The evolution of film technology, has given anthropologists the ability to employ films to present ethnographic data. Although this privilege has contributed immensely to the collection of anthropological knowledge we have today, it has increased the issues with regards to misinterpretation. Both films expose the fact that it is common for an untrained individual to misinterpret the epistemological assumptions made by the films’ authors and that, frequently, a sense of cultural superiority can form. In many cases, anthropological films may authorize uncertainties with regards to the other. Additionally, they may, unintentionally, confirm negative stereotypes or expectations that other media has implanted into the minds of the untrained student. …show more content…
In The Ax Fight, Asch and Chagnon film an altercation between a handful of members from the tribe they are living with and a few visitors. The film is divided into three sections: the first section, which is just the footage of the fight; the second section, which is the same footage, but it is accompanied by a narration of what is going on in the scene; and the third section which includes and explanation of the relationship between the visitors and the tribe members, as well as subtitles during the time in which a woman is yelling insults at the …show more content…
Currently, western society deems groups of people like the Yanomamo and the Papua New Guineans inferior; when people watch anthropological films, they are shocked by the images of the cultural customs of the societies and attribute them to their savageness. Viewers can select to look deeper and understand that western culture isn’t superior merely because we have different ways of doing things. He also claims that anthropology, through visual representation, should make viewers “aware of their ethnocentrism, self-conscious about it, and uncomfortable with it” (Ruby 186). The idea ethnocentric idea that Western society is superior and that we have the obligation to civilize other cultures and help them understand that they are wrong is absurd. It is the reason why we have lost so many different cultures. The “white man” comes in and changes groups of people like the New Guineans in order to bring them up to par with western
The film illuminates the life of the Wampanoag language and cultural meanings. How there had been threats posed to both since the times of European colonization, when the Wampanoag people had put up little resistance. The film is not a recap of the Wampanoag
Ethnographic fieldwork in Anthropology certainly requires anthropologies to understand the limits and biases they will be exposed to while preforming their research. Through the text “Ethnography and Culture”, James P. Spradley discusses some of the concepts anthropologies must be aware of just as “naive realism”, “explicit culture” and “tacit culture”. These three concepts can be appreciated when reading Richard B. Lee’s selection “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari”.
The entire film is spoken in Inuktitut to show how the language is very crucial in telling the story and explain the importance language plays in their culture and everyday lives, from hunting for food to taking care of the elders. The tribes in Atanarjuat consider themselves tribes that have to fight and survive on their land. This characteristic represents visual sovereignty as it is a trait the elders telling the story have also passed down through generations. They are using the methods of visual storytelling to explain actual occurrences within a Native American tribe or family. “Igloolik Isuma Productions, Inc., the company that produced this film, employs ethnographic film conventions to serve didactic purposes within the Inuit communities of Canada, forging much-needed economic opportunities in depressed markets, educating younger generations alienated from community elders and tribal epistemologies through diasporic conditions, and addressing the lingering effects of colonization, natural environments in immediate peril, and high mortality, substance abuse, and incarceration rates in order to expand to future children and the unknowledgeable public” (Raheja 201). Some of the ways that visual sovereignty is seen is by describing the power women have in the Inuit culture, allowing the audience to see how the different gender roles are played out in Native American culture. The filmmakers also pay attention to detail by panning through landscapes slowly and holding on to specific scenes that enable the audience to gather the intensity of the situation. We see different shots from the characters’ daily lives, showing the methodology behind cooking and preparing meat, and the disputes that occur on the ice between the tribes for food or marriage. The filmmaker deliberately took incredibly long shots of people
Anthropology is the study of the development of humankind within their different cultures. When one looks inside a culture, they can see the true aspects and meanings behind a societies behavior and traits. By following the principle that is cultural relativism, one can also determine that no culture truly surpasses another culture, and that each society has key differences that are important to its culture and location. This is a method that can also be seen in many intriguing films from this semester, one in particular being The Emerald Forest. Throughout this essay, this film will be analyzed around one character who greatly represents what it means to truly immerse oneself into a different culture to gain a new perspective, and many key terms in anthropology will be explored through 4 different films from the semester.
The film Declining by Degrees effectively argues its claim that all is not right in higher education. They do this by interviewing countless professors and students that still attend college or that have recently graduated or dropped out. Their use of personal experiences, statistics, and expert opinions helps build their credibility and emotional appeal for the viewers of the documentary. The main audience for this documentary being anyone who cares about college, parents, students, and even the professors and staff at colleges in the United States.
Being a culture under pressure from both sides of the contact zone, there needs to be passion and emotion or else the culture might disappear into history. Anzaldua’s text makes great use of passion and emotion while merging the ideas of multiple cultures together through the tough experiences in her life. Autoethnographic texts give perspective to outsiders on how a culture functions from the inside point of view. Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” excellently portrays her culture’s plight and creates a fiery passionate entrance for her culture in their uprising through the contact zone.
One could easily dismiss movies as superficial, unnecessarily violent spectacles, although such a viewpoint is distressingly pessimistic and myopic. In a given year, several films are released which have long-lasting effects on large numbers of individuals. These pictures speak
Dorinne K. Kondo in Dissolution and Reconstitution of Self: Implications for Anthropological Epistemology suggested that to understand the culture one studies the ethnographer should account his/her presence. In other words, the ethnographer should write about his/her experiences because it establishes the “I was there” author...
I emphasize here the collusion between all parties involved, for it is important to recognize the ways in which informmants are also actors and agents, and that the negotiation of reality that takes place in the doing of ethnography involves complex and shifting relations of power in which the ethnographrapher acts and is also acted upon. (Kondo 75)
I chose to analyze Despicable Me, an animated film geared towards a younger audience, because I was interested in examining underlying theories and messages that this film would be relaying to its viewers. Often times, when watching animated films, children are not aware of these messages, as they are absorbed by the characters, special effects, and humor. But as we have learned throughout this semester, our brains are subconsciously primed by the various surroundings we are exposed to. Since we also studied the impacts of entertainment, such as television and video games, on children, I wanted to see how a popular children’s film might also affect them.
Ashton, starting out with a quote from Jay Ruby and analyzing it is a great way to begin your post. The significance of anthropology and communication is very important, especially when viewing a film of another culture. According to Ruby, “one of the primary goals of an anthropological communication is to make viewers or readers aware of their words, the general purpose of an anthropological communication is to alter the relationship between Westerners and the Other” (Ruby 2000, 186). That is, as a viewer, one has the ability attribute the meaning of the film based on one’s cultural lenses. As a viewer, one’s culture plays a vital role in interpreting visual context. Ruby mentions that the “primacy of culture in the construction of meaning
“The anthropologist is a human instrument studying other human beings”. This quote can only be described as extremely relevant when reading McHugh’s ethnography, a detailed analysis on the Gurung people of Nepal. She involved herself emotionally, physically, and mentally during her stay, portraying what it’s like and what it takes to study other people from an outsider’s point of view. The relationships McHugh created throughout her stay deepened her understanding and paved the way for her fieldwork as she dived into the unknown.
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.
Coveted by international art markets for both its quality and commercial rewards, African Art (in the singular) appears to refer to a homogeneous ensemble (Enwezor and Okeke-Agulu, 2009). All countries, styles, practices, and languages are, in theory, on the same level. However, schools, movements, socio-economic development, and political (in-)stabilities in its many countries trigger varied artistic responses towards both local and global forces. African cinemas are exemplary of that. They have evolved quite unevenly from their beginnings. Diverse languages, multiple former colonial powers, and troubled socio-political histories forced film scholarship to address them in the plural. This development à deux vitesses between African art and African cinemas spurs a number of questions. Therefore, ‘zooming out’ to show this décalage, I intend to bring African photography and cinemas into a wide theoretical frame...
The Study of Ethnomusicology - Thirty-one Issues and Concepts [Book] / auth. Nettl Bruno. - Champaign : University of Illinois Press, 2005.