Talk:Visual anthropology

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 21 January 2020 and 3 May 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Siffat05.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 12:29, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Additions and minor changes
Additions and minor changes: --Birdmessenger 19:36, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
 * 1) added notable films section; obviously very incomplete. I was hoping that this would serve more as a list of notable and influential films (i.e., not someone's master's thesis, unless that was in fact influential and notable--but whatever, I'm not trying to boss anyone here).
 * 2) I relinked Gardner and Marshall because it is my hope that someone around here will find the time to write articles about them. Red links encourage that.
 * 3) I added to the history of the field. Obviously this could do with more detail and several decades are conspicuously missing.  Ongoing developments in the present day would make a good addition at some point.

Page on John Marshall
John Marshall was my step-father, so I should not create a page about him. I would be happy to see something written and I could supply photographs or other material. There are already a half dozen articles about him on various web sites.

-Chris Eliot (cre @ chriseliot dot com)

Cre 20:11, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm very sorry that no one has responded, Chris (if they have not responded). I'll check. John Marshall should be listed primarily as a cultural anthropologist, and also as a visual anthropologist. There's lots to be said about him. --Levalley (talk) 06:11, 26 March 2009 (UTC)LeValley

two things
First, I'd like to cull the external links, especially links to personal sites. Any objections?

Secondly, I was thinking about switching the citation system to this format. Anyone object? --Media anthro 13:05, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

removed section on films
This list has grown ridiculously long and (self)-promotional in nature. I'm sorry, but most of these do not come even close to satisfying notability guidelines. Following WP:EL and WP:NOTE, I have deleted it.

Ethnographic and anthropological films

A chronology of representative anthropologically-minded films and filmmakers include:
 * Alfred C. Haddon  – UK
 * Torres Strait Expedition, 1898


 * Robert J. Flaherty – US
 * Nanook of the North, 1922
 * Moana, 1926
 * Man of Aran, 1934
 * Tabu, 1936
 * Louisiana Story, 1948


 * José Leitão de Barros – Portugal
 * Maria do Mar, 1930
 * Ala-Arriba! (film), 1942
 * Jean Epstein – Poland
 * L’or des mers (The oceans gold), 1932
 * Jean Rouch – France
 * Les Maîtres Fous (The Mad Masters), 1954
 * Moi, un noir, 1958
 * Chronique d’un été (Chronicle of a Summer), 1961
 * Jaguar (film), 1954 – 1967
 * Petit à petit, 1972
 * Lionel Rogosin – US
 * On the Bowery, 1957
 * Come Back, Africa, 1957


 * John Marshall – US
 * The Hunters, 1958
 * A Kalahari Family, 1951 – 2000


 * António Campos – Portugal
 * A Almadraba atuneira (Tuna net), 1961
 * Vilarinho das Furnas, 1971
 * Histórias selvagens (Savage stories), 1978
 * Falamos de Rio de Onor (Let’s talk about Rio de Onor)
 * Gente da Praia da Vieira (The people of Praia da Vieira), 1976
 * Terra fria (Cold land), 1992
 * Michel Brault – Canada
 * Pour la suite du monde, (Of Whales, the Moon and Men), 1963
 * Les Ordres (Orderers) 1975
 * Les Noces de papier (Paper wedings), 1990
 * Pierre Perrault – Canada
 * Pour la suite du monde (Of Whales, the Moon and Men, 1963
 * Manoel de Oliveira – Portugal
 * Acto da Primavera (Act of Spring), 1963
 * Robert Gardner – US
 * Dead Birds, 1965
 * The Nuer, 1970
 * Rivers of Sand, 1975
 * Forest of Bliss, 1986
 * Tim Asch – US
 * The Feast, 1969
 * Yanomamo: A Multidisciplinary Study, 1971
 * Magical Death, 1974
 * The Ax Fight, 1975
 * A Man Called “Bee”: Studying the Yanomamo 1975
 * A Balinese Trance Seance, 1979
 * Sarah Elder (films co-directed by Leonard Kamerling) – Australia
 * Tununeremiut (1972)
 * At the Time of Whaling (1974)
 * On the Spring Ice (1975)
 * From the First People (1977)
 * The Drums of Winter (1988)
 * In Iirgus Time (1988)
 * Joe Sun (1988)
 * Reindeer Thief (1988)


 * Ricardo Costa – Portugal
 * Avieiros, 1975
 * Mau tempo, marés e mudança (Bad weather, tides and change), 1976
 * Castro Laboreiro, 1979
 * Pitões, aldeia do Barroso (Pitões, a village of Barroso, 1979
 * O pão e o vinho (Bread and wine), 1981
 * Longe é a cidade (Far aways is the city), 1981
 * Ao fundo desta estrada (Further ahead on this road) 1981


 * António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro – Portugal
 * Trás-os-Montes, 1976
 * Ana (film), 1984
 * Noémia Delgado – Portugal
 * Máscaras (Masks), 1976
 * Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson
 * First Contact, 1983
 * Joe Leahy’s Neighbors, 1988
 * Black Harvest, 1991


 * Dennis O’Rourke – Australia
 * Cannibal Tours, 1988
 * Hominid Evolution 1: The Early Stages (2001)
 * Hominid Evolution 2: The Genus Homo (2001)
 * New World Monkeys (2003)
 * John Bishop – Australia
 * YoYo Man (1978)
 * New England Fiddles (1983)
 * Last Window (1987)
 * Himalayan Herders (1997)
 * Hosay Trinidad (1999)
 * Oh What A Blow That Phantom Gave Me (2003, with Harald E.L. Prins)
 * Jayasinhji Jhala – US
 * Forgotten Headhunters and Apatani Sacrifice (1978)
 * Tragada Bhavai: A Rural Theater Troupe of Gujarat (1981)
 * Journey with Ganapati (1982)
 * Bharvad Predicament (1987)
 * Morning With Asch (1995)
 * Whose Paintings? (1995)
 * Conversation with a Collector: Dialogue with a Docent (1997)
 * Letter to My Nieces (2000)
 * Close Encounters of No Kind (2002)
 * A Zenana: Scenes and Recollections (2005)
 * ShaktiMa no Veh (2006)
 * Pedro Costa – Portugal
 * Casa de Lava, 1994
 * Ossos (Bones, (1997)
 * No Quarto da Vanda (In Vanda’s room) (2000)
 * Juventude em Marcha (Colossal youth), 2006
 * Flora Gomes – Guiné-Bissau
 * Po di Sangui, 1996
 * Nha Fala, 2002


 * Harald E.L. Prins – Netherlands
 * Our Lives in Our Hands (1985)


 * Fernando Meirelles – Brazil
 * Cidade de Deus, (City of God), 2002


 * Daniel E. Thorbecke – Germany
 * Terra Longe, 2003 (Far distant land)


 * Johannes Sjǒberg – Holand
 * Transfiction, 2007


 * Chris Horner – Australia
 * The Disappearing of Tuvalu: Trouble In Paradise, (2004)
 * Randy Olson
 * Flock of Dodos (2006)
 * Oh, What a Blow that Phantom Gave Me! (2003, with John Bishop)

--Newsroom hierarchies (talk) 18:01, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

John Collier and Karl Heider don't appear to be on the list.Levalley (talk) 05:38, 26 March 2009 (UTC)LeValley

Visual anthropology doesn't mean the same thing as "making documentaries about culture"
Visual anthropology is the study of visual images of all kinds, and is as much about how to use the visual, in anthropology, as it is about any one particular medium, such as film making. While all the people mentioned in the list here are good documentarians, that's not enough - in my view - to make them visual anthropologists (at all).

Whereas Erving Goffman was doing visual anthropology and sociology. AFAIK, one of the earliest anthropologists to define visual anthropology as a field was John Collier (1967 - visual anthropology as research method). I'd be surprised to hear any anthropologist refer to Robert Flaherty as a "visual anthropologist" (or, really, as an "anthropologist," but I guess Wikipedians might find that an acceptable use of the professional title. He was never in any academic status as an anthropologist that I know about.  Flaherty was a prospector, adventurer, a lover of Inuit people (literally and figuratively) and a very interesting man - but not an anthropologist.  Just making a movie about another culture (or from another culture) doesn't make a person an anthropologist.  Karl Heider was the first to write an introductory cultural anthropology textbook based on the principles and methods of visual anthropology (like frame analysis, proxemics, and so forth).  Roland Barthes had a lot to say about parsing the visual, and all of semiotics might as well be listed here as some of the filmmakers that are mentioned.

At any rate, this article is mostly about documentary filmmaking and ethnographic film - not visual anthropology.Levalley (talk) 06:09, 26 March 2009 (UTC)LeValley

timeline of early visual representations
Since the study of visual representations is central to visual anthropology, I thought I'd put in a timeline of prehistoric hallmarks of visual representations, but I'm still struggling with formatting - need to learn to to a table! Here's the information:

800,000   Joseph Campbell notes that an Acheulian handax is made not for a practical reason, but in order to possess "divine, superfluous beauty" 125,000BP Tally marks found on red ochre in South Africa, first jewelry (shell leis) from North Africa. 40-60,000BP Earliest form of stone art (cupolas) found in Australia 35,000BP    Pictographs in Europe 28,000BP    Early cave paintings in France and Ukraine, using three pigments. Representational drawings showing perspective found in North Africa 22,000BP    Fired clay figurines begin to be abundant, depicting animals and women. Jewelry is sophisticated and abundant in France. 18-19,000BP Cave paintings make use of three dimensional space and flickering firelight to have a "moving picture" effect 16-18,000BP Phalluses, decorated spear throwers, more three dimensional art appear in Europe. Scrimshaw found in northern Russia. A pictographic system (hieroglyphics) emerges in several regions 14-16,000BP Development of more pigment colors in Southern France, four pigments, including two forms of cooked or burnt ochre in use in France, Ukraine and Russia. 12,000BP    Virtually every region of the world inhabited by humans has pictographs

I have citations. I just need to insert a table (I see how to do it now, will try and get to it in the next few days. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Levalley (talk • contribs) 15:50, 26 March 2009 (UTC)