Anthropos: Anthropos, 99.2004

Anthropos, 99.2004

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistenter Identifier:: BV043334262

Titel:: Anthropos

Untertitel:: internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- u. Sprachenkunde

Erscheinungsort:: Fribourg

Verlag:: Ed. St. Paul

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1906

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

Zeitschriftenband

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711752

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711752

Persistenter Identifier:: 1510222436589

Titel:: Anthropos, 99.2004

Erscheinungsjahr:: 2004

Signatur:: LA 1118

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenheft

Titel:: Bd. 99, 2004, Heft 2

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Zeitschriftenartikel

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenartikel

Titel:: The Quest for the Authentic. On the Heroics of African Visual Anthropology

Sonstige Person:: Gordon, Robert J.

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

ANTHROPOS 99.2004: 427-434 The Quest for the Authentic On the Heroics of African Visual Anthropology Robert J. Gordon Abstract. - Recent assessments of the future of visual an thropology have suggested that with the increasing availability of low cost digital technology the subdiscipline is on the edge of a great leap forward. However, by analyzing another ora, that of the interwar years, when the arrival of low cost Photographic equipment was also held to herald a new era for visual anthropology, this article suggests exactly the opposite. Rather accessibility led to a decrease in use of visuals. This article analyses some of the factors involved and suggests that current assessments might be overly optimistic. [Africa, visual anthropology, history of anthropology, fieldwork methodology, cameras ] Robert J. Gordon is a Research Associate of Lefapha la Antro- Poloji, Yuniversithi Ya Freistata and Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Vermont. Recent Publications include: Law and Order in the New Guinea highlands (Hanover 1985) (with M. Meggitt); The Bushman iHyth (Boulder 1992); Picturing Bushmen (Athens 1997). h his brilliant, albeit, ignored critique of Imperi- a hsm, Mark Twain has King Leopold of Belgian Congo fame soliloquize: Hhe Kodak has been a sore calamity to us. The most Powerful enemy indeed. In the early years we had no Rouble in getting the press to “expose” the tales of the ’Mutilations as slanders, lies, inventions of busy-body American missionaries and exasperated foreigners by ’he press’s help we got the Christian nations everywhere ’° turn an irritated and unbelieving ear to those tales and Sa y hard things about the tellers of them. Yes, all things Rout harmoniously and pleasantly in good days, and I looked up to as the benefactor of a down-trodden and friendless people. Then all of a sudden came the crash! That is to say, the incorruptible Kodak and all the harmony went to hell! The only witness I have encountered in my long experience that 1 couldn’t bribe. Every Yankee missionary and every interrupted trader sent home and got one; and now oh, well, the pictures get sneaked around everywhere, in spite of all we can do to ferret them out and suppress them. Ten thousand pulpits and ten thousand presses are saying the good word for me all the time and placidly and convincingly denying the mutilations. Then that trivial little Kodak, that a child can carry in its pocket, gets up, uttering never a word, and knocks them dumb! (1970: 68 [1905]). Given anthropology’s strong roots in philanthro pies like the Aborigines Protection Society, its propensity, at least in Africa, to engage in what has been termed the expose tradition, the relative inexpense and skill required to use a camera, why hasn’t photography been used more consistently and extensively? This is a question that has been raised by many, including most recently David MacDougall (2001) who foresees that with the advent of relatively inexpensive digital video ex citing possibilities for visual anthropology. This article addresses this question by focus ing on another period when major advances in film technology occurred that not only simpli fied but also reduced the costs and thus made these technologies more accessible, namely the interwar years. My argument is simple: It sug gests that MacDougall might be overly optimistic because if we treat anthropology and especially visual anthropology as an adventure which de rives its value precisely from an attributed unique “scarcity” value, then the ready access to improved

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