Page 125 - Prathima Volume 12

A Review of Postcolonial Scholarship: Conducting Research on Culture and Society

As a result, these new methods are purely phenomenological and existential in relation
to studying society and culture. Also, these new methods enable one to decolonize the
study location and its culture from the colonial representations. In addition to digital
ethnography in anthropology, some anthropologists employ cultural mapping
methods in ethnographic research (Crawhal, 2007; Poole, 2003). Cultural mapping is
a research technique in studying how people perceive place, space, time, and memory
(Jones & Garde Hansen, 2012; Kingsolver, 2011; Rodman, 2010). Likewise, Crawhal
(2007) defines it as a “cultural mapping” that “involves the representation of
landscapes in two or three dimensions from the perspectives of indigenous and local
peoples” (2007: 2). To investigate further, cultural mapping (Crawhal 2007) will play
a crucial role in defining the place and cultural knowledge of a community. Cultural
mapping is not merely cartography of a place, but a place that goes beyond the notions
of soil, wood, and different commodities. However, this claim does not ignore the
significance of these commodities in people's life, but anthropologists should
demonstrate how people relate them to their place and people. Furthermore,
anthropologists intend to study how cultural mapping can become a good participatory
research technique, which enables researchers to learn intercultural dialogues and
conversations.

Thus, cultural mapping represents the landscape from a native point of view
(perspectives of indigenous and local people). In particular, UNESCO has adopted this
research method as a potential technique for mapping out local landscape and cultural
resources. UNESCO has paid great attention to cultural mapping projects directed by
indigenous communities to convey cultural knowledge that would enable the
management of cultural resources. In a similar vein, Pool (2003) illustrates that
cultural mapping or cultural landscape mapping usually focuses on documenting
cultural diversity, local resources, networks, and cultural heritage, but I would claim
that this method will also enable anthropologists to re-think the history of places and to
understand people's local knowledge of living places. For instance, spatial
anthropology and cultural geographers use this method to explain how people invest
themselves in material objects (temples, houses, schools, community centers, wells,
etc.) that are part of their places. Through such cultural mapping, researchers will be
able to document peoples' cultural knowledge of place. Even though Pool (2003) did
not discuss the role of internal differences in cultural mapping, anthropologists need to
consider internal differences in terms of gender, class, caste, and age in cultural
mapping.

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