Viewpoints: Visual Anthropologists at Work

Published by University of Texas Press 2009

Viewpoints

Visual Anthropologists at Work

Edited by: Mary Strong and Laena Wilder

https://doi.org/10.7560/706712

Overview
Contents

About this book

Early in its history, anthropology was a visual as well as verbal discipline. But as time passed, visually oriented professionals became a minority among their colleagues, and most anthropologists used written words rather than audiovisual modes as their professional means of communication. Today, however, contemporary electronic and interactive media once more place visual anthropologists and anthropologically oriented artists within the mainstream. Digital media, small-sized and easy-to-use equipment, and the Internet, with its interactive and public forum websites, democratize roles once relegated to highly trained professionals alone. However, having access to a good set of tools does not guarantee accurate and reliable work. Visual anthropology involves much more than media alone.

This book presents visual anthropology as a work-in-progress, open to the myriad innovations that the new audiovisual communications technologies bring to the field. It is intended to aid in contextualizing, explaining, and humanizing the storehouse of visual knowledge that university students and general readers now encounter, and to help inform them about how these new media tools can be used for intellectually and socially beneficial purposes.

Concentrating on documentary photography and ethnographic film, as well as lesser-known areas of study and presentation including dance, painting, architecture, archaeology, and primate research, the book's fifteen contributors feature populations living on all of the world's continents as well as within the United States. The final chapter gives readers practical advice about how to use the most current digital and interactive technologies to present research findings.

Author / Editor information

Mary Strong is president of the American Anthropological Association's Society for Visual Anthropology. She has been teaching for many years at the City University of New York and is a review editor for the journal Visual Anthropology. Her research involves collaborations with painters and craftspeople in Latin America and the United States.

Laena Wilder is a San Francisco-based documentary photographer whose work has taken her throughout the world. Her teaching appointments include Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies and the University of San Francisco. Samples of her work can be seen at www.wildervision.com

Reviews

The authors in this volume include some of the best current researchers in the anthropological study of visual means of signification, communication, and representation.

— Thomas D. Blakely

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Historical Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Section I PHOTOGRAPHY NOW
CHAPTER 1 Photographic Exploration of Social and Cultural Experience Malcolm Collier Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
CHAPTER 2 Documentary Photography in the Field Laena Wilder Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
CHAPTER 3 Photography and Ethnography Richard Freeman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Section II IMAGES FROM THE PAST
CHAPTER 4 Historical Photographs of North American Indians: Primary Documents, BUT View with Care Joanna Cohan Scherer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
CHAPTER 5 Blasting a Boulder and Building Memories Julie M. Flowerday Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Section III MOVING PICTURES: FILM, VIDEO, AND COMPUTERGENERATED MEDIA
CHAPTER 6 Reading the Mind of the Ethnographic Filmmaker: Mining a Flawed Genre for Anthropological Content Carol Hermer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
CHAPTER 7 Visual Anthropology in a Time of War: Intimacy and Interactivity in Ethnographic Media Peter Biella Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
CHAPTER 8 Guestworkers: Farmworkers, Filmmakers, and Their Obligations in the Field Charles Thompson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Section IV ROADS LESS TRAVELED: UNUSUAL SUBFIELDS
Part I UNCOMMON SUBJECT AREAS
CHAPTER 9 Envisioning Primates Anne Zeller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
CHAPTER 10 Steps to an Ethnography of Dance Najwa Adra Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
CHAPTER 11 Looking for the Past in the Present Ethnoarchaeology at al-Hiba Edward Ochsenschlager Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Part II Media BEYOND CAMERA WORK
CHAPTER 12 In Search of Live Relics in Cold Lake Kimowan Mclain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
CHAPTER 13 Art and Mind Working on Murals Mary Strong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
CHAPTER 14 Art History and Anthropology: LOULY PEACOCK KONZ and JAMES PEACOCK Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327
SECTION V Epilogue
CHAPTER 15 Elementary Forms of the Digital Media Tools for Applied Action Collaboration and Research in Visual Anthropology Peter Biella Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	363
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	388
Author Biographies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	406
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	408

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 431

eBook

Published: January 1, 2010
ISBN: 9780292793675