TABLE OF CONTENTS: List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
PART I: Setting the Virtual Stage 1
CHAPTER 1: The Subject and Scope of This Inquiry 3
Arrivals and departures--Everyday Second Life--Terms of discussion--The emergence of virtual worlds--The posthuman and the human--What this, a book, does.
CHAPTER 2: History 32
Prehistories of the virtual--Histories of virtual technology--A personal virtual history--Histories of virtual worlds--Histories of cybersociality research--Techne.
CHAPTER 3: Method 60
Virtual worlds in their own terms--Anthropology and ethnography--Participant observation--Interviews, focus groups, and beyond the platform--Ethics--Claims and reflexivity.
PART II: Culture in a Virtual World 87
CHAPTER 4: Place and Time 89
Visuality and land--Builds and objects--Lag--Afk--Immersion--Presence.
CHAPTER 5: Personhood 118
The self--The life course--Avatars and alts--Embodiment--Gender and race--Agency.
CHAPTER 6: Intimacy 151
Language--Friendship--Sexuality--Love--Family--Addiction.
CHAPTER 7: Community 179
The event--The group--Kindness--Griefing--Between virtual worlds--Beyond virtual worlds.
PART III: The Age of Techne 203
CHAPTER 8: Political Economy 205
Creationist capitalism--Money and labor--Property--Governance--Inequality--Platform and social form.
CHAPTER 9: The Virtual 237
The virtual human--Culture and the online--Simulation--Fiction and design--The massively multiple--Toward an anthropology of virtual worlds.
Glossary 251
Notes 255
Works Cited 271
Index 303
Return to Book Description File created: 4/25/2013 | 
