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WJ Clancey — Visualizing Practical Knowledge

Ethnographic study of “traverses”

Traverses were the most central activity for phase three of the HMP-98 expedition. Phase
two, which I didn’t observe, focused on experiments and data collection (e.g., drilling
core samples from the permafrost). Phase three was about exploration using the ATVs.
Traverses are of special interest in planning for Mars because this will also be the key
way of reconnoitering—using small transportation units that hold a few people at most, to
explore the landscape. The story of the first six missions to the moon, is also the story of
traverses, including a “rover” vehicle that carried two people in Apollo 15, 16, and 17.

At Haughton, people traveled on a dozen traverses over the course of a week, following
the Haughton River, exploring the breccia highlands, following feeder creeks through the
“lake sediments” area to the west, and on one very long day-trip, examining the “valley
network” outside the southeastern crater area.

Understanding the practice of traverses, as for any organized activity, involves
understanding a traverse as structured process. Every traverse had the same internal
structure:

• Planning the activity

• Organizing at start (e.g., gathering at the ATVs)

• Launching into the activity (e.g., leader departs, others follow)

• Punctuated events (e.g., full stops)

• Regrouping (bringing the group back together)

• Ending the activity

• Following-up (action items)

In general, we find in organized activities a mixture of explicit plans and rules,
improvisation, and an emergent ensemble (Maue, 1979). Maue describes a general
procedure by which people construct new activities: “There is a beginning, the player
proceeds in turn, that which is done becomes precedent, some acts are unacceptable, there
is an ending.” Members of HMP-98 learned about traverses and how to participate in
them without a text book or training. This is an example of learning practical knowledge
on the job. Understanding traverses is necessary for understanding the context in which
field work was performed at Haughton.

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