Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

wilked aka Khun Deng · 10th December 2004, 05:34 AM

Ruel and others, I'm very glad to your see your critical aid supplied as advice. As one who has been out there collecting information lately I can echo their comments. Terms of reference (definitions) are particulary important.

As one with little experience prior, helping "the dha guys" research effort I put together a brief presentation stating our goals and specific area of research. It helped tremendously in focusing my questions during interviews and was an easily accessable reference on many unforeseen opportunities that popped up. Additionally it served as a contact list and leave-behind document for those I dealt with should they come across additional information later.

The matter of voracity of information is a touchier subject. Without boring you with a intelligence classification class, I'll just say that we rate information on two things 1.The validity of the source - loyalty, personal interests, access to information 2. Credibilty of information - has the source been valid in the past, has there been confirmation from other sources. The touchy part is memory is a funny thing, illustrations and statuary can be influenced by artistic license and old photos can be posed. I guess what I'm trying to say is each bit of information should be treated as a seperate item to be verified and and not just the source who may be right about some things but mistaken on others.

In example there are two bronze statues in the courtyard of the American embassy in Burma of a US officer and a Kachin Ranger carrying a Naga-dao. The Naga-dao reaches from the ranger's shoulder to kneecap. Upon presentation of a poster of this statue with the lineage of his unit underneath, one of the few remaining officers of that unit exclaimed (to paraphrase) "where did they get that sword, he never carried a sword like that and I've never seen one that big either it would be useless in the jungle" The dao was perfectly represented except for its size (confirmed info) and the fact that it wasn't in common use by that unit (unreliability of source).

10th December 2004, 05:34 AM	#19
wilked aka Khun Deng Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Oahu, Hawaii Posts: 166	Research Ruel and others, I'm very glad to your see your critical aid supplied as advice. As one who has been out there collecting information lately I can echo their comments. Terms of reference (definitions) are particulary important. As one with little experience prior, helping "the dha guys" research effort I put together a brief presentation stating our goals and specific area of research. It helped tremendously in focusing my questions during interviews and was an easily accessable reference on many unforeseen opportunities that popped up. Additionally it served as a contact list and leave-behind document for those I dealt with should they come across additional information later. The matter of voracity of information is a touchier subject. Without boring you with a intelligence classification class, I'll just say that we rate information on two things 1.The validity of the source - loyalty, personal interests, access to information 2. Credibilty of information - has the source been valid in the past, has there been confirmation from other sources. The touchy part is memory is a funny thing, illustrations and statuary can be influenced by artistic license and old photos can be posed. I guess what I'm trying to say is each bit of information should be treated as a seperate item to be verified and and not just the source who may be right about some things but mistaken on others. In example there are two bronze statues in the courtyard of the American embassy in Burma of a US officer and a Kachin Ranger carrying a Naga-dao. The Naga-dao reaches from the ranger's shoulder to kneecap. Upon presentation of a poster of this statue with the lineage of his unit underneath, one of the few remaining officers of that unit exclaimed (to paraphrase) "where did they get that sword, he never carried a sword like that and I've never seen one that big either it would be useless in the jungle" The dao was perfectly represented except for its size (confirmed info) and the fact that it wasn't in common use by that unit (unreliability of source).