The Retrieval of Data from Changing Culture: A Strategy for Developing Research Documents for Continued Study

Abstract

For scientists seeking to further understand man, as well as for those working on techniques to change or control his environment, there is need to preserve data on the irreversible changes in his culture. In some areas this need has become acute, as, for example, in those few remaining, isolated cultural enclaves where there still exist extremes in man's diversity not occurring elsewhere. New methods of accumulating studiable data have become necessary which take into consideration the need for both rapidity and reliability. Because such records must serve in lieu of the real events, they must be useful to future researchers with differing interests and orientations. Because they are to be a research source, they must contain more information than just that sought or comprehended by the documentor. Because choice must play a part in their collection, they must be interpretable in light of the selective factors which governed their content. And because they may be the only source of data on many past events, they must be useful in substantiating hypotheses and permitting their testing by other workers. During the last five years, with the support and collaboration of Dr. Carleton Gajdusek, I have developed a strategy to meet these requirements, based primarily on the use of cinema. The methods developed have proved valuable in our study of child growth, development, and behavior in primitive cultures, and have been applied more broadly in the preparation of more general ethnographic film records. Presented here is a brief discussion of the theoretical basis underlying this methodology and of the materials and approaches which permit immediate, intensive, and rapid preparation of research records.