Beyond authenticity: The discourse of tourism in ethnographic and experimental film

This paper explores the relationship between postmodern ethnographic and experimental filmmaking. Recent shifts in both modes of film praxis away from modernist paradigms of anthropology and aesthetics have disclosed a rich field of nonscientific, non‐visionary common ground. Theoretical issues that help to define this inter‐penetration of film modes include allegory, tourism and intertextuality. Films by Jonas Mekas, Trinh Minh‐ha, David Byrne and Paula Gaitan are discussed with the aim of indicating the scope, the potential and the problems of postmodern ethnography.     

Clinical writing and the documentary construction of schizophrenia

Psychiatric practice involves writing as much as it involves talking. This study examines the interpretive processes of reading, writing and interviewing which are central to the clinical interaction. It is part of a broader ethnographic study of an Australian psychiatric hospital (which specializes in the treatment of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia). The paper examines two major types of written assessment of patients — the admission assessment and the complete work-up. Writing is analyzed as performance, thereby focusing on the transformations that are effected in patients, their perceptions of their schizophrenia, and their total identity. One crucial transformation is from person suffering from schizophrenia to schizophrenic. The paper aims to show that as much as psychiatry is a talking cure it is also a writing cure.     

The anthropologist as photographer: The visual construction of ethnographic authority

“The Anthropologist as Author"—Clifford Geertz's formulation is emblematic of a theme of anthropology in the 1980s, ethnographic writing. Ethnographic photography, however, was barely a subject of consideration. Reviewing Evans‐Pritchard's The Nuer, a book widely re‐read in the writing culture debate, this article investigates not only the author's visual construction of ethnographic authority. It also reveals ethnographic photography as a medium, which can undermine this authority in a subtle yet compelling manner. Thus concentrating on the medium itself this paper investigates the uneasy relationship between photography and anthropology, and proposes an approach to ethnographic photography that goes beyond the questions of representation.¹     

The turbulence of images: On imagery,media and ethnographic discourse

As the anthropological theory of politeness has put it, people have universally two kinds of social want. They wish to be close to others, liked and accepted, but they also want some distance, freedom from imposition and respect of mutual difference. These wants, which one may also call basic human rights, are however often violated, and images play an important role in this.

Images are ultimately generated in the human mind and may find verbal as well as written and pictorial representation. Tyler [1978] has proposed a typology of mental images based on criteria of conscious control, completeness, abstraction, media and autonomy. These criteria also prove useful when probing into prototypical usages of intrusive imagery such as cursing, blessing, magic, witchcraft and the evil eye. Also the criteria help one understand the subtle process by which imagery can lead to the articulation and even discovery of peoples’ selves.

Ethnographic discourse has always been to a large extent about images, but until recently the ethnographer stood between his or her audience and the people of whom he or she was speaking or writing. Now, as sound recordings, film and video have arrived, this allows for richer varieties of cooperation where the non‐literate counterparts of the ethnographer can make more expressive and coherent contributions than before.

Also it seems that in the face of suppression people welcome the new media as a support in their ongoing battle for a recognition of their cultural and social worthiness.     

Analogies and resonances in the process of ethnographic understanding

In this paper I explore the way in which anthropological understanding is engendered through analogies with an ethnographers experiential knowledge. This theme is addressed via an account of the development of my friendship with my ‘key informant,’ employing what Riesman (1977) calls a ‘disciplined introspection’ of what I as an ethnographer brought to the ethnographic encounter.     

Discourse and power: On the limits of ethnographic texts

Dialectical Anthropology -     

The historical unreality of the proletariat as an ethnographic subject in Mexican anthropology

Dialectical Anthropology - At the beginning of the twentieth century, the anthropological field became one of the main means of integrating indigenous populations utilized by the Mexican State in...     

The interplay of ethnographic and archaeological knowledge in the study of past human subsistence in the tropics

Much of what is currently known or believed about how humans procured and produced food in the past stems from ethnographic and historical evidence of the subsistence practices of foragers and farmers. It is often difficult or impossible to relate archaeological evidence directly to the ethnohistorical record, although these two very different sources of data potentially complement each other. The potential of such complementarity is now being enhanced by the use of novel techniques, such as parenchyma, phytolith, and starch-grain analysis, for identifying fragmentary and amorphous organic remains retrieved from archaeological deposits, and by the use of the AMS (accelerator mass spectrometric) radiocarbon method to date very small samples, such as single seeds. More conventional ethnoarchaeological methods, by which field evidence of subsistence-related structures is compared with information derived from ethnographic and historical accounts, also continue to yield valuable insights into past food procurement and production. In this essay, the reciprocal relationship between archaeobotanical and ethnohistorical data is exemplified by examining (a) recent applications of novel analytical techniques in investigations of the antiquity of root and tuber cultivation in the American, African, and Southeast Asian tropics, and (b) the use of more conventional methods in the study of past forager subsistence in tropical northeastern Australia.     

Phospholipid monolayers at the hydrocarbon-electrolyte interface. The interrelation of film potential and film pressure.

Measurements of surface pressure of surface potential are reported for films of distearoyl phosphatidylcholine (density range: 0.15--2.65 . 10(18) molecules/m2) spread at the interface between 2,2,4-trimethylpentane and 100 mM NaCl. Low density behavior of the surface pressure is explained using classical viral theory. The behavior of the surface potential is qualitatively explained for all densities in terms of the dipole moments associated with the carboxyl groups and headgroups of the phosphatidylcholine.     

'Widening the radius of trust': ethnographic explorations of trust and Indian business

Trust has latterly become an important focus of enquiry across the social sciences, and this article reflects critically upon the current literature on the basis of ethnographic research into the transactions of small companies in several sectors of Indian industry, and the reorganization that is taking place in Indian family business groups in the context of economic globalization. It is concluded that much of the argument about the increasing importance of trust in the context of globalization is misplaced, and that it serves an ideological function. The problem of business management in India is that of bringing about change in the institutional framework and in business behaviour in a context in which these changes confront a culture of 'selective trust' amongst groups of people in specific social networks.     

Deconstructing fatalism: ethnographic perspectives on women's decision making about cancer prevention and treatment

Researchers have long held that fatalism (the belief in a lack of personal power or control over destiny or fate) constitutes a major barrier to participation in positive health behaviors and, subsequently, adversely affects health outcomes. In this article, we present two in-depth, ethnographic studies of rural women's health decisions surrounding cancer treatments to illustrate the complexity and contestability of the long-established fatalism construct. Narrative analyses suggest that for these women, numerous and complex factors--including inadequate access to health services, a legacy of self-reliance, insufficient privacy, combined with a culturally acceptable idiom of fatalism--foster the use of, but not necessarily a rigid conviction in, the notion of fatalism.     

Parallel and divergent landscapes: cultural encounters in the ethnographic space of Tuareg medicine

This essay explores the dialogue between the local quest for healing and the anthropological quest for healing knowledge, and local assessments of knowledge-power relationships in these processes. The context is medical discourse among the Tuareg of Niger Republic, West Africa, and my research experiences among these people. I examine local medical specialists and their traditional and changing practice in terms of how they perceive and respond to wider knowledge and power systems that impinge on local health care. Paramount in these systems are central state policies and medical anthropological research on healing, as these intersect in a postcolonial and post-separatist/rebellion setting. The essay analyzes parallels between the exchange of medicine and the exchange of knowledge and reflects upon how anthropological knowledge of African healing systems is constructed in an environment highly charged with power and danger--of political violence and economic crisis. The broader issue addressed here is how to give greater empowerment to local residents' voices in their "indigenous critique" of the medical anthropological project.     

T and B cells in B-chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: Faust, Mephistopheles and the pact with the Devil

A large number of human malignancies are associated with decreased numbers of circulating T cells. B-CLL, in this regard, represents an anomaly since there is not only high numbers of circulating B cells, characteristic of the malignancy, but also a massive expansion of both CD4 and CD8 T cells. These T cells for the most part may probably not represent a leukaemia-specific TCR-dependent expansion. On the contrary, these T cells, especially the CD4 subset, might support a "microenvironment" sustaining the growth of the leukaemic B cell clone. Conversely, the leukaemic B cells may produce membrane-bound as well as soluble factors that stimulate the proliferation of these T cells in an antigen independent manner. In addition to these T cells lacking anti-leukaemic reactivity, there exist spontaneously occurring leukaemia-specific T cells recognizing several leukaemia-associated antigens, e.g. the tumour derived idiotype, survivin and telomerase. Both CD4 and CD8 leukaemia-specific T cells have been identified using proliferation and gamma-IFN assays. These reactive T cells can lyse autologous tumour cells in an MHC class I and II restricted manner. Spontaneously occurring leukaemia-specific T cells are more frequently noted at an indolent stage rather than in progressive disease. Preliminary results from vaccination trials using whole tumour cell preparations as vaccine have demonstrated that vaccination may induce a leukaemia-specific T cell response, which might be associated with clinical benefits. Extended clinical trials are required to establish the therapeutic effects of vaccination in B-CLL. Studies in our laboratory as well as those of others indicate that whole tumour cell antigen in the form of apoptotic bodies or RNA loaded on to dendritic cells may be a suitable vaccine candidate. Patients with low stage disease may maximally benefit from this form of therapy.     

Enhanced film forming and film properties of amylopectin using micro-fibrillated cellulose

This work describes a novel approach to produce amylopectin films with enhanced properties by the addition of microfibrillated cellulose (MFC). Aqueous dispersions of gelatinized amylopectin, glycerol (0–38 wt%) and MFC (0–10 wt%) were cast at ambient temperature and 50% relative humidity and, after 10 days of storage, the tensile properties were investigated. The structure of the composite films was revealed by optical, atomic force and transmission electron microscopy. The moisture content was determined by thermogravimetry and the temperature-dependent film rigidity was measured by thermal mechanical analysis. Synchrotron simultaneous small- and wide-angle X-ray measurements revealed that the solutions had to be heated to above 85 °C in order to achieve complete gelatinization. Optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy revealed uniformly distributed MFC aggregates in the films, with a length of 10–90 μm and a width spanning from a few hundred nanometers to several microns. Transmission electron microscopy showed that, in addition to aggregates, single MFC microfibrils were also embedded in the amylopectin matrix. It was impossible to cast amylopectin films of sufficient quality with less than 38 wt% glycerol. However, when MFC was added it was possible to produce high quality films even without glycerol. The film without glycerol was stiff and strong but not brittle. It was suggested that this remarkable effect was due to its comparatively high moisture content. Consequently MFC acted both as a “conventional” reinforcement because of its fibrous structure and also indirectly as a plasticiser because its presence led to an increase in film moisture content.     

The use of Polaroid Land film in radioautography

It is shown that Polaroid film may be used in place of X-ray film in many experiments employing radioautographic techniques. In ¹⁴C experiments, the sensitivity of PolaPan Type 57 film is at least comparable to that of X-ray film, while radioactive iodine results in a slight increase in sensitivity of the Polaroid film over X-ray film. Darkroom facilities and time-consuming developing procedures are not necessary when Polaroid film is used. The background exposure usually acquired by X-ray film is nonexistent with Polaroid film. Under certain circumstances the differentiation of isotopes is possible in double-isotope experiments.