Cowboys and Aliens: Body Techniques and Audience Reception in Malaita,Solomon Islands

Based on ethnographic fieldwork among the Lau of Malaita Province, Solomon Islands, this article revisits the “imperial cowboy problem” through an anthropology of technology approach. It examines audience preference for Westerns, or “cowboy movies,” and their rejection of science fiction, or “new technology movies.” Non-verbal, visual communication, material cultures and body techniques are shown to be particularly significant for how unintended audiences engage with foreign visual media, given their own sociocultural context.     

Visual anthropology in a world of images

Culturally meaningfull icons are, under different forms and with different users and uses, at the forefront of social debates and confrontations everywhere, now more than ever. The scope of visual anthropology broadens with the expansion of restricted codes of visual communication in metropolitan areas, with the changing of meanings attributed to historical icons, with the invention of new intercultural visual codes. In this paper, the author advocates the study of what he calls a “cultural iconology” and offers a couple of examples of visually meaningful cultural forms worthy of anthropological analysis.     

The television and the shrine: Towards a theoretical model for the study of mass communications in Nigeria 1

The context in which the new mass media are produced, distributed, and consumed in Nigeria differs as radically from the everyday world of the “developed” nations as it does from traditional Nigerian societies of a century ago. Many sociologists of mass communication have failed to address the issue of cultural difference in their accounts of media and their role in the third world. It is suggested that Weber's concepts of “enchantment” and “rationalization” should both be re‐examined if one wishes to better understand a world in which television and the ancestral shrine exist in both spatial and ideological proximity to one another.     

Introduction: Haunting Images

As institutions such as the Institute for Scientific Film in Göttingen, Germany, look back on their accomplishments and look forward to what their role may be in the future, it is worthwhile to untangle some of the strands involved in the practice of “visual anthropology” and to clarify our thinking on the shared and distinctive characteristics of ethnographic films and of visual research material.     

Rethinking genes

The gene is the central construct of twentieth-century biology and evolution. It is a construct because, like “culture” in anthropology, “gene” is widely used and is central to the discipline's discourse, but eludes rigorous definition. Although the gene is acknowledged as a material entity, its membership criteria are unclear and its boundaries are fuzzy—indeed, more than one can occupy the same space at the same time. The purpose of this essay is to bring to light recent refinements in our conception of the gene and their implications for its use in biological anthropology.     

The cinema and social science: A survey of ethnographic and sociological films∗

It is with great pleasure that Visual Anthropology reprints excerpts from one of the major texts in our field, Luc de Heusch's monograph, “The Cinema and Social Science: A Survey of Ethnographic and Sociological Films.” First published in English in 1962 in UNESCO's series on the social sciences, the monograph has been out of print and difficult to locate for a number of years. It is being reprinted here so that we might better understand the historical development of visual anthropology by again having access to this classic.

The editor would like to thank Professor de Heusch and the rights and permissions unit of the Unesco Press for allowing us to make this work again available. We have omitted Chapter 5, “Brief Outline of the History of the Ethnographic and Sociological Film,” and Chapter 6, “Use of the Film in Ethno‐Sociological Research and the University Teaching of Social Sciences.”     

Anthropologists Working “at Home”: On the Range of Subjects and Forms of Representation in Film,and What Makes These Ethnographic

This discussion explores the meaning of ethnographic film with reference to films made by filmmakers “at home.” It is argued that ethnographicness in film is best conceptualized as a continuum, and that anthropology must embrace transnationalism and the changing nature of “homes” and “abroads” in order to present and represent peoples' voices in an era of increasing globalization. It is argued that the way that ethnographic film evolves, as a cultural product and process itself, should be embraced and celebrated for its ability to recognize universal humanity.     

The cultural construction of gendered bodies: Biology and metaphors of production and destruction*

One way of conceiving of the anthropological task is that of countering the degradations and “dehumanizations” of the “other” to which the species is prone by promoting “transcendent humanization.” However efficiently and professionally anthropologists gather their materials and form them into their ethnographic and ethnologic analyses, may not this “ethical impulse” be postulated as the “final cause” of our efforts? But what could such a sonorous phrase mean ? And what is its relationship to the systematic study of the “differences that make or do not make a difference” in culture to which anthropology has long been devoted? I will argue that it involves a dynamic of categories and that this dynamic is itself an object of systematic study. Recently, for example, some anthropologists have been writing “against culture,” seeing the culture concept and associated theory more as barriers than as benefits to pan‐human understanding. I will argue that this is an instance of “transcendent humanization.” One cannot but be sympathetic to the thrust and merits of this argument. But at the same time one wants to ask what implications it holds for the systematic study and understanding of the other. This article, then, examines some elementary vectors in the “dynamic of the categorical” involved in these and related recent debates which also may be seen in terms of transcendence and humanization: the debate over relativism and the recently emergent debate over “enlightenment mythmaking” in anthropology.     

Systems of representation: Towards the integration of digital photography into the practice of creating visual images

This paper aims to set the foundations for an integration of digital photography into the broader framework of visual representation. The current climate seems to be marked by a preoccupation with contrasting the digital with the analog image. An alternative cross‐cultural approach is proposed, employing “systems of representation” characterized by the wide range of strategies for communicating through the visual image that can be found in the anthropology of art. These take into account the optical principles of depiction and their cultural determinants. The paper aims to place the practice of the digital generation and manipulation of photographs at a point of convergence with a variety of other means of transcribing the three‐dimensional world onto a two‐dimensional flat surface.     

In Memoriam

A key element of the self‐critique in contemporary anthropology centres on the idea that categories such as culture and society have exaggerated human differences. This paper argues that the work of Anthony Cohen, which has attempted to frame “localities” as a new anthropological object, can be criticized on similar grounds. A close reading of Cohen's theoretical and ethnographic writings shows that the “anthropology of locality”, while claiming to be a critique of nationalhomogenization, in fact replicates ata lower level of scale features of the national units. Consideration of this particular example of the exaggeration of (local) difference, moreover, occasions reflection on the wider critique of generalization within anthropology.     

History and future of visual anthropology

Visual recording of communication processes between communities or individuals by means of filming of photographing is of significant importance in anthropology, as it documents on site the specific features of various social communities in their encounter with the researcher. In terms of film industry, it is a sort of ethno-documentary pursuing originality and objectivity in recording the given subject, thus fulfilling the research mission. However, the potential of visual anthropology significantly exceeds the mere audiovisual recording of ethnologic realities. Modern methods of analysing and evaluating the role of visual anthropology suggest that it is a technical research service aimed at documenting the status quo. If the direction of proactive approach were taken, then the term ,visual anthropology' could be changed to ,anthropology of the visual,. This apparently cosmetic change of name is actually significantly more accurate, suggesting the denoted proactive swift in perceiving visual anthropology, where visual methods are employed to ,provoke< the reaction of an individual or of the community. In this way the "anthropology of the visual, is promoted to a new scientific sub-anthropological discipline.     

Genes, language, cognition, and culture: towards productive inquiry

The Queen Mary conference on “Integrating Genetic and Cultural Evolutionary Approaches to Language,” and the papers in this special issue, clearly illustrate the excitement and potential of trans-disciplinary approaches to language as an evolved biological capacity (phylogeny) and an evolving cultural entity (glossogeny). Excepting the present author, the presenters/authors are mostly young rising stars in their respective fields, and include scientists with backgrounds in linguistics, animal communication, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and computer science. On display was a clear willingness to engage with different approaches and terminology and a commitment to shared standards of scientific rigor, empirically driven theory, and logical argument. Because the papers assembled here, together with the introduction, speak for themselves, I will focus in this “extro-duction” on some of the terminological and conceptual difficulties which threaten to block this exciting wave of scientific progress in understanding language evolution, in both senses of that term. In particular I will first argue against the regrettably widespread practice of opposing cultural and genetic explanations of human cognition as if they were dichotomous. Second, I will unpack the debate concerning “general-purpose” and “domain-specific” mechanisms, which masquerades as a debate about nativism but is nothing of the sort. I believe that framing discussions of language in these terms has generated more heat than light, and that a modern molecular understanding of genes, development, behavior, and evolution renders many of the assumptions underlying this debate invalid.     

Toward a Marxian anthropology? Bare,abstract, mobile,global

Anthropology has conventionally taken as some of its most cherished foundational categories the precise opposites of the key concepts that animate this inquiry: rather than “bare life,” anthropology has tended always to emphasize the fullness and complexity of social and political life; instead of labor in the abstract, which we recognize in its commodified form as “labor-power,” anthropology has produced exquisite inventories of concrete laboring activities and the “cultural” content of productive work; against the impermanence and mutability of lives characterized by their mobility, the ethnographic enterprise has been deeply attached to the sedentarist presuppositions of lasting settlement, dwelling, and “community”; and contrary to the task of apprehending space on a global scale, ethnographic study has been overwhelmingly localized and place-bound. Rethinking these elementary premises of the ethnographic endeavor and situating these critical concepts at the center of our epistemological frameworks are crucial theoretical and practical tasks for any meaningful social inquiry today. In this regard, the Marxian theoretical arsenal is simply indispensable. But, in the derisive words of so many disciplinary forebears and overseers, is this properly “anthropological”? The prospective convergence of genuinely critical sociopolitical inquiry with the techniques and insights of anthropology must remain for us the locus of an urgent problem—an open question on an open horizon.     

Architecture as animate landscape: circular shrines in the ancient Maya lowlands

In this study, I develop a theory of landscape archaeology that incorporates the concept of “animism” as a cognitive approach. Current trends in anthropology are placing greater emphasis on indigenous perspectives, and in recent decades animism has seen a resurgence in anthropological theory. As a means of relating in (not to) one's world, animism is a mode of thought that has direct bearing on landscape archaeology. Yet, Americanist archaeologists have been slow to incorporate this concept as a component of landscape theory. I consider animism and Nurit Bird-David's (1999) theory of “relatedness” and how such perspectives might be expressed archaeologically in Mesoamerica. I examine the distribution of marine shells and cave formations that appear incorporated as architectural elements on ancient Maya circular shrine architecture. More than just “symbols” of sacred geography, I suggest these materials represent living entities that animate shrines through their ongoing relationships with human and other-than-human agents in the world.     

News photography and indigenous peoples: An “encounter” in Guatemala

In March, 1991, a “Continental Encounter” of indigenous peoples took place in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. This paper examines the photographic coverage of that event, based on interviews with the journalists, observation of their work at the Encounter, and analysis of published reports and photos. The news coverage is divided into three phases: expectations (in search of the exotic “type”), transformations (rethinking “Indianness”), and negation (institutional disregard). It is argued that the news media represent indigenous peoples as part of a “vanishing” past; exotic “others” whose existence has no relevance to the “modern” news consumer.     

An Historical-Methodological Analysis of Psychotherapeutic Reliances

Each psychotherapeutic approach is determined not only by its technique and theory but also by its general philosophy. While this philosophy has many aspects (anthropological, epistemological, axiological, etc.), at its true core lies what the author calls a “psychotherapeutic reliance.” A reliance here is understood as a certain internal active process of the client (e.g., becoming aware, learning, experiencing), which the therapist hopes for and relies upon, believing that it is precisely what is responsible for achieving a psychotherapeutic effect. This article analyzes the history of psychotherapeutic reliances, endeavoring to understand the logic of their development. The author sees an important trend for future development in “synergetic psychotherapy,” which is based on Christian anthropology     

Psychospiritual ecoscience: The Ju/'hoansi and cultural tourism

The relation between knowledge and the visual, on the one hand, and knowledge about peoples on the other, is a prime concern in visual anthropology. The impact of the visual on the everyday life of the Ju/'hoansi is my concern here. This paper is offered in two parts: this article and the one which follows.

The results of a field‐trip in July 1996 to Otjozondjupa (previously known as Bush‐manland) in Namibia are discussed in terms of the question: How do subjects make sense of the anthropological?¹ Our “subject community” was the Ju/'hoansi of Nyae Nyae. The “texts” we interrogated through Ju/'hoansi popular memory were those made of them by the documentary filmmaker John Marshall, a South African feature‐film director, Jamie Uys, and one by the Discovery Channel.     

The Skeleton in the Physical Anthropology Closet1

Abstract

The “new” and “newer” concepts of physical anthropology are oriented to biochemical, genetic and evolutionary studies. While theseareneededand welcome concepts, they often slight the basic tools of anthropometry and typology. Also, the new and newer physical anthropology tends to separate biological factors from their cultural contexts. The writer discusses several questions posed by this shift in emphasis and suggests that the lack of a functional approach lessens the effectiveness of both biologically and culturally oriented investigators.     

Questions of kinship and inheritance in pediatric genetics: substance and responsibility

Pediatric genetics is growing in significance as a tool to explain childhood illness and disability. Within both medical sociology and anthropology writers have explored whether investigating genetic inheritance can overemphasize biological connection over other versions of kinship and can also lead to new forms of responsibility being imposed on parents for being “guilty” of sharing problematic “substance” with their offspring. Such considerations are complicated by the fact that a child's genetic variation is not necessarily something they inherited from their parents. This paper explores how questions of inheritance and responsibility are brought into play by pediatric genetics. It does so by drawing on ethnographic research of a genetics service in the UK. In particular we highlight how understandings of kinship can be unsettled by genetic scrutiny, but that once unsettled are not resolved by establishing whether a child has or has not inherited a genetic condition from their parents. Instead existing cultural kinship understandings of the moral substance of kinship responsibility towards producing and raising the right kinds of children are of equal (if not more) importance.