Visual Anthropology

Bibliographic Data

ID22366606
AuthorsJenny Chio (Southern California University for Professional Studies, corresponding author)
EditorsF Stein (0000-0002-0123-9895), Joel Robbins, Rupert Stasch, M Candea (0000-0001-7260-4194), Andrew Sanchez (0000-0001-8660-7505), Sian Lazar (0000-0002-0056-6333), Hildegard Diemberger (0009-0004-7655-6520)
Year2021
Publication date2021-07-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOpen Encyclopedia of Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2398-516X • E-ISSN: 2398-516X
PublisherCambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.29164/21visual
OpenAlexW4205575556
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited57

Visual anthropology encompasses two parallel aims: the production of anthropological media (including ethnographic film, video, photography, drawing, interactive media, etc.) as well as the anthropological analyses of media (including films, videos, photography, drawings, etc.). Conceptually, visual anthropology draws on theoretical and methodological connections between human perception and imagination, the use and production of audiovisual media, and ethnography. This entry explores how the work of visual anthropologists has contested, expanded, and transformed the discipline of anthropology. It also illustrates how the methods and debates in visual anthropology raise critically important questions about authorship, power, and the representation of culture that bear on the work of artists, filmmakers, photographers, curators, and journalists, among many others. The production of audiovisual materials in anthropological research is often overlooked. Yet technological advances in film and audio recording in the mid-twentieth century afforded anthropologists and filmmakers increasing opportunities to incorporate filmmaking into ethnographic and cross-cultural research. Since the 1980s, the establishment of visual anthropology programs within some academic departments, combined with the increased accessibility of video and digital media technologies globally, prompted important critiques of anthropological image-making and image use. It also helped develop new approaches to understanding visual experiences as a cultural practice. Four central concerns of visual anthropology at present are ethnographic filmmaking and theory, Indigenous and activist media, the study of visual culture, and multimodal anthropology. Taken together, this entry shows how visual anthropology has contested, expanded, and transformed understandings of power, authority, and meaning in media-making practices

Anthropology of art · Applied anthropology · Art · Art history · Contemporary art · Digital anthropology · Digital media · Ethnography · Filmmaking · Indigenous · Movie theater · New media · Representation · Sociology · Visual anthropology · Visual arts · Visual culture · Visual media · Visual research · Anthropology · Computer Science · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Photography and Visual Culture · Visual Culture and Art Theory

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access