Visual anthropology
Encyclopedia
Visual anthropology is a subfield of cultural anthropology
that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic
photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media
. While the term is sometimes used interchangeably with ethnographic film
, visual anthropology also encompasses the anthropological study of visual representation, including areas such as performance, museums, art, and the production and reception
of mass media. Visual representations from all cultures, such as sandpaintings, tattoos, sculptures and reliefs, cave paintings, scrimshaw, jewelry, hieroglyphics, paintings and photographs are included in the focus of visual anthropology. Human vision, its physiology, the properties of various media, the relationship of form to function, the evolution of visual representations within a culture are all within the province of visual anthropology. Since anthropology is a holistic science, the ways in which visual representation are connected to the rest of culture and society are central topics.
or attempts to record for posterity the ways-of-life of societies assumed doomed to extinction (see, for instance, the Native American photography of Edward Curtis)
The history of anthropological filmmaking is intertwined with that of non-fiction and documentary filmmaking, although ethnofiction
may be considered as a genuine sub-genre of ethnographic film
. Some of the first motion pictures of the ethnographic other were made with Lumière equipment (Promenades des Éléphants à Phnom Penh, 1901). Robert Flaherty, probably best known for his films chronicling the lives of Arctic peoples (Nanook of the North
, 1922), became a filmmaker in 1913 when his supervisor suggested that he take a camera and equipment with him on an expedition north. Flaherty focused on “traditional” Inuit
ways of life, omitting to that end any signs of modernity among his film subjects (even to the point of refusing to use a rifle to help kill a walrus his informants had harpooned as he filmed them, according to Barnouw; this scene made it into Nanook where it served as evidence of their "pristine" culture). This pattern would persist in many ethnographic films to follow (see as an example Robert Gardner's Dead Birds
).
By the 1940s, anthropologists such as Hortense Powdermaker
, Gregory Bateson
, Margaret Mead
(Trance and Dance in Bali, 1952) and Asen Balikci (with Netsilik Inuits' movies) were bringing anthropological perspectives to bear on mass media and visual representation. Karl G. Heider
notes in his revised edition of Ethnographic Film (2006) that after Bateson and Mead, the history of visual anthropology is defined by "the seminal works of four men who were active for most of the second half of the twentieth century: Jean Rouch
, John Marshall
, Robert Gardner, and Tim Asch. By focusing on these four, we can see the shape of ethnographic film" (15). In 1966, filmmaker Sol Worth
and anthropologist John Adair taught a group of Navajo Indians in Arizona how to capture 16mm film. The hypothesis was that artistic choices made by the Navajo would reflect the ‘perceptual structure’ of the Navajo world.
In the United States, Visual anthropology first found purchase in an academic setting in 1958 with the creation of the Film Study Center at Harvard
's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
. John Collier, Jr.
wrote the first standard textbook in the field in 1967, and many visual anthropologists of the seventies relied on semioticians like Roland Barthes
for essential critical perspectives. In 2011, Marcus Banks and Jay Ruby published the first history of the field - Made To Be Seen: Historical Perspectives on Visual Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
At present, the Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) represents the subfield in the United States as a section of the American Anthropological Association
.
In the United States, Ethnographic films are shown each year at the Margaret Mead Film Festival
.
Visual anthropology, by focusing on its own efforts to make and understand film, is able to establish many principles and build theories about human visual representation in general.
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
. While the term is sometimes used interchangeably with ethnographic film
Ethnographic film
An ethnographic film is a documentary film related to the methods of ethnology. It emerged in the 1960s as an important tool for research in the domain of visual anthropology, when filming human groups in society...
, visual anthropology also encompasses the anthropological study of visual representation, including areas such as performance, museums, art, and the production and reception
Reception theory
Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes the reader's reception of a literary text. It is more generally called audience reception in the analysis of communications models. In literary studies, reception theory originated from the work of Hans-Robert Jauss in...
of mass media. Visual representations from all cultures, such as sandpaintings, tattoos, sculptures and reliefs, cave paintings, scrimshaw, jewelry, hieroglyphics, paintings and photographs are included in the focus of visual anthropology. Human vision, its physiology, the properties of various media, the relationship of form to function, the evolution of visual representations within a culture are all within the province of visual anthropology. Since anthropology is a holistic science, the ways in which visual representation are connected to the rest of culture and society are central topics.
History
Even before the emergence of anthropology as an academic discipline in the 1880s, ethnologists were using photography as a tool of research. Anthropologists and non-anthropologists conducted much of this work in the spirit of salvage ethnographySalvage ethnography
Salvage ethnography is a term used by anthropologists beginning in the 1960s used as part of a critique of 19th century ethnography and early modern anthropology. The term was coined by Jacob Gruber, who identified its emergence with 19th century ethnographers documenting the languages of peoples...
or attempts to record for posterity the ways-of-life of societies assumed doomed to extinction (see, for instance, the Native American photography of Edward Curtis)
The history of anthropological filmmaking is intertwined with that of non-fiction and documentary filmmaking, although ethnofiction
Ethnofiction
Ethnofiction is a neologism which refers to an ethnographic docufiction sub-genre, a blend of documentary and fiction film in the area of visual anthropology. It is a film style in which the portrayed characters play their own roles as members of an ethnic or social group.Jean Rouch is considered...
may be considered as a genuine sub-genre of ethnographic film
Ethnographic film
An ethnographic film is a documentary film related to the methods of ethnology. It emerged in the 1960s as an important tool for research in the domain of visual anthropology, when filming human groups in society...
. Some of the first motion pictures of the ethnographic other were made with Lumière equipment (Promenades des Éléphants à Phnom Penh, 1901). Robert Flaherty, probably best known for his films chronicling the lives of Arctic peoples (Nanook of the North
Nanook of the North
Nanook of the North is a 1922 silent documentary film by Robert J. Flaherty. In the tradition of what would later be called salvage ethnography, Flaherty captured the struggles of the Inuk Nanook and his family in the Canadian arctic...
, 1922), became a filmmaker in 1913 when his supervisor suggested that he take a camera and equipment with him on an expedition north. Flaherty focused on “traditional” Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
ways of life, omitting to that end any signs of modernity among his film subjects (even to the point of refusing to use a rifle to help kill a walrus his informants had harpooned as he filmed them, according to Barnouw; this scene made it into Nanook where it served as evidence of their "pristine" culture). This pattern would persist in many ethnographic films to follow (see as an example Robert Gardner's Dead Birds
Dead Birds (1965 film)
Dead Birds is a 1964 documentary film by Robert Gardner about the Dani people of New Guinea. It was produced as part of the Harvard-Peabody Expedition to study the highlands of New Guinea, at that time one of the only remaining areas in the world uncolonized by Europeans.The film has been selected...
).
By the 1940s, anthropologists such as Hortense Powdermaker
Hortense Powdermaker
Hortense Powdermaker was an anthropologist best known for her ethnographic studies of African Americans in rural America and of Hollywood. Born to a Jewish family, Powdermaker spent her childhood in Reading, Pennsylvania and in Baltimore, Maryland. She studied history and the humanities at...
, Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. He had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe...
, Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
(Trance and Dance in Bali, 1952) and Asen Balikci (with Netsilik Inuits' movies) were bringing anthropological perspectives to bear on mass media and visual representation. Karl G. Heider
Karl G. Heider
Karl Heider is an American visual anthropologist.-Early life and education:Heider was born in Northampton, Massachusetts. Heider is the son of psychologists Fritz and Grace Heider. He had two brothers; John and Stephan....
notes in his revised edition of Ethnographic Film (2006) that after Bateson and Mead, the history of visual anthropology is defined by "the seminal works of four men who were active for most of the second half of the twentieth century: Jean Rouch
Jean Rouch
Jean Rouch was a French filmmaker and anthropologist.He is considered to be one of the founders of the cinéma vérité in France, which shared the aesthetics of the direct cinema spearheaded by Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert and David Maysles...
, John Marshall
John Marshall (filmmaker)
John Marshall was an American anthropologist and acclaimed documentary filmmaker best known for his work in Namibia recording the lives of the Ju/'hoansi tribe...
, Robert Gardner, and Tim Asch. By focusing on these four, we can see the shape of ethnographic film" (15). In 1966, filmmaker Sol Worth
Sol Worth
Sol Worth was a painter, photographer, film maker, researcher, and pioneer in the use of film in anthropological field research as well as a founding father in the field of visual communication....
and anthropologist John Adair taught a group of Navajo Indians in Arizona how to capture 16mm film. The hypothesis was that artistic choices made by the Navajo would reflect the ‘perceptual structure’ of the Navajo world.
In the United States, Visual anthropology first found purchase in an academic setting in 1958 with the creation of the Film Study Center at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, and is particularly strong in New World ethnography and...
. John Collier, Jr.
John Collier (anthropologist)
John A. Collier, Jr. was an American anthropologist and an early leader in the fields of Visual anthropology and Applied anthropology. His emphasis on analysis and use of still photographs in ethnography led him to significant contributions in other subfields of anthropology, especially the...
wrote the first standard textbook in the field in 1967, and many visual anthropologists of the seventies relied on semioticians like Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
for essential critical perspectives. In 2011, Marcus Banks and Jay Ruby published the first history of the field - Made To Be Seen: Historical Perspectives on Visual Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
At present, the Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) represents the subfield in the United States as a section of the American Anthropological Association
American Anthropological Association
The American Anthropological Association is a professional organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 11,000 members, the Arlington, Virginia based association includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, biological anthropologists, linguistic...
.
In the United States, Ethnographic films are shown each year at the Margaret Mead Film Festival
Margaret Mead Film Festival
The Margaret Mead Film Festival is an annual film festival held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It is the longest-running, premiere showcase for international documentaries in the United States, encompassing a broad spectrum of work, from indigenous community media to...
.
Timeline and breadth of prehistoric visual representation
While art historians are clearly interested in some of the same objects and processes, visual anthropology places these artifacts within a holistic cultural context. Archaeologists, in particular, use phases of visual development to try to understand the spread of humans and their cultures across contiguous landscapes as well as over larger areas. By 10,000 BP, a system of well-developed pictographs was in use by boating peoples and was likely instrumental in the development of navigation and writing, as well as a medium of story telling and artistic representation. Early visual representations often show the female form, with clothing appearing on the female body around 28,000 BP, which archaeologists know now corresponds with the invention of weaving in Old Europe. This is an example of the holistic nature of visual anthropology: a figurine depicting a woman wearing diaphanous clothing is not merely an object of art, but a window into the customs of dress at the time, household organization (where they are found), transfer of materials (where the clay came from) and processes (when did firing clay become common), when did weaving begin, what kind of weaving is depicted and what other evidence is there for weaving, and what kinds of cultural changes were occurring in other parts of human life at the time.Visual anthropology, by focusing on its own efforts to make and understand film, is able to establish many principles and build theories about human visual representation in general.
List of visual anthropology academic programs
- Australian National UniversityAustralian National UniversityThe Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
: The Research School of Humanities and the Arts Centre for Visual Anthropology - FLACSO Ecuador - Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales offers a masters program in visual anthropology.
- Freie Universität Berlin: - M.A. in Visual and Media Anthropology.
- Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology (University of Manchester, UK) MA, MPhil and PhD courses that combine practical film training, editing and production, photography, sound recording. The MA has two pathways: Ethnographic Documentary with Film; and Ethnographic Documentary with Sensory Media. Established in 1987, the Granada Centre's postgraduate programme has produced over 200 documentary films, and its students have made films for BBC, Channel 4 and many other international broadcasters. http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/disciplines/socialanthropology/visualanthropology/
- Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
: Harvard offers a PhD in Social Anthropology with Media in conjunction with its Sensory Ethnography Lab - Heidelberg University: The chair of Visual and Media Anthropology offers BA and MA courses in the field of visual and media anthropology.
- New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
: The Program in Culture and Media - Pontifical Catholic University of PeruPontifical Catholic University of PeruPontifical Catholic University of Peru is a private university in Lima, Peru. It was founded in 1917 by F. Jorge Dintilhac SS.CC. as Peru's first non-profit private institution of higher learning. Academically, PUCP ranks second in Peru, behind the National University of San Marcos.-History:The...
: The Social Sciences Department at PUCP offers a two-year MA program in Visual Anthropology. - San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
: Visual Anthropology program and Peter Biella - Temple UniversityTemple UniversityTemple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
: Undergraduate track in Visual Communication. Graduate specialization in Visual Communication. - Universitat de Barcelona: postgraduate and Master's programs in Visual Anthropology
- University of British ColumbiaUniversity of British ColumbiaThe University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
: The Ethnographic Film Unit at UBC - University of KentUniversity of KentThe University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
: The Department of Anthropology offers a Masters in Visual Anthropology that explores traditional and experimental means of using visual images to produce/represent anthropological knowledge. - University of Leiden offers a Bachelor program in Ethnographic Film; Theory and Practice ( http://www.studiegids.leidenuniv.nl/index.php3?m=143&c=17&t=3&v=&k=22940&oc=87&garb=0.961122668995146 & http://www.studiegids.leidenuniv.nl/index.php3?m=143&c=17&t=3&v=&k=22945&oc=87&garb=0.8275481388141609) and the possibility to perform ethnographic fieldwork with audio visual media within the broader Master-program (http://www.studiegids.leidenuniv.nl/index.php3?m=139&c=700&garb=0.16968962493335587).
- University of London, Goldsmith's CollegeGoldsmiths CollegeGoldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...
: The anthropology department offers an MA and PhD in Visual Anthropology. - University of Oxford: The Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology offers a one-year MSc in Visual Anthropology.
- University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
- USC Center for Visual AnthropologyUSC Center for Visual AnthropologyThe USC Center for Visual Anthropology is a center located at the University of Southern California. It is dedicated to the field of visual anthropology, incorporating visual modes of expression in the academic discipline of anthropology...
: The MAVA (Master of Arts in Visual Anthropology) was a 2-3 year terminal Masters program from 1984–2001, which produced over sixty ethnographic documentaries. In 2001, it was merged into a Certificate in Visual Anthropology given alongside the Ph.D. in Anthropology. A new digitally based program was created in the Fall of 2009 as a new one year MA program in Visual Anthropology. http://college.usc.edu/news/stories/634/legends-asch-and-myerhoff-inspire-a-new-generation-of-visual-ant/ - University of TromsøUniversity of TromsøThe University of Tromsø is the world's northernmost university. Located in the city of Tromsø, Norway, it was established in 1968, and opened in 1972. It is one of eight universities in Norway. The University of Tromsø is the largest research and educational institution in northern Norway...
: The University of Tromsø offers a program in Visual Culture Studies
Related articles
- Visual Anthropology - Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, article by Jay Ruby
- Watching Anthropology Films and Videos, article – University of South Dakota
- Visual anthropology in the digital mirror: Computer-assisted visual anthropology, article by Michael D. Fischer and David Zeitlyn, University of Kent at Canterbury
- Legends Asch and Myerhoff Inspire A New Generation of Visual Anthropologists - article by Susan Andrews http://college.usc.edu/news/stories/634/legends-asch-and-myerhoff-inspire-a-new-generation-of-visual-ant/
Further reading
- Barbash, Ilisa and Lucien Taylor. Cross-cultural Filmmaking: A Handbook for Making Documentary and Ethnographic Films and Videos. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
- Engelbrecht, Beate (ed.). Memories of the Origins of Ethnographic Film. Frankfurt am Main et al.: Peter Lang Verlag, 2007.
- Grimshaw, Anna. The Ethnographer's Eye: Ways of Seeing in Modern Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
- Heider, Karl G. Ethnographic Film (Revised Edition). Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.
- Ruby, JayJay RubyJay Ruby is an American scholar who was a professor in the at Temple University until his recent retirement. He received his B.A. in History and Ph.D...
. Picturing Culture: Essays on Film and Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-226-73099-8. - MacDougall, David. Transcultural Cinema. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
- Prins, Harald E.L.. "Visual Anthropology." pp. 506–525. In A Companion to the Anthropology of American Indians. Ed. T. Biolsi. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
- Prins, Harald E.L., and Ruby, JayJay RubyJay Ruby is an American scholar who was a professor in the at Temple University until his recent retirement. He received his B.A. in History and Ph.D...
eds. "The Origins of Visual Anthropology." Visual Anthropology Review. Vol. 17 (2), 2001-2002. - Worth, SolSol WorthSol Worth was a painter, photographer, film maker, researcher, and pioneer in the use of film in anthropological field research as well as a founding father in the field of visual communication....
, Adair John. "Through Navajo EyesThrough Navajo EyesNavajo Film Themselves is a series of seven short documentary films which show short scenes of life in the Navajo Nation. A National Science Foundation funded project, organized and devised by Sol Worth and John Adair, the project aimed to investigate visual language and how it intercepts with...
". Indiana University Press; 1972.
External links
- SVA Society for Visual Anthropology
- Visual Anthroplogy Films & Educational Resource Library
- VisualAnthropology.net
- Visual & Media Anthropology Archive (Spanish)
- OVERLAP: Laboratory of Visual Anthropology
- Visual Anthropology Review
- European Association of Social Anthropologists Visual Anthropology Network
- Royal Anthropological Institute, Ethnographic Film
- National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archives - collect and preserve historical and contemporary anthropological materials that document the world's cultures and the history of anthropology.
- Audio-Visual Resources (from the website of Prof. Alessandro Duranti, anthropology department, UCLA)
- Films of anthropological and other "ancestors"
- A kiosk of films and sounds in Ethnomusicology - Robert Garfias
- Documentary Educational Resources (Visual Anthropology Films & Filmmakers)
- Documentary "El mal visto". Interpretation about the evil eye from the visual anthropology.
- Visual anthtropology (Chinese)
- Articles on Fieldwork
- The Ovahimba Years Collection
- Visual Anthropology of Japan
- Artpologist an Art project using Art and Anthropology