator of Globalization at the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of Natural History, USA.
Joel C. Kuipers is Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at the George Washington University, USA.
Routledge Studies in Anthropology
Counterfeit Itineraries in the Global South
The Human Consequences of Piracy in China and Brazil
Rosana Pinheiro-Machado
Meaning and Significance in Human Engagement
A Cognitive Approach to Culture
David B. Kronenfeld
Distortion
Social Processes Beyond the Structured and Systemic
Edited by Nigel Rapport
Critical Times in Greece
Anthropological Engagements with Contemporary Greece
Edited by Dimitris Dalakoglou and Georgos Agelopoulos
An Ethnography of Global Environmentalism
Becoming Friends of the Earth
Caroline Gatt
Linguistic and Material Intimacies of Cell Phones
Edited by Joshua A. Bell and Joel C. Kuipers
Hybrid Communities
Biosocial Approaches to Domestication and Other Trans-species Relationships
Edited by Charles Stpanoff and Jean-Denis Vigne
Orthodox Christian Material Culture
Of People and Things in the Making of Heaven
Timothy Carroll
www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Anthropology/book-series/SE0724
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2018 selection and editorial matter, Joshua A. Bell and Joel C. Kuipers; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Joshua A. Bell and Joel C. Kuipers to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-22967-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-38838-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
JOEL C. KUIPERS AND JOSHUA A. BELL
Part I
Origins
JEFFREY W. MANTZ
HEATHER HORST AND ERIN B. TAYLOR
BILL MAURER, TAYLOR C. NELMS, AND STEPHEN C. REA
Part II
Uses
LOURDES DE LEN
JENNIFER DEGER
ELIZABETH KEATING
RICH LING, PL SUNDSY, LEYSIA PALEN, GEOFFREY CANRIGHT, JOHANNES BJELLAND, AND KENTH ENG-MONSEN
ALEXANDER S. DENT
ALEXANDRA WEILENMANN AND THOMAS HILLMAN
Part III
Ends of life
JOEL C. KUIPERS AND JOSHUA A. BELL, WITH JACQUELINE HAZEN, AMANDA KEMBLE, AND BRIEL KOBAK
WEBB KEANE
Joshua A. Bell is a cultural anthropologist and curator of globalization at the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of Natural History. Combining ethnographic fieldwork with research in museums and archives, his research examines the shifting local and global network of relationships between persons, artifacts and the environment. To date, his research has focused on Papua New Guinea and the United States. Since 2011, Bell has been working on a collaborative research/exhibit project on cell phones. He co-edited Recreating First Contact: Expeditions, Anthropology and Popular Culture (2013), The Anthropology of Expeditions (2015), and Tropical Forests of Oceania (2015).
Johannes Bjelland is a data scientist working at Telenor Group Research. In the last six years, he has focused on developing and testing new methods to extract insight and value from vast amounts of Telecom customer data. This includes data mining, machine learning, social network analysis and setting up data-driven marketing pilots. He strongly believes in data analysis as a tool for optimizing business decisions and understands human behavior. His academic background is in computational physics.
Geoffrey Canright has a BA in psychology, a BS in electrical engineering and a PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics. After more than a decade of experience in academic research in the United States involving statistical physics and complexity, he moved to Telenor Research in Norway, where he is currently a research fellow. He has studied many aspects of network science, including web link analysis, social network analysis and analysis of financial transaction networks.
Jennifer Deger is a research leader and associate professor at the Cairns Institute and the College of Art, Society and Education at James Cook University. An anthropologist, filmmaker and occasional curator, Dr. Deger specializes in the study of visual culture and media worlds. She is a founding member of Miyarrka Media, a digital arts collective based in the community of Gapuwiyak, North Territory. With her Yolngu colleagues from Miyarrka Media, she has co-directed several award-winning films and co-curated experimental installations and exhibitions in Denmark, the United States and Australia. Dr. Degers collaborative and practice-led research methods also inform her writing on indigenous aesthetics, film, art and photography, including her book Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community (2006). Her recent work on mobile phone media and social creativity has been supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT110100587).
Lourdes de Len is a linguistic anthropologist specialized in childrens first language acquisition as well as in children and youth language socialization and learning. She has worked over three decades with the Tzotzil Mayan of the Highlands of Chiapas, Mxico. She has publications in several journals (
