You need some sort of filing system to process culture. Of course you have plans to take a computer to the field so you can merely type in the entries over the course of your study and when you need that redemptive analogy it will be yours at the press of a button.

Dream on! Nothing is that easy and you know it. Granted, the computer has made some rather tedious tasks in culture study easier but it is still just a filing system and as you know.... "garbage in... garbage out." It should be stated that the "hardship" of writing and rewriting data in filing and cross referencing is an effective tool in the learning process. Many of us who have trouble memorizing scripture find that writing a verse down several times helps burn it into our memories. Nothing will ever replace the need for that indispensable tool - the human mind.

Even if you have the most up-to-date computer system, the following notes will help you understand the principles of culture investigation, data entry, cross-referencing, and concluding. In order to effectively learn a culture you need to know not only how to file, but how to draw the data together into meaningful conclusions.

The Universal Outline is foundational to understanding another culture. Your research of one culture leads you into a basic understanding of the potential for information in each of the eight universals of culture. Similar exposure to those universals in other cultures leads to a broadening of that perspective. You need to continue to read what others have written about other cultures to understand the full potential of each of the eight universals of culture.

The culture learning cycle consists of three elements:

• field notes, where the raw material is gathered
• the file, where it is stored and analyzed
• the "interview" portion of the process and planning notes, where interviews with locals are planned.

The three parts of the culture study system form a learning cycle which continues until an accurate understanding of the "raw material" is established.

We'll take a much deeper look at each element of the learning cycle later, but for now a brief overview will explain their basic functions and how to set them up.

Since language and culture are inseparable, the Field Notes for culture (at least here at Language School) are recorded in the same notebook used for field notes in language. It serves as a sort of "raw data" notebook for us to gather all our observations in culture, native responses to our interviews, and anything else we could classify "raw material" in culture. The pages should be numbered for reference in filing.

The file's ultimate purpose is to provide a cultural basis for cross-cultural teaching. We suggest the use of punch card filing if you are unable to use the Tribal Software filing system. It eliminates the need to copy information in order to cross-reference it that existed in the old "slip-filing" system. It also provides some "free" computer literacy, since there are similarities between this method of filing and the way a computer handles this kind of task. Thus this method, besides being easier, will serve as a bridge to understanding the Tribal Software System on the computer. It will be explained more fully under "Filing."

The Workbook is where questions to self are handled and where interviews with natives are planned. It is a tabbed section of the Process and Planning notebook set up for language study.