This course explores the link between media and ethnography with an emphasis on visual anthropology and ethnographic films. Photography, film, and written works are studied to determine how different media, particularly film and photography, have initiated a change in the field of anthropology and how this change has been perceived, amongst both anthropologists and their critics.

CM/AN 349: Media and Ethnography studies the relationship between the anthropologist and his/her media, his/her subjects, and his/her viewer in order to come to a better understanding of the role of media in ethnography. Research is conducted on myriad anthropologists (Margaret Mead, Franz Boas, Bronislow Malinowski), various film festivals (FESPACO, Rencontre de la Photographie Africain), and several ethnographic filmmakers (Robert Flaherty, Jean Rouch). After reading seminal texts (notably Picturing Culture by Jay Ruby) and watching several key films from the world of visual anthropology (by filmmakers such as Jean Rouch, Robert Flaherty and Dziga Vertov) students are encouraged to form their own definitions of what an ethnographic film is, how it takes form, and what it consists of.

Further information on the web about Media and Ethnography:

Web resources for visual anthropology

Anthropology programs and ethnographic film sites

Photoethnography

Visual Anthropology.net