[Foundation-l] people are knowledge

[Robin McCain]

I've been following this with some interest and I think I'm beginning to 
see how this is like nesting dolls.   In the kernel is the actual 
interview in the native language - the primary source(s) which is 
actually a video or audio recording. The next layer is the interviewers 
transcription layer - a secondary source that may or may not compare & 
contrast various primary sources to create a collective composite which 
others who can read the native language are free to comment, modify, 
dispute, etc.

That's great - don't monkey with success. So far all that has been done 
is to convert one or more oral sources into a written condensation that 
is now open to all native readers (or listeners if you use text to 
speech technology) and that information is coherent within the context 
of that culture.

Where all this seems to fall down is that some insist on forcing? this 
material into English so a researcher will not be inconvenienced with 
the task of learning the native language. That doesn't make much sense, 
as the ethnographer or other researcher needs to understand that culture 
enough to access the primary source and understand the cultural context 
- which means they must know the native language anyway.

Work based on this cultural collection of material that will ultimately 
be published in English should be written by this researcher or a 
translator who can make it make sense in English. Running the original 
material through a mechanical translator is fraught with errors and 
misunderstandings.