"When you are on the border, there is a certain lure which draws you on farther and still farther, I suppose it is what Jack London would term the 'Call of the Wild'."
Frank Canton (c. 1908)
In 1890, the American Frontier as we knew it was declared "closed" (Turner, 1893). Almost immediately, Americans began to mythologize and reinvent the frontier experience. Influenced by everyone from Frederick Jackson Turner to Buffalo Bill, we created a collective memory of the West and the frontier, not entirely as it was, but perhaps how we would have liked it to be. This "imaginative" frontier has been influencing American culture ever since. Certainly the frontier as a metaphor for anything new and exciting has persisted as a defining figure in American collective identity. This has led me to believe that there is something in the modern concept of the frontier, the mythology of the frontier, quite apart from its harsh realities, that causes frontier mentality to still take hold of our imagination and social/cultural evolution.
Now, as we enter the twenty-first century, new kinds of "frontiers" are being created through technology and its uses. The Internet is one particular example of how technology is changing the way we communicate, interact, and do business over vast areas of the planet. Our current ability to communicate, to process and distribute information rapidly to many areas of the world has never been seen before in history.
In addition, advancements in computer technology are allowing formation of a new type of virtual community (Rheingold, 1993). These electronic communities may consist of a number of people, most of who have never met face to face, but who share interests, goals, or simply curiosity about particular subjects. In short, what we are seeing are new communities forming both inside and between existing ones. For anthropologists, the opportunity to study and understand the formation of new cultures arises.
For several decades, these virtual communities have been based on purely textual communications in a shared environment, either in asynchronic or real time. More recently, however, some of these have begun to include graphical and even three-dimensional surroundings, adding another layer to the possibilities of online communications. I chose to concentrate my research in graphical and three-dimensional virtual realities because, at the present time, these are the most current environments available through computer technology, and are at the leading edge of the cyberspace realms.
The study of cyberspace culture is a relatively new area within anthropology. In June of 1995, the American Anthropological Association, in conjunction with the Computing Research Association and the National Science Foundation, conducted a workshop on "Culture, Society, and Advanced Information Technology". This workshop concluded that
... the recent breakthroughs in the speed, communications capability, and storage capacity of digital information devices would create far- reaching and unforeseen changes in families, communities, institutions, and democratic processes. To understand the social consequences of these breakthrough technologies, government, academic, and corporate researchers need to build on the solid foundation that exists in studies of sociotechnical systems, media studies, on-line communication, and the social science study of computing. (Batteau, 1995: 1)
Among the questions that the workshop identified as important issues to be addressed by anthropological research into cyberspace communities, and that are spoken to in this particular study, are the following:
My research into the formulation and enforcement of social and cultural norms in graphical and three-dimensional virtual reality communities therefore contributes to answering questions that are considered important by the larger community of cyberspace anthropologists. In addition, ethnographic research of virtual communities gives the anthropologist a unique opportunity to study and learn from a culture as it is being created. The state of technology in our world is advancing at such a pace that the casual observer may not even realize the impact it is having on our culture. For these reasons, it is critical at this point in history for ethnographers to observe and record the effects of this new technology on its users.
By involving ethnographic insight at this juncture, anthropologists are also in a good position to document and even influence future technological development. This research adds to the ongoing work by other anthropologists of computing and technology, building upon the excellent work that has been done in text-based virtual communities (Turkle 1995, Pavel 1993, Rheingold 1993, Reid 1994), and adding to that presently taking place in the graphical (Richardson 1997, Suler 1997,1999).
Chapter One of this thesis, entitled Introduction, describes the background of the project and how I arrived at this particular topic. This includes some background on why I believe that this type of research is meaningful at this time in history, and its application to the greater area of anthropology. I also discuss the area of Anthropology of Cyberspace in particular, and how this research contributes to its aims.
The second chapter, Literature Review, contains a review of literature pertaining to my research. Areas of review were:
In the third chapter, History and Context, I discuss the history and context of the environment in which the study was carried out. This includes my own background as the researcher, and the history and overviews of the three virtual worlds in which I conducted my research - AlphaWorld, WorldsAway's Dreamscape, and The Palace. I have also included a discussion of my interviewing process and selection of informants, and a "Cast of Characters", brief introductions to each of my informants.
A description of the methodology used for this project is contained in Chapter Four, Methodology. I begin with a discussion of ethnographic research in general, and how it was approached for this project. In particular, I discuss the issues specific to doing research in virtual reality, how other researchers have dealt with them, and how I arrived at my own process. The two major methods used were John Flanagan's Critical Incident Technique (1954) and James Spradley's Participant Observation (1980). In this chapter I describe how they were used for this project. A more detailed breakdown of the stages in the Critical Incident Technique is also contained here.
In Chapter Five, Findings, I show how I analyzed my data and arrived at the Cultural Themes present in my research. This is where we hear from the informants themselves about their experiences in their respective virtual worlds. I also present data drawn from my historical research in order to explore the parallels that exist between the two frontiers. Five basic themes emerged from my interviews, and each is discussed in a section of this chapter. These themes deal primarily with how social norms are determined and enforced, and with the needs for individuality and self-fulfillment that are played out in the virtual communities.
In Chapter Six, Conclusions, I reiterate how the mental models and the processes of cultural formation are closely tied between the nineteenth century American frontier and the current Cyberspace frontier. I restate how the concept of frontier has been incorporated into virtual communities, and what the term "frontier" actually means in this context. I also state my conclusions about the significance of my findings for the field of anthropology and the implications for potential future research. Finally, I discuss the underlying mentality and human needs that contribute to the parallel themes and social behaviors that exist in any frontier situation. Out of this, I have attempted to show that "frontier" is more a social and cultural construct than it is a mere metaphor.
