基本説明
New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2008. Shows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society, bringing anthropology into territory never before studied.
Full Description
Millions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds. Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love--the possibilities are endless, and all encountered through a computer screen. Coming of Age in Second Life is the first book of anthropology to examine this thriving alternate universe. Tom Boellstorff conducted more than two years of fieldwork in Second Life, living among and observing its residents in exactly the same way anthropologists traditionally have done to learn about cultures and social groups in the so-called real world. He conducted his research as the avatar "Tom Bukowski," and applied the rigorous methods of anthropology to study many facets of this new frontier of human life, including issues of gender, race, sex, money, conflict and antisocial behavior, the construction of place and time, and the interplay of self and group.Coming of Age in Second Life shows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society. Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself.
Contents
List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi PART IVirtual Stage 1 CHAPTER 1: The Subject and Scope of This Inquiry 3 Arrivals and departures--Everyday Second Life--Terms of discussion--The emergence of virtual worlds--The posthuman and the human--What this, a book, does. CHAPTER 2: History 32 Prehistories of the virtual--Histories of virtual technology--A personal virtual history--Histories of virtual worlds--Histories of cybersociality research--Techne. CHAPTER 3: Method 60 Virtual worlds in their own terms--Anthropology and ethnography--Participant observation--Interviews, focus groups, and beyond the platform--Ethics--Claims and reflexivity. PART II: Culture in a Virtual World 87 CHAPTER 4: Place and Time 89 Visuality and land--Builds and objects--Lag--Afk--Immersion--Presence. CHAPTER 5: Personhood 118 The self--The life course--Avatars and alts--Embodiment--Gender and race--Agency. CHAPTER 6: Intimacy 151 Language--Friendship--Sexuality--Love--Family--Addiction. CHAPTER 7: Community 179 The event--The group--Kindness--Griefing--Between virtual worlds--Beyond virtual worlds. PART III: The Age of Techne 203 CHAPTER 8: Political Economy 205 Creationist capitalism--Money and labor--Property--Governance--Inequality--Platform and social form. CHAPTER 9: The Virtual 237 The virtual human--Culture and the online--Simulation--Fiction and design--The massively multiple--Toward an anthropology of virtual worlds. Glossary 251 Notes 255 Works Cited 271 Index 303
