Daniela Weinberg

Using a computer in the field : Kinship information

In a recent paper ambitiously titled &dquo;Computer methods in kinship studies&dquo;, Gilbert (1971) begins by stating: &dquo;In discussing the application of computers to any subject one runs two risks. The first of these is that everything will be outdated before it gets into print. The second is that one will get so carried away with what could be done (as opposed to what has been done), that the reader thinks that a great deal more has been accomplished than is in fact the case.&dquo; There is a third risk, and that is that if one waits to report on what has been done, as opposed to what might be done, the article is compared with what other people said earlier might be done and is not considered original work. Anthropologists, being naive in the computer business, are easy prey to the smooth-talking computer &dquo;experts&dquo; who are careful not to make the

BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL MODELS OF INHERITANCE

By stripping well-known models of certain detail, we may obtain models which are more easily transferred across the gap between disciplines. This paper demonstrates how this process took place in one instance, leading to the solution of a problem which has long puzzled anthropologists by application of an abstraction of a model well-known to biologists.