Literature

Is an Ethnographic Film a Filmic Ethnography? (1975)

By Jay Ruby

http://astro.temple.edu/~ruby/ruby/is.html

     One question I kept asking myself was,"What is the difference between a documentary and an ethnography"? I wondered how a division could ever be made between what is and what is not anthropological, since technically all films provide some kind of cultural information or insight. The differentiations the author makes between films with anthropological value, those that make use of some ethnographic methods, and those that are true ethnographies make sense to me. I also liked that the history he provides on how visual anthropology developed out of the more "traditional" elements of the discipline provides a context for understanding its place in the field of anthropology.

     Ruby proposes four criteria that must be met in order for the film to be considered ethnography. The first criterion is that the focus of the film must be an element of culture or the description of a culture as a whole. Second, it must involve a theory of culture, so that data is collected and presented in a particular way. Third, statements about or references to the methodology used must be included in the film. The final criterion requires that the film contains recognizable anthropological language or concepts. Having these criteria with which I could judge a film made me more comfortable drawing a line between anthropological films and those that have cultural content. I understand now that the difference lies in how guiding theories and methodologies, as well as the scientific process, is used in the creation of the film. Another way of thinking of it is that documentaries can have different degrees of “anthropological-ness”.

AAA Guidelines

     The American Anthropological Association (AAA) has “Guidelines for the Evaluation of Ethnographic Visual Media” which were published by the Society for Visual Anthropology in 2001. These guidelines outline the importance and purpose of visual media in anthropology. The authors point out that ethnographic film and photography can be valuable research tools and that visual media can convey forms of knowledge which other means cannot. Rather than excluding types of films or photographs as not being “anthropological” enough, each submission is evaluated on its contribution to anthropological knowledge and the methods and scholarly work involved in its production. The guidelines also recommend that visual works be broken down into six categories. These categories distinguish types of media based on their purpose or use, from those made for the purpose of research to those created for teaching, advocacy, or television broadcast. The guidelines can be viewed at http://societyforvisualanthropology.org/?page_id=464

Visual Anth is big in Europe

     Peter Biella is the director of visual anthropology at San Francisco State University. In a preface to an issue of Visual Anthropology Review in 2007, he stated that visual anthropology is a well-established field in Europe. He suggested that it might not be as well known in the U.S. because of American’s tendency to be disinterested in things happening outside their country and because many of these works are being published in languages other than English.

(This preface can be found here: http://online.sfsu.edu/biella/biella2007a.pdf)

Biella’s website is also a wonderful resource for visual anthropology media, literature, and programs. http://userwww.sfsu.edu/biella/

Connectivity in Canada’s Far North: Participatory Evaluation in Ontario’s Aboriginal Communities (2004)

By George Ferreira, Ricardo Ramirez, Brian Walmark

http://www.turtleisland.org/education/digvidnorth.pdf

This article provides great background on the Fogo Process and describes a case study that recently applied it to indigenous communities in Canada over a three-year period. Information about the impacts of policy changes on the communities was gathered using video recordings. They resulted in obtaining information that would not have been gathered using traditional questionnaires and surveys. The videos were also used to make policy makers aware of the issues faced by members of indigenous communities and to alter their opinions. They can also be used as a record of the history and traditional knowledge of each community.

Visual Research Methods (1995)

http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU11/SRU11.html

This short article from the University of Surrey’s Social Research Update publication was written by Dr. Banks, a social anthropologist at Oxford. He discusses the emergence of collaboratively produced visual media, as opposed to records produced by the researcher or subjects alone. He states that images are not somehow more pure or real than written accounts because they are still a representation of reality. Banks also discusses the issues involved with collaboration and how it may play some role in every project, whether or not this was intended.