Approaches to Visual Anthropology Professor Naomi Schiller Fall 2011

This course explore the history and theory of ethnographic film and the anthropology of photography and art worlds. In the first half of the semester, we will consider the foundational works that defined the genre of ethnographic film, the intellectual and political economic context that shaped these works, and the social theory that developed to address reflexivity, objectivity, and visual representations of culture. What are the dilemmas of communicating ethnographic knowledge visually? What happens to the genre of ethnographic film when the traditional subjects of ethnographic inquiry take up the camera to make their own representations of culture? In the second half of the semester, we will turn to examine the anthropology of art worlds to ask: what role do art objects play in the battles of cultural politics? We will examine how aesthetic principles are mobilized in under regimes of value and signification.

Books Bourgois and Schonberg. 2009. Righteous Dopefiend. UCaliforina. Griffiths, Alison. 2002. Wondrous Difference: Cinema, Anthropology and Turn of the Century Visual Culture Heider, Karl. 2006. Ethnographic Film. Austin: University of Texas Press. Myers, Fred. 2002. Painting Culture: The Making of Aboriginal High Art Loizos, Peter, 1992. Innovation in Ethnographic Film: From Innocence to selfconsciousness 1955-1985. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Pink, Sarah. 2007. Doing visual ethnography: Images, media and representation in research Ruby, Jay. 2000. Picturing Culture: Exploration of Film and Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Grimshaw, Anna. 2001. The Ethnographers Eye: Ways of Seeing in Modern Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Winegar, Jessica (2006). Creative Reckonings: The Politics of Art and Culture in Contemporary Egypt. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Schedule Early Cinema and Anthropology Alison Griffiths Wondrous Difference Shohat and Stam's article "Narrating Visual Culture: Towards a polycentric aesthetic" On Documentary and Ethnographic Film: From Romantic Primitivism to Cultural Activism Screen: Nanook of the North (1922), Nanook Revisted (1990), and Atanajurat (2001) Heider pgs. 1-14, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3 Ruby, Jay 2000. Introduction, Chapter 2 in Picturing Culture: Exploration of Film and Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Grimshaw pgs. 44-56. Rony, Fatimah. Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography: Robert Flahertys Nanook of the North in The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle. Durham: Duke University Press. pgs. 99-129. Scientific Cinema: Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead Screening: Karbas First Years. 11 mins., A Balinese Family. 20 min., Bathing Babies in Three Cultures. 20 min., Trance and Dance in Bali, 22 min. Ruby, Chp. 1, Heider Chp. 2, Grimshaw pg. 71-89 McDougall (1998) Visual Anthropology and Ways of Knowing in Transcultural Cinema Recommended: Mead, Margaret (1975) Visual Anthropology in a Discipline of Words Catherine Russell (1999) Ecstatic Ethnography: Filming Possession Rituals in Experimental Ethnography

Fatima Rony (1996) Time and Redemption in the Racial Film in The Third Eye From Observational Cinema to Video AdvocacyJohn Marshall and the !Kung San films Screening: The Hunters. John Marshall, 1957, 72 mins. Loizos, Pgs.5-23, Heider pgs. 34-38 Stuart Douglas and Jennifer Law (1997) Beating Around the Bush(man!): Reflections of Miscast: Negotiating Khoisan History and Material Culture in Visual Anthropology 10 (1) 85-108 Clifford, James (1986) On Ethnographic Allegory in Writing Culture Fabian, Johannes (1985) Conclusion Time and the Other pp. 143-165 Nichols, Bill (1991) Representing the Body: Questions of Meaning and Magnitude in Representing Reality pp. 2290265 Documentary Realism: From Scientific Ethnography to Reflexive KnowledgeThe Cinema of Tim Asch Film screening: The Ax Fight. Tim Asch. 1971, 30 min. The Feast. Tim Asch. 1970. 28 min. Ruby Chp. 4, Heider pgs. 42-45, Loizos, pgs. 23-27 Asch, Tim 1979 Making A Film Record of the Yanomamo Indians of Southern Venezuela in Perspectives on Film 1992 The Ethnics of Ethnographic Film-making Chapter 11 in Film as Ethnography Ash, Patsy and Linda Connor (1995) Subjects, Images, Voices: Representing Gender in Ethnographic Films Rejecting Documentary RealismThe Films of Robert Gardner Screening: Dead Birds. Robert Gardner. 1963. 84 mins. Ruby Chp. 3, Loizos, Chp. 7 and Heider, pgs.38-42. Cinma Vrit and the Experimental Cinema of Jean Rouch Screening: Chronicle of a Summer. 1960. 90 min, Les Maitrs Fous. 1954. 30 min. Grimshaw Chp.6, Loizos Chp. 3 and Heider pgs. 31-34. Bhabha, Homi (1987) Of Mimicry and Men: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse Feld, Steve (1989) Themes in the Cinema of Jean Rouch in Visual Anthropology 2, 3-4

Ginsburg, Faye (1996) Two Kinds of Truth in American Anthropologist 98 (4) Participatory CinemaDavid and Judith MacDougalls Films Screen: To Live With Herds, David and Judith MacDougall 1972, 72 min. Clips from The Wedding Camels. 1978, and A Wife Among Wives. 1982. Loizos Chp. 5, Grimshaw Chp. 7 Myers, Fred (1988) From Ethnography to Metaphor: Recent Films by David and Judith McDougall Cultural Anthropology 3 (2) McDougall, David (1998) Transcultural Cinema The Emergence of Indigenous Media 1986 Navajo Talking Picture. 40 minutes. Arlene Bowman 2000 The Return of Navajo Boy. 57 min. Jeff Spitz Ginsburg, Faye (1991) Indigenous Media: Faustian Contract or Global Village? Turner Terry (2002) Stewart, Michelle and Pam Wilson. 2008. Indigeneity and Indigenous Media on the Global Stagein Global Indigenous Media: Cultures, Poetics, and Politics. Durham: Duke University Press. pgs. 1-38. Ruby Chp. 9 Recent Reflections on Reflexivity, Ethics, and Research Practices Screening: Stranger with a Camera, Elizabeth Bennett, 2000, 56 min An Ethnographic Filmflam: Giving Gifts, Doing Research, and Videotaping the Native Subject/Object JOHN L. JACKSON JR. Peter Ian Crawford and David Turton. Manchester University Press. Pp. 196-205 Cameron, Ardis. 2002. When Strangers Bring Cameras: The Politics and Poetics of Othered Places. American Quarterly. 54(3): 411-421. Ruby Chp. 5 Selections from Sarah Pinks Doing visual ethnography: Images, media and representation in research Applied Visual Anthropology

Neighbors and Nature for sale at Scribe, as part of the Precious Places series. Also you can find it here: http://www.haverford.edu/anthropology/video/precious_places/

Maris Gillette (2011) Process and Product in Collaborative Media: Making Neighbors and Nature in Harmony in Practicing Anthropology 33 (1): 14-17) Photography as Archive and Practice Screening: Photo Wallahs, David MacDougall and Judith MacDougall, dirs., 60 min., 1992. David MacDougall, Photo Wallahs: An Encounter with Photography, Visual Anthropology Review 8(2), 1992. Chris Pinney and Nicolas Peterson, eds., Photographys Other Histories, Durham and London: Duke University Press Christopher Pinney, Intro. Stephen Sprague, Yoruba Photography: How the Yoruba See Themselves Jo-Anne Driessens, Relating to Photographs Michael Aird, Growing up with Aborigines Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, When is a Photograph Worth a Thousand Words?

Photography and Suffering Bourgois and Schonberg (2009) Righteous Dopefiend. UCaliforina.

Ethnography of Visual Art [selections] Winegar, Jessica (2006). Creative Reckonings: The Politics of Art and Culture in Contemporary Egypt. Stanford: Stanford University Press. [selections] Myers, Fred (2002) Painting Culture: The Making of Aboriginal High Art