Palmistry , Predictive Analytics and Imprints of Colonized Bodies
Abstract: This paper aims to draw links between the ancient practice of palmistry or chirology and the colonial history of fingerprinting that became the basis of biometrics that are widely used to identify, control and surveil bodies through a critical cultural analysis of machine learning techniques. In 1858, William James Herschel, a British officer in the administrative services in Bengal, India got Rajyadhar Konai’s handprint as a testament for Konai to honour his road building material supply contract. Frances Galton’s study on fingerprints made use of finger and palm prints documented by Herschel in Bengal leading to the swift institution of finger and palm prints for identification purposes in administrative and legal areas. Although finger and palm printing have legacies of anthropometry, they also have a key place in biometrics. Moreover, current machine learning and data practices also inherit some of the methods established by Galton in the study of fingerprints. This way contemporary AI and data practices bear imprints of colonized bodies. On the other hand, palmistry continues to be widely practiced in parts of South and East Asia where the lines of a person’s palms are interpreted to predict the future. This aim common to the application of machine learning in predictive analytics has been explored by developing machine learning programs (including various mobile apps) using the principles of palmistry to predict the future. My paper is interested in exploring the connections between machine learning programs, palmistry, predictive analysis and colonized bodies to two somewhat opposing ways. Firstly, to think of current practices in AI in the framework of a cultural practice such as palmistry to challenge the universalizing vision of AI. Secondly, cloaking AI in ancient palmistry practices as seen in the popular apps continue the extractive practices of historic colonialism.
Author bio: Charu Maithani is a researcher who organises her inquiries in the form of writing and curated projects. She is currently a sessional academic at UNSW, Sydney.
Recorded Presentation | 26 April 2023
#Biometrics #Colonialism #History #India
