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TassaraD on InhornM, Infertility and Patriarchy

The sketch strives to relay the ethnography beyond the monograph by proposing potential forms of circulation, drawing together certain important themes and how they might be generalizable for different interested parties, and effective manners for conveying the information via alternative modalities. By drawing together various theorists and themes mentioned in the text to audiences such as anthropologists, academics, Middle Eastern studies, and feminists, the sketch provides an opportunity for readers to determine manners in which they might apply this text to their own work.

DTassara on InhornM: Infertility and Patriarchy

I would propose including a more detailed outline of the themes that each chapter of the ethnography covers, that way a prospective audience can gain a sense of which chapters might be relevant to them and their work. While it is good to know that each chapter has a distinctive story that is connected to broader histories/practices, I would like to gain a better sense of what that actually looks like in the text.

FigginsJ on FletcherA: Coming of Age in Second Life

Coming of Age in Second Life depicts imports ethnographic methodology into the digital platform of Second Life. It uses performance, theorized by the author using the Greek concept of techne to describe how meaning is made through action/practice within the bounds of a virtual sphere. In essence, it's a classic ethnography applied to a community that exists in a virtual space. Using this virtual world and its occupants as a subject does present the problem of an extra layer of removal: it's like studying the world of a puppet that's controled from a meta-entity.

FigginsJ on FletcherA: Coming of Age in Second Life

The text begins with its theoretical foundations, establishing the importance of techne as a lens to view the activities of Second Life. It then enters a phase of thematized chapters such as "sex and gender or digital economies." It seems like it transitions from justification to example in a deductive fashion. 

FigginsJ on FletcherA: Coming of Age in Second Life

The cover depicts a digital character on a white background with the author's name in a a text bubble very like what one would see in a virtual chat medium. The title and subtitle are also depicted in a virtual "dialogue option" screen with buttons depicted to minimize, maximize, and flip forward and back. The commanding figure on cover is a darker skinned, feminine avatar. This is interesting in light of the original annotator's statement that, "many players of color found Linden’s options of diversity to be lacking and thus made their own skin colors.

FigginsJ on FletcherA: Coming of Age in Second Life

I share an interest with the author and the sketcher on virtual reality, the rules therein, and what we can learn about about human behavior from how they behave in a virtual world so I found the entire sketch fascinating. Some key elements that resonated me:"this did not stop players from being offensive, racist, or discriminatory in anyways in fact some saw it as a challenge, creating multiple accounts to keep harassing residents in the world," would have extraordinarily informative information on bullying behavior and the persistence of predatory behavior. I'd also love psychol

FigginsJ on FletcherA: Coming of Age in Second Life

The sketcher proposed the medium of "video series, using actors to recreate moments". I think this would be a decent way the present the material. I think it would be more meta to make the intended audience create characters and recieve the information contained from a combination of experiencing the game (participating in the commerce, relationships, etc.) but also receiving virtual lectures in a virtual classroom by the author/presenter's character.