The Cambridge Rivers Project (CRP) was launched in 1983 and is named after one of the founders of modern fieldwork anthropology, W.H.R. Rivers. It is dedicated to innovation and communication in anthropology. In particular it is concerned with collecting and conserving information about disappearing worlds and in spreading a knowledge of different cultures through teaching and research.
It aims to make available material on a broad range of cultures in Asia and the West through the use of multi-media database and the internet. Between 1983 and 2009 the project was housed in the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. It is now affiliated to MAA and associated with King’s College at the University of Cambridge.
Current and recent major research projects hosted by Cambridge Rivers Project:
- Digital Himalaya - A project funded by Vanishing World Foundation, UK.
- Multi-media Database Construction of Intangible Cultural Heritage at Great Himalayan Area - A project awarded by the Chinese Ministry of Culture in collaboration with Sichuan University, China, involving the setting up of multi-media databases as well the transfer of technical knowledge on the construction and use of multi-media information retrieval systems.
- Intellectuals Abroad: Cultural Interactions between China and the West 1912-1949 - A project partly funded by King’s College, Cambridge.
- Interviews of distinguished academics and others: a continuing project with over 200 video interviews on the web, which will be shared with Asian audiences.
- Cultural exchanges between Britain and Asia, involving poetry, opera, literature, film and photography.
