Software Design and Global Cultural Issues

There are three kinds of global cultural issues in computer-based genealogy:

A. User's locale and current user activities

• the current locale of user
• the character set and language of user interface
• modern date and currency formats
  
• the operating system of the computer
• the printer page size standards
• keyboards and character input
• language spelling differ between publishing destinations
• editorial rules that differ between publishing destinations

These issues should be dealt with by the accepted software internationalization techniques. This is the start of a list of reference points:

• "Developing International Software for Windows 95 and Windows NT" (1995) Nadine Kano, Microsoft Press
  (A good overview of all the cultural/programming issues.)
  
• "Internationalisation with Visual Basic" (2000) Michael S. Kaplan, SAMS
  (Describes the dance that the programmer must do to be culterally aware.)
  
• The Unicode Consortium (http://www.unicode.org)
• The Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.uic.edu/orgs/tei/)
• World Wide Web XML (http://www.w3.org/XML/)

A search of the Web will reveal many sites on these topics.

B. Origin of the genealogical evidence

• the historical locale from which the evidence is drawn
• the language and character set of the original record
• the alternative methods of naming locations in that period
• the nature of the administrative regime that applies to the data
• the purpose for which a personal name is recorded
• the alternative methods of personal naming in that period for that culture
• the correct forms of address for persons with societal honours
• the purpose for which a position in society is recorded
• the culturally correct sequential display of a compound personal name
• the language appropriate to refer to a person of a position in society
• the calendar in use at that time in that location
• the units of measure for time, land, distance and currency at that time
  
• the method of land subdivision and description of location in that period
• the political and administrative institutions of that location and period
• the purpose and administration under which a location of an event is recorded
• the appropriate cultural term for a relationship between parties

C. Integrating genealogical evidence from many cultures

• the character collation sequences (and phonetic equivalence) for each language
• the culturally dependent name abbreviation rules
• the rules for comparison of values may vary with each culture
• the difficulties in the comparison of diverse calendars
• the sequence of output of personal name elements is culturally dependent
• the sequence of output of place elements is culturally dependent
• the measures of closeness of locations may be culturally dependent
• the same terms for personal relationships have different meaning
• the same terms for location subdivision have different application
• the naming of source citation elements is culturally dependent
• the sequencing of source citation elements is culturally dependent
• the content of a source and its source depends on culture and period

Cultural Insensitivity in Event Recording

An analysis of the above reveals 7 black holes of cultural insensitivity:

1. Personal Names
2. Relationships
3. Roles
4. Dates
5. Places
6. Notes
7. Citations

Any solution to overcome the cultural insensitivity must require each data object to hold an attribute that signifies its cultural origin. This attribute must be integral to any editing, presentation or exporting of this data object. It must not be lost or modified in any data transmission.

Only then will it be possible for future genealogical software systems to implement culturally sensitive rules for operations on each data object.

1. Cultural Issues in Personal Naming Systems

Another term for the study of personal names is "anthroponymics". Searching the web using this term will reveal many other sites. It will be quickly seen that modern English-speaking European culture has simplified and tried to standardize the way personal names are created and used. But in genealogy we must look at historical records and record what we find. Personal names have many cultural forms. It is indeed difficult to see how the concious genealogical practice of maintaining the birth name has much sense in these cultures where a person's name changes several times in their lifetime. So does the form of address - see the notes section.

This is the start of a list of reference points:

• Tutorials for reading Old german, French and English Handwriting, Naming Systems (http://www.disknet.com/indiana_biolab/eg502.htm)

2. Cultural Issues in Relationships

This area is also uses the term "kinship". It has 2 aspects that need to be understood by persons from modern English-culture.

1. There are differences the use of kin terms from culture to culture. The scope of meaning of the same English translated term can vary markedly from culture to culture.
2. The method of expressing an extended generational relationship usually does not work the in the same compounding way that English uses "great" or counts cousins.

Here are some reference to help you understand the differences:

Kinship and Social Organization (http://www.umanitoba.ca/anthropology/tutor/kinmenu.html)

A Kinship Glossary (http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/436/kinship.htm)

3. Cultural Issues in Roles in Events

Role names change from culture, as do occupations, so it is important to recognize equality and the nuiance of differences of meaning for the same word in another culture. An example is the UK English historical use of "natural" child to mean a "child born out of wedlock" - No comprehensive references have been found for this issue on the Internet.

4. Cultural Issues in Dates and Calendars

Most genealogists will be aware of the differences between the United Kingdom and the USA methods of writing dates where the day and the month sequence are reversed in one from the other. Many other nations and cultures have different calendars and write their dates differently. The Gregorian calendar that most of the Western World follows was an adjustment from a previous calendar. The date at which that adjustment was made and the size of the adjustment varies from culture to culture and from location to location. Hence for a date to be interpreted correctly the cultural origin of the date must become part of the date data. Even today, there are significant populations in the world do not record dates according to the Western Gregorian calendar.

This is the start of a list of reference points:

• Calendars (http://charon.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html) 12 pages covering most the world's calendar systems.
• Calendars (http://www.genfair.com/dates.htm) A detailed discussion of European calendar changes.

5. Cultural Issues in Place Descriptions

A search of the Internet using the alternative term "toponym" will reveal a number of sites on this topic.

The cultural complexity in place naming is confused even in English-speaking cultures because the same term has be applied to a different entity or to a different level in a hierarchical description. The USA use of "County" and the United Kingdom use of "County" are an obvious example. The use of "Parish" in the USA state of Louisiana instead of "County" conflicts with the use of "Parish" in the United Kingdom and the Australian state of New South Wales. There are many such confusions, overlapping boundaries and boundary changes to confuse the reader of the record of an event. To make matters more confused there are many examples where the one toponym can be used to represent up to 4 levels of geographic containment.

This is the start of a list of reference points:

• The Toponym Resources Finder Page (http://www.islandnet.com/~wesindex/topomain.html) This page has many links to national gazetteers.

6. Cultural Issues in Use of Language in Notes

When constructing the notes that are extracts from the sources or when you are providing a translation of the text of a source, it is imperative that you understand the context of the words that you are copying or translating. It is very easy to make inappropriate inferences because you assume that words used by the author of the document have retained their meaning to today. The other points here are that when working with an unfamiliar culture, it is easy to present the names and forms of address in the form correct for their time period. The plural form, the male and female form of terms need to be researched to ensure that your notes are valid.

This is the start of a list of reference points:

• Forms of Address (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001618.html) Modern USA practice
• Titles and Forms of Address in Elizabethan England (http://elizabethan.org/))
• British Titles of Nobility (http://laura.chinet.com/html/titles01.html)

7. Cultural Issues in Citations

The USA is lucky to a series of works on citation both for normal use and for genealogical use. The United Kingdom and its other colonies do not. Unfortunately, the citation methods presented for the USA do not work well in other cultures.

This is the start of a list of reference points:

• "Cite Your Sources" Richard Lackey (New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1980)
• "Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the family Historian" Elizabeth Shown Mills (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1997)
• The Open Citation Linking Project (http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/citation.html)
• The Public Record Office of Victoria Citation Requirement (http://www.access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/PROVguides/PROVguide013/PROVguide013.jsp)
  An example of how Government can upset a standard or require a separate template for one archive

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