Ethnic markers are a prominent organizing feature of human society when individuals engage in significant anonymous interactions. However, identifying markers in natural settings is nontrivial. Although ad hoc assignment of markers to groups is widely documented in the ethnographic literature, predicting the membership of individuals based on stylistic variation is less clear. We argue that a more systematic approach is required to satisfy the basic assumptions made in ethnic marker theory. To this end we introduce a three-step ethnographic method to assess the presence, recognition, and transmission of markers of group identity: (1) continual scans, (2) a utilization survey, and (3) a comparative classification task. Applying the method to a study of culturally significant motifs in the South Pacific Island nation of Tonga, we provide evidence that the motif set satisfies basic theoretical assumptions and thus the motifs are likely expressions for social coordination. We also found that the coordinating role of each motif is variable and requires further investigation.

当个人参与重要的匿名互动时，种族标记是人类社会的一个显着组织特征。然而，在自然环境中识别标记并非易事。尽管在民族志文献中广泛记录了对组的临时分配标记，但基于风格变化预测个人的成员资格尚不清楚。我们认为，需要一种更系统的方法来满足种族标记理论中的基本假设。为此，我们引入了一种三步人种学方法来评估群体身份标记的存在、识别和传播：（1）连续扫描，（2）利用调查，以及（3）比较分类任务。将该方法应用于研究南太平洋岛国汤加具有重要文化意义的主题，我们提供的证据表明基序集满足基本的理论假设，因此基序可能是社会协调的表达。我们还发现每个基序的协调作用是可变的，需要进一步研究。