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Anthropology 240:
Visual Anthropology
Smith College, Fall 2006
Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30 - 11:50, Seelye 101
Nancy Marie Mithlo, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:15-2:45 pm @ Tyler Annex 203 nmithlo@smith.edu
585-3683
Course Description: The process
of translating culture by visual representation often infers notions
of authority, objectivity and fixed reality. Contextual and revisionist
strategies in visual anthropology challenge these earlier interpretative
models by incorporating multiple perspectives and making theoretical
aims explicit. This course addresses the use of visual recording
in anthropology both as a documentary research method and as an
exploration of unique visual worlds. Film, photography and hypermedia
(internet and DVD) will be examined with particular attention paid
to their circulation in publications, popular culture, exhibitions
and photography albums. Both the colonial project and indigenous
agency are presented as vantage points to strategies of appropriation,
commercialization and political representations.
Assessment:
Independent Research Project 20%
Ethnographic Film Reviews (2 @3- 5 pages) 20%
Midterm (in class) 20%
Final Exam (take home) 20%
Classroom Exercises (4 total) 20%
Guidelines for oral and written presentations will be provided.
Readings:
Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media and Representation in
Research by Sarah Pink, Sage Publications, 2001. ISBN: 0761960546
Reading National Geographic
by Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins, University of Chicago Press,
1993. ISBN: 0226497240.
Eye Contact: Photographing
Indigenous Australians by Jane Lydon, Duke University Press,
2005. ISBN: 0822335727.
Principles of Visual Anthropology
edited by Paul Hockings, Walter de Gruyter, 1995. ISBN: 3110142287.
Visual Anthropology: Essential
Method and Theory by Fadwa El Guindi, Alta Mira Press, 2004.
ISBN: 075910395X
Visual Anthropology; Photography
as a Research Method by John Collier, University of New Mexico
Press, 1986. ISBN: 0826308996.
Introductory class September
7, 2006
Ethnography exercise
– Everyday photography and the genre of Jaques Cousteau
Handout: Ruby,
Jay. “Visual Anthropology,” in Encyclopedia of Cultural
Anthropology, Levinson and Ember, eds. Holt and Company, vol.
4:1345-1351, 1996.
Week 1: Sept. 12 and
14:
Readings:
Lutz and Collins. Chapters 1-5
in Reading National Geographic, pp. 1-153.
Collier. Chapters 1-7 in Visual
Anthropology; Photography as a Research Method, pp. 1-98.
Week 2: Sept. 19, 21:
Readings:
Lutz and Collins. Chapters 6-9
in Reading National Geographic, pp. 155-283.
Collier. Chapters 8-19 in Visual
Anthropology, Photography as a Research Method, pp. 99-238.
Week 3: Sept. 26, 28:
PLEASE NOTE REQUIRED
LECTURE 9/28@ 7:00 PM in Neilson Browsing Room: C. Richard King
“Fear of a Brown Nation: Invasion, Reconquest, Aztlan and
Other White Supremacist Anxieties”
Handout: King, Richard.
“Bad Anthropologies,” InterCulture, Volume
2, January 2005.
Speaker in class Sept.
28th: C. Richard King
Week 4: October 3, 5:
In-class Midterm, October
5
Readings:
El Guindi,
Fadwa. Introduction and Chapter One in Visual Anthropology;
Essential Methods and Theory.
Week 5: Oct.
12 (no class Oct. 10, fall break):
Readings:
Mead, Margaret. “Visual
Anthropology in a Discipline of Words,” in Principles
of Visual Anthropology, Hockings.
El Guindi, Fadwa. Chapter Two,
“For God’s Sake, Margaret,” in Visual Anthropology;
Essential Methods and Theory.
Film:
Bathing Babies in Three
Cultures by Bateson, Gregory and Margaret Mead, 1952. (Smith
DVD HQ784.B37 B37 2005).
Week 6: Oct. 17, 19:
Film review #1 (Historic)
due October 17
Readings:
Rouch, Jean. “Our Totemic
Ancestors and Crazed Masters,” in Principles of Visual
Anthropology, Hockings.
El Guindi, Fadwa. Visual
Anthropology; Essential Methods and Theory.
Film:
Chronique d’un Été
by Rouch, 1960. (Smith PN1995.9.D6 C47 2002).
Les Maîtres Fous
by Rouch, 1954. (Amherst BL2470.G6 M3).
Week 7: Oct. 24, 26
(Oct. 26th Documents/Reference Librarian
Neilson Library, Sika Berger)
Wednesday, October 24:
Independent Research Project – prospectus due
Reading:
MacDougall, David. “Beyond
Observational Cinema,” in Principles of Visual Anthropology,
Hockings.
El Guindi, Fadwa. Visual
Anthropology; Essential Methods and Theory.
Film:
Photo Wallahs by MacDougall,
1991 (Smith N72.P5 P56 1991).
Week 8: Oct. 31, Nov.
2:
Film review #2 (Contemporary)due
November 2
Reading:
Lydon, Jane. Eye Contact: Photographing
Indigenous Australians.
Film:
Familiar Places by
MacDougall, 1980 (Smith DU274 .F34 1980).
Four Families by Mead,
Margaret and Ian MacNeill. National Film Board of Canada, 1959.
Week 9: Nov. 7 (No class Nov. 9th, Otelia Cromwell Day)
Reading:
Lydon, Jane. Eye Contact:
Photographing Indigenous Australians.
Week 10: Nov. 14, 16,
Research and Writing
Professor attending the Anthropological Association meetings. No
Class. Work on Independent Research Projects.
Week 11: Nov. 21 (No
class Thanksgiving, Nov. 23):
Tuesday Nov. 21: Independent
Research Project due.
Reading:
Pink, Sarah. Introduction and
Part One in Doing Visual Ethnography.
Week 12: Nov. 28, 30:
Reading:
Pink, Sarah. Doing Visual
Ethnography.
Film and analysis:
Student choice from list
Week 13: Dec. 5, 7:
Reading:
Pink, Sarah. Doing Visual
Ethnography.
Film and analysis:
Student choice from list
Week 14: Dec. 12, 14:
Student Presentations
Take-home final exams
are due Thursday, December 21 at 5:00 PM and may be delivered
hard-copy to my box in Tyler Annex. |