Lessons on Geek Anthropology: Welcome!

Welcome to lessons on Geek Anthropology, a new section in dePepi. You will find it here on every first and third Tuesday of the month. In this section we’ll learn about ‘Geek Anthropology,’ aka ‘Geek Studies.’ We’ll take a look not only to all things geek and fandom, but also to some anthropology terminology and ways of taking a look at pop culture. We’ll take a look at the realm of Geekdom from anthropological eyes, but we won’t be extremely academic (just a bit) so that it is accessible to all. Today we’ll start easy with geeks, nerds, jocks and anthropology.

Cultural Anthropology cares about the study of diversity of the human culture and the results of its diversity. It studies not only social structures, but also the dynamics between people as social beings. Recently, anthropology has put its eyes onto fandom and geek cultures, which are rich and diverse. Though academia regarded the study of fandom and geekdom as a low activity, this view has changed recently, as the shift towards pop culture and geeks has changed in society.

The words geek, nerd and jock define different types of people. They are usually presented by american media, specially related to geek culture, having certain characteristics, which have, obviously, changed through time. Geeks, nerds and jocks are interconnected, specially in the United States and Canada. If we take a look at these words, we’ll find out that ‘jock’ has not been successfully exported around the world. Furthermore, what we understand as a geek and a nerd in the US, might not be exactly the same in another country.

The words ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ can be used as synonyms. However, they do point out to different personalities. According to software engineer Burr Settles, we can explain the differences between a geek and a nerd through their tastes. Geeks seem to like deeper topics, getting easily obsessed, and share their passions with others. However, nerds are more socially clumsy, seem to be obsessed by the vocabulary they use and tend to avoid physical and emotional confrontations.

The stereotype dictates that most geeks and nerds are male, or so media has been promoting. They have also portrayed them as sick, closer to machines than humans. However, these stereotypes are changing. There are many women geeking out, as well as men, and proudly shattering the negative views that stereotypes said geeks and nerds had.

Jocks are just the opposite stereotype: the ideal American sportsman. They originated from a wasp, muscular, gentle “hero” (very much like the Marvel Superhero figure of Thor), introduced by the notion of the ‘perfect quarterback’ in the american school system with English lawyer Thomas Hughes’ book ‘Tom Brown’s School Days.’ (Nugent)

While the word ‘geek’ seems to come from the German word ‘geck,’ meaning ‘fool,’ its most provable origin are a type of performers that could be found in Carnivals back in 1900s. The word ‘nerd,’ however, started back in 1954 by the hand of Doctor Seuss to define someone extremely irritating.

Despite the negative origins of geeks and nerds, and positive ones of the jock, recently cultural views to both have changed.

If we take a look to the statistics below, we’ll find that:

17% of Americans identify as geeks
65% of game designers identify as geeks
50% of technology engineers identify as geeks
37% of bloggers identify as geeks
66% of millennials identify as geeks
45% of people believe that geeks are earlier adopters
31% of people believe geeks have a higher chance of being successful

Geeks and Nerds are becoming cool. As media portrays different layers of geeks and nerds, popular conception of them is changing radically. Though geekdom can still be seen through negative eyes because of traditional stereotypes on it, recent popular culture changes are shifting the notion from negative to positive. Changes in recent history not only have changed how we see the realms of Geekdom, but also what we decide to be important to study.

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