Recent computer applications in cultural anthropology

T i s brief summary of developments in computer applications by cultural anthropologists updates a previous review (Burton, 1970), which dealt with multivariate data analysis, particularly multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. The scope here is linear programming, linear regression, content analysis of text, and simulations. For recent developments in multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, the reader is referred to Romney, Shepard, and Nerlove's two volumes of papers on multidimensional scaling (1972), and to the review article on mathematical anthropology in the Annual Review ofAnthropolo~, (1973). In the past few years recourse to the computer at some point has become common for the practicing cultural anthropologist. Although a large part of that usage takes the form of analyzing data with packaged statistical programs, more and more anthropologists write their own programs for specialized problems which are unique to cultural anthropology. This change in the role of the computer in cultural anthropology is a consequence of two trends: first, an increase in the quantification of field data, and second, an increase in the construction of formal models, which often require the computer for their formulation or computation.