Abstract A cultural practice with no fixed outcome, making images occupies an intriguing place in our world. Not only do many of us make images daily but we are surrounded by them and consume them on smart phones, computers and television screens, in books and magazines, and on clothing, buildings and museums. We also exchange them through social media, e-mail and postcards. Ubiquitous in our social lives, too often we take images, and their making, for granted. In this seminar we will explore what still and moving images do in different cultural contexts, their social lives as they circulate and how they are transformed as objects and a technology in diverse settings. Examining vision as part of our culturally embodied sensorial experience, we shall also explore methodological and ethical questions emerging from visual anthropology, and the long history of image making in the discipline and the political and ethical issues emerging from those histories. Analyzing these cultural understandings, methods, ethics and histories the seminar will develop tools for deconstructing our own ways of seeing and thus engaging the world. In addition to reading theory, and charting out the changing understandings of images in anthropology and we will read several monographs focused on the social lives of images in Australia, Indonesia, Denmark, and the United States. Students will also engage in a final image focused project. The course is intended to help demonstrate how the core lessons of SIMA – understanding museum objects through close multisensorial engagement and other forms of analysis – can be applied to the various visual objects that are engaged with in and outside of the museum. Materials contributed by Joshua A. Bell Curator of Globalization Director of SIMA Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution This course - ANTH 3991/6591: Visual Anthropology: The Social Lives of Images – is one that I teach at George Washington University. This is the fourth iteration of the course at GWU and draws on a course around photography that I developed at the University of East Anglia in 2007. This syllabus diverges from earlier versions in two aspects: (1) it was geared to undergraduate and graduate students (usually this is a graduate seminar) and (2) was shaped by not being able to access the collections of the National Anthropological Archives and the Human Studies Film Archive at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) during the pandemic. I have included as part of this syllabus an assignment that I typically assign when the museum collections are accessible (this was in 2017). While one could give a similar assignment that is virtual, a key aspect of this experience for the students is the sensorial and logistical engagement with archival audiovisual materials. I have included this assignment as an addendum to hopefully given a sense of what is possible. This syllabus was further shaped by my experience teaching during the pandemic and realizing that less was definitely more. The seminar draws on concepts that I have developed over the last decade of my teaching for SIMA. The seminar is intended to help students see the possibilities and affordances of the visual, while also helping them to understand that the visual is not reducible to being just images but involves 1 materiality. The students gain primary and secondary research skills as well as the ability to engage a wide-array of visual forms and technologies. This seminar attempts to give an introduction to key theoretical concepts in the field, a history of visual anthropology before shifting to a series of ethnographies. While the course is not explicitly a methods course, I have worked over the years to incorporate methods and room for creative explorations by the students. Of these efforts, the weekly image taking and sharing has proven to be the most successful. This course could easily be taught in two semesters and for a longer duration to allow for in-seminar screenings of films. For various reasons, I have not done this. One important aspect of the seminar is the timing to coincide with the Mother Tongue Film Festival (https://mothertongue.si.edu/) which provided students with a chance to see contemporary films otherwise not readily accessible. The seminar meets over the course of fifteen weeks for fourteen sessions (one break occur over the semester due to spring break). Each seminar last for 110 minutes. Due to the pandemic, the course met at George Washington University campus as well as virtually as needed. This iteration of the seminar consisted of 16 students (20 is the maximum). Previous iterations of the course have ranged from 8-14. This was the second time that the seminar was offered as a mixed upper undergraduate- graduate course. The majority of the students are anthropology majors with a variety of minors in museum students, and then some students from American studies, International Relations, Sociology, and Decorative Arts. On the rare occasion I had students with no anthropology background. A major aspect of the seminar is in-class discussions which is facilitated by the questions that are required to be posted via blackboard prior to the seminar. It was also facilitated by the photographic assignment outlined below. Both requirements helped students demonstrate their engagement with the readings and to seed in-seminar discussions. Part of the seminar’s design that I work to instill is that the seminar is a safe space to ask any and all questions about the readings, and that we as a group are here to debate ideas but be respectful of each other. As with other seminars I teach, I use teaching as an opportunity to read things I have wanted to read. As a result, there is usually a 50% or more set of the readings that I have not read (other than skim) prior to the seminar. While this can mean that some of the readings fall flat, the upshot is that everyone is engaging the readings together for the first time. This helps to create a mutual sense of discovery and some equality in that we are all new to the material. The first assignment that the students have is in seminar participation and engagement with readings. This is done through blackboard and is straight-forward. As an instructor it gives me a good sense of what they did and didn’t understand in the readings and what topics we need to focus on. It also gives students who are otherwise shy a readymade talking point for the seminar. The second assignment consists of eleven photographic responses to the readings. While the photographic assignment varies depending on the week and has a tie into the readings covered, in each case the students are asked to pair their image with a quotation from one of the week’s readings. The thought is in this way they will visually engage with some of the theoretical concepts of the seminar. Drawing inspiration from critical review of art work or “crit” in visual art pedagogy, we discuss all or a selection of the images submitted by the students. The number of images discussed depends on the seminar size. For this iteration of the seminar, I rotated whose images we discussed. 2 The third assignment focused on the Mother Tongue Film Festival and consisted of a short written response to one of the four virtual roundtables that were done and available online (https://www.youtube.com/c/mothertonguemedia) alongside with three films shown in the festival. The roundtables were focused discussions with filmmakers and gave the students a chance to engage with the thoughts of contemporary visual artists, and put this in dialogue with the films made by those filmmakers. My intention was to help them make connections between the work and the themes of the seminar. As with other assignments my aim was not to be prescriptive outside of certain parameters. This year I offered extra credit which several students took me up on. The fourth project consisted of a final assignment consisted of either a photo-essay or film. In earlier iterations of the seminar I have also included a final research paper as an option. The photographic essay consisted of ten written pages and twenty images. As the semester went on and I saw how burned out the students were becoming I pared back the assignment and made the paper eight pages with fifteen images. Originally, I outlined that the film project was to be focused on some aspect of life in Washington DC metro region, but I ended up expanding the potential scope of this to allow a student to make a film of her grandmother in El Salvador. Originally, I had limited to the DC region so as to avoid students working on footage that they had already shot. I have found over the years that students have desired to work on materials shot before the seminar. A key aspect of this final project is to provide space for them to explore the seminar’s themes. While the weekly photographic assignments help provide them with some practice, I do not provide formal instruction on film making. While I direct students to various resources and encourage them to emulate their favorite films, if the seminar has a weakness, it is that I do not build in a practical teaching of film-making methods. The final session focused on photographic essays was intended to help provide space for the students to discuss their projects and different techniques. Regardless of the type of final project students had to submit an outline so that I could give them feedback, and then they had to do a final in-seminar presentation. I worked hard to make room in the seminar such that each student had time to present (roughly 8-10 minutes) followed by questions (roughly 5 minutes). I provided each of the students with written feedback. Ideally these two steps – outline and presentation – had the effect of workshopping the research project such that the final product was of high quality. MATERIALS POSTED (from Spring 2022) 00 Syllabus 01 Archives Assignment (when collections are accessible to teach with) License The Collections Research Practicum in Cultural Anthropology course materials described above and shared here were produced by Joshua A. Bell in the United States of America. They are shared under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 3 Box of family photographs, Joshua A. Bell (2007) A cultural practice with no fixed outcome, making images occupies an intriguing place in our world. Not only do many of us make images daily but we are surrounded by them and consume them on smart phones, computers and television screens, in books and magazines, and on clothing, buildings and museums. We also exchange them through social media, e-mail and postcards. Ubiquitous in our social lives, too often we take images, and their making, for granted. In this seminar we will explore what still and moving images do in different cultural contexts, their social lives as they circulate and how they are transformed as objects and a technology in diverse settings. Examining vision as part of our culturally embodied sensorial experience, we shall also explore methodological and ethical questions emerging from visual anthropology, and the long history of image making in the discipline and the political and ethical issues emerging from those histories. Analyzing these cultural understandings, methods, ethics and histories the seminar will develop tools for deconstructing our own ways of seeing and thus engaging the world. In addition to reading theory, and charting out the changing understandings of images in anthropology and we will read several monographs focused on the social lives of images in Australia, Indonesia, Denmark, and the United States. Students will also engage in a final image focused project. 4 Learning Outcomes By the end of this seminar students will:  be conversant about the various ways people from around the world have historically engaged with, and continue to use still and moving images in the formation of their world and social relationships;  be conversant about the role of image making within the discipline of anthropology, and the major theories that have emerged around images and their making  develop an awareness of different ways in which still and moving images are integral to constructions of the person and thus aspects of our identity (memory, gender, etc).  be able to analyze and evaluate visual materials more critically  have developed more critical speaking, reading, image making and writing skills Assignments 1. Class Participation and Engagement with the Readings - 20% Students will participate in each seminar discussion – this means you will do two things: (1) posted to Blackboard by 10am on the day of the seminar for Weeks 2-14, two questions you have about the readings. These are questions meant to demonstrate you have done the readings and need to be about content and or theoretical issues that the readings raise; (2) It means that you will each be expected to speak in class. This means saying reasonably well thought-out things that demonstrate that you have done and thought about the assigned readings. I strongly advise you to, use the questions you have sent me in the seminar. 2. Photographic Responses - 20% From week 2 to 13, you will make an image that engages with some aspect of the week’s readings. These images will be due by 10 am the day of the seminar and are to be uploaded to Blackboard. This is an exercise that is meant to help you think critically about taking/making images and the readings. For each assignment you need to caption your imagewith some quote from the readings of the week it is due. Please use powerpoint or word to assemble your image and caption which you will then submit to Blackboard. Given the size of the seminar, I will choose 5 students to talk about their image, while we will look at the rest. Please come ready to discuss your image. If all works to plan you will get to speak 3 times over the course of the semester.  Week 2: Self-Portrait  Week 3: Portrait of someone you have asked  Week 4: Annotation of a “historic” photograph (it can be from a website/book/etc)  Week 5: Image of group doing some activity  Week 6: Image that is edited to obscure what it is  Week 7: Still life  Week 8: Image that addresses some political issue  Week 9: Image of people using some form of technology  Week 11: Image of people using mobile media  Week 12: Series of four images that tell a story  Week 13: Self-Portrait 3. Mother Tongue Film Festival Response – 10% This is a short 2-page response to the Mother Tongue Film Festival (Feb 17 – March 4). You will need to talk about 1 of the 4 roundtables that are put on and 3 films of your choosing (1 feature film and 2 shorts). Here I am looking for your reflections on the Festival and how it meshes with reading we have done from Weeks 2-7. The roundtables are loosely scheduled for Director’s Roundtable (Feb 21), Archival (Feb 23), Education Roundtable (Feb 25) and Women Directors Roundtable (March 3). This paper is due March 11 EXTRA CREDIT – As extra credit, I will accept up to two 1-page responses to any of the panels that you have 5 not watched for this assignment and as required by the seminar syllabus. You will get 2 extra points to your final grade. I will accept this up until May 6th. 1. Final Project – 50% This semester, your final project will be a photo-essay or film of some aspect of life in Washington DC metro region. You need to meet with me by phone/zoom or in person to talk about your project. Having chosen a topic, using the readings for the seminar, as well as other sources, you will produce a final project that critically examines the topic in light of what we have discussed in the seminar. This final project can take of two forms:  Extended photographic essay (10 pages with no less then 20 images taken by you, maximum of 35; 1.5 spacing and without bibliography included). See examples here: i. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/editors-forum/writing-with-light ii. http://photo.journalism.cuny.edu/week-5/ iii. https://www.nytimes.com/column/on-photography  A ten minute film with a four page reflection on the making of and content of the film (1.5 spacing and without bibliography included). This may seem an easier option but the success of this project necessitates you knowing how to use film and still image editing software. This is not something that I can teach you, but I can point you towards resources.  Regardless of your choice on February 25 before seminar you will email me 1 page outline in word (1.5 spacing and without bibliography included) of your final project. While you can draw on materials from this syllabus, I expect that you will have done research as to what exists on the given topic. This is worth 15% of your final grade on the project. To have a successful project I strongly advise you to be in touch with me to discuss your project as the semester unfolds.  For our final seminars (April 15 and 22) each student will give a short presentation of their project (c. 10min). While I don’t expect your project to be finished at this point, I do expect a coherent and well-argued presentation. These presentations are designed to create a forum for group feedback about your topic, which will improve your final projects. They will count be 15% of your final project grade. The final paper is due on May 6 (before 12 midnight). General guidelines for written assignments: Please submit assignments on time as it has a cascading effect if late. All written assignments should be typed in standard fonts (12 point Times, Palatino, or Calibri are recommended) with 1-inch margins and 1.5 spacing. Please follow the citation/bibliographic format used in Current Anthropology. Please email me all your work as word documents. I strongly advise you to read Orwell’s 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language” before you begin your written assignment. Good writing takes time and thought: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm 2. Despite our re-treading old ground being initially virtual – I encourage you all to read this:  Fry, N. 2020. Embracing the Chaotic Side of Zoom." The New Yorker April 20. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/27/embracing-the-chaotic-side-of-zoom 3. Academic Integrity is essential. If you are unfamiliar with GW’s policies, please consult the policy here: https://studentconduct.gwu.edu/code-academic-integrity 4. On a final note, given the ongoing grind of the pandemic, things will inevitably come up over the course of the semester. Your health and mental well-being come first and foremost. But that said, I ask that you please communicate with me if you are experiencing things and having a rough time. Attendance to the seminar is mandatory and absences must be accompanied with a valid excuse. If you need to attend a religious holiday please let me know 2 weeks in advance of the date. 6 Other Information Email Policy: Email is a necessary evil, but it creates a false sense of social relations and allows us to become increasingly alienated from our colleagues and students. This is even more so during the current pandemic. Please make every effort to make time to talk with me during my office hours if you have questions about this seminar, and its assignments. Required texts are available for purchase and will be made available in the GW library. Assigned articles and chapters will be available via e-mail as PDFs on blackboard. The readings are divided between required and further reading. Further readings are intended to help provide further context for the seminar. *Strassler, Karen. 2020. Demanding images : democracy, mediation, and the image-event in Indonesia. Duke University Press. Benjamin, R. 2019. Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Polity Press. Miyarrka Media 2019. Phone & Spear: A Yuta Anthropology. London: Goldsmiths Press. Waltorp, Karen 2020. Why Muslim Women and Smartphones Mirror Images. London: Routledge *Available electronically through GW Library Given the mixed nature of the class, I encourage the graduate students to read Further Reading/Viewing as a way to lean into the topic at hand. Regardless of your level, I expect you to come to the seminar having done the readings and watched the required films and to be ready to actively discuss the topics at hand. Week 1 (Jan. 14) Orientations – The Social Lives of Images During this initial meeting we will discuss the syllabus and seminar’s goals. Please come having read the short piece. Reading  Garnett, J. & S. Meiselas. 2007. 'On the Rights of Molotov Man: Appropriation and the art of context.' Harper's Magazine February, 53-8 detail from Pigeon in Flight, from Animal Locomotion, c. 1887 E. Muybridge Week 2 (Jan. 21) Histories I: Bursting ‘this prison-world asunder’ The invention of photography (c. 1839) and film (c. 1889) enabled new ways of representing and seeing the world. Within this seminar we will look at the implications of these inventions theoretically, what new affordances each technology enabled and what questions they raised about modernity. As part of this discussion, we will discuss the agency and affect of images - what they want from us and what they can do to us. Required Reading/Viewing  Benjamin, W. 2005. [1936]. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Pp. 217-252. New York: Random House. 35 pages Available here: https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm  Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1895; Dir. Lumière Brothers; 49 sec.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk  Azoulay, A. 2010. "What is a photograph? What is photography?" Philosophy of Photography (1)1: 9-13. 5 pages 7  Edwards, E. 2012. "Objects of Affect: Photography Beyond the Image." Annual Review of Anthropology 41:221-234. 13 pages  Takaragawa, S., Smith, T., Hennessy, K., Alvarez Astacio, P., Chio, J., Nye, C., Shankar, S. 2019. “Bad Habitus: Anthropology in the Age of the Multimodal.” American Anthropologist 121(2):517-524. 7 pages Further Reading/Viewing  Debord, G. 2006. Society of the Spectacle. London: Rebel Press. Text online here: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm Focus on Chapters 1-3 (1-72).  Mitchell, WJT. 2005. “What do Pictures Want?” In What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images. Pp. 28-56. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 28 pages  Pinney, C. 2012. "Seven Theses on photography." Thesis Eleven 00(0): 1-16. 16 pages  Batchen, G. and Gitelman, L. 2018. “Afterword: Media History and History of Photography in Parallel Lines.” In Photography and Other Media in the Nineteenth Century, (eds) N. Leonardi and S. Natale. Pp. 205-212. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 7 pages  Photo Wallahs (1991; Dir. D. MacDougall and J. MacDougall, 60 min) https://vimeo.com/ondemand/photowallahs [working to find a way for you to watch this] detail of damaged and deteriorating frame of 35 mm nitrate film, Human Studies Film Archive Week 3 (Jan. 28) Histories II: Archives and their Futures New technologies of image-making fed into the burgeoning of museums and archives in the Global North during the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. Within this seminar we will focus on images as material-visual things that circulated and came to rest in institutions, and what issues arise as they move into and through these sites. As part of this session, we will consider the tensions bound up in these sites, the utopic desires that these archives emerged from and ways in which the histories contained within their materials are being challenged. Required Reading/Viewing  Edwards, E. & J. Hart. 2004. 'Mixed Box: The Cultural Biography of a Box of 'Ethnographic' Photographs.' In Photographic Objects Histories: On the Materiality of Images (eds) E. Edwards & J. Hart, Pp. 47-61. London: Routledge. 15 pages  Campt, T. 2017. “Listening to Images: An Exercise in Counterintuition.” and “Haptic Temporalities: The Quiet Frequency of Touch.” In Listening to images. Pp. 1-12, 69-100. Durham: Duke University Press. 43 pages o If you have the interest, I encourage you to read the whole book.  Tsinhanahjinne, HJ. 2003. 'When Is a Photograph Worth a Thousand Words?' In Photography's Other Histories (eds) C. Pinney & N. Peterson, Pp. 40-52. Durham: Duke University Press. 13 pages  Beck, A. 2016 "Decolonizing Photography: A Conversation with Wendy Red Star." Aperture December 14. https://aperture.org/blog/wendy-red-star/  Mullings, S., Sobers, S. and Thomas, D.A. (2021), “The Future of Visual Anthropology in the Wake of Black Lives Matter.” Visual Anthropology Review 37: 401-421.  Bontoc Eulogy (1995; Dir. Marlon Fuentes 56 min) [I am working to find a way to access this for you] 8 Further reading/viewing  Sekula, A. 1986. "The Body and the Archive." October 39: 3-64. 61 pages [WARNING this article has graphic images]  Smith, T., and Hennessy, K. 2020. “Anarchival Materiality in Film Archives: Toward an Anthropology of the Multimodal.” Visual Anthropology Review 36(1):113-136. 23 pages  Buckley, L. 2005 “Objects of Love and Decay: Colonial Photographs in a Postcolonial Archive.” Cultural Anthropology 20(2): 249–70. 21 pages  Human Studies Film Archives: A Celebration of Its 40th Anniversary. (2015; Dir. Moore and Dezas, 12 min) https://www.si.edu/object/yt_4NFdGAMoPJs  Wintle, P. 2013. “Moving Image Technology and Archives.” In Recreating First Contact: Expeditions, Anthropology and Popular Culture, (eds) JA. Bell, A. Brown and R.J. Gordon. Pp. 31-40. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. 9 pages  Wendy Red Star: Baaeétitchish (One Who Is Talented) LightWork https://www.lightwork.org/archive/wendy-red-star/ detail of “Margaret Mead with Trophy Heads”, 1934, Getty Images Week 4 (Feb. 4) Histories III: Anthropology, Expeditions and Image Making Following Pinney (1992), we will consider the “parallel histories” of anthropology and image-making. Specifically, we will discuss the ways in which images formed the basis for evidence for anthropology in the late 19th to mid- 20th centuries, and the rise of popular image-making associated with expeditions in the 1920s and 1930s. As part of this discussion, we will consider recent controversies about the publications by American Anthropologist of an image of Mead posing with decorated heads from the Middle Sepik region of Papua New Guinea, which brought to the foreground some anthropological histories while silencing others. Required Reading/Viewing  Gordon, R.J., Brown, A. and JA Bell 2013. “Expeditions, their Films and Histories: An Introduction.” In Bell, JA., Brown, A. and R.J. Gordon, eds. Recreating First Contact: Expeditions, Anthropology and Popular Culture. Pp 1-30. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. 30 pages  Nanook of the North (1922; Dir. Flaherty; 79 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ystHx3eA28&vl=en Watch at least 15 minutes to get a sense of the film.  Rony, Fatimah Tobing 2006. "The Photogenic Cannot Be Tamed: Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson's ‘Trance and Dance in Bali’" Discourse 28(1): 5-27. 22 pages  Bell, J.A. 2010. ‘Sugar Plant Hunting by Airplane in New Guinea: A Cinematic Narrative of Scientific Triumph and Discovery in the ‘Remote Jungles.’ The Journal of Pacific History 45(1): 37-56. 19 pages  Bonilla, Y. and Thomas, D. 2020 "An Interview with the Editor of American Anthropologist about the March 2020 Cover Controversy." American Anthropologist Jun 29. http://www.americananthropologist.org/2020/06/29/an-interview-with-the-editor-of-american- anthropologist-about-the-march-2020-cover-controversy/ Further reading/viewing 9  Pinney, C. 1992. 'The Parallel Histories of Anthropology and Photography.' In Anthropology and photography 1860-1920 (ed.) E. Edwards, Pp 74-95. New Haven: Yale University Press. 21 pages  Edwards, E. 2001. “Re-enactment, Salvage Ethnography and Photography in the Torres Strait.” In Raw Histories: Photographys, Anthropology and Museums. Pp. 157-182. Oxford: Berg. 25 pages  Morton, C. 2009. ‘The Initiation of Kamanga: Visuality and Textuality in Evans-Pritchard’s Zande Ethnography.’ In Photography, Anthropology and History: Expanding the Frame edited by C. Morton and E. Edwards. Pp. 119-142. Surrey: Ashgate. 23 pages detail from film Jero on Jero, 1981, Human Studies Film Archive Week 5 (Feb 11) Histories IV: Practices of Observation and the Reflective Turn If photography faded as an explicit method in anthropology, the 1960s saw the rise of film-making as a ‘new’ method. Thinking through developments from the 1950s to the 1980s, we will consider this shift and look at the new faith placed in film, and the subsequent crisis of representation that emerged from its use through a focus on Rouch, Marshall, Gardner, Asch and the MacDougalls. Please note that we will divide the seminar into 5 groups of 3/4 and prior to the seminar each group will watch films related to the filmmaker(s) we will be discussing: John Marshall; Jean Rouch; Robert Gardner; Tim Asch and David and Judith MacDougall. In addition to your assigned group, I welcome you to watch as much as you would like of the other work. Required Reading/Viewing  Mead, M. 2003 [1975] "Visual Anthropology in a Discipline of Words." In P. Hockings (ed) Principles of visual anthropology Pp. 3-12. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 8 pages  Tomaselli, KG. and Homiak, JP. 1999. “Powering popular conceptions: The !Kung in the Marshall family expedition films of the 1950s.” Visual Anthropology 12(2-3): 153-184. 21 pages  Rouch, J. 2003. “The Camera and Man.” In Ciné-ethnography. Edited and translated by Steven Feld. Pp. 29- 46. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press. 17 pages  Asch, T and Asch, P. 2003 [1975] "Film in Ethnographic Research." In P. Hockings (ed) Principles of visual anthropology Pp. 335-360. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 37 pages  Gardner, R. “Dead Birds.” And “Camera Visions.” In Impulse to Preserve: Reflections of A Filmmaker. Pp. 8- 71; 365. New York: Other Press. 28 pages  Barbash, I. and Taylor, L. 1996. Reframing Ethnographic Film: A “Conversation” with David MacDougall and Judith MacDougall. American Anthropologist, 98: 371–387. 15 pages Please note that these films are historic and as such the documentaries have footage that would not be shot today and may contain commentary you will find problematic (I know I do). Please try to watch the films as historic objects which help us understand anthropology and documentary for the period. John Marshall (1932-2005)  The Hunters (1957; Dir. Marshall; 72 min) https://archive.org/details/huntersfilmpart1 https://archive.org/details/huntersfilmpart2 10  N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman (1980. Dir. Marshall; 59 min) https://archive.org/details/naithestoryofakungwoman https://archive.org/details/naithestoryofakungwoman/naithestoryofakungwomanreel2.mov Jean Rouch (1917 – 2004)  Les maîtres fous [The mad masters] (1955; Dir. Rouch; 27 min) In French https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRXtpYfT0bw  Moi, un noir (1959; Dir. Rouch) https://vimeo.com/294911765 Robert Gardner (1925 – 2014)  Dead Birds (1963; Dir. Gardner; 83 min) Need to get link  Land Divers of (1973; Dir. Gardner & Muller; 31 min) https://archive.org/details/landdiversofmelanesia  Deep Hearts (1981; Dir. Gardner; 53 min) https://archive.org/details/deephearts/deepheartsreel1.mov Tim Asch (1932-1994)  A Man Called "Bee": Studying the Yanomamo (1973; Dir. Asch & Chagnon; 43 min) https://archive.org/details/amancalledbeestudyingtheyanomamo  A Balinese Trance Seance & Jero on Jero (1980-1981, Dir. T. Asch, P. Ashc & L. Conner; 47 mins) https://vimeo.com/groups/319766/videos/161874017 David MacDougall (1939)  To Live with Herds (1974; Dir D. MacDougall, 70 min) o Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POAq9Q9pMIs o Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUFgYqkLY-o o Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6FQPoroOts o Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMdFqDSWCYM o Part 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUvUmuh4vXE Further reading/viewing  The Camera that Changed the World (2011; Dir. Chang; 59 min) https://vimeo.com/50533709  ARCHIVAL ROUNDTABLE: ANTHROPOLOGISTS AS STORYTELLERS (March 19, 2021) – Mother Tongue Film Festival Discussion Lina Fruzzetti (Brown University) and Ákos Östör (Wesleyan University), spanning numerous publications and six films. Moderated by Alice Apley (director, Documentary Education Resources) and joined by Pam Wintle (senior film archivist, Human Studies Film Archive) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk7trrP7bVU  Durington, M and Ruby, J. 2011. "Ethnographic Film." In Banks, M. and Ruby, J. (eds) Made to be seen: perspectives on the history of visual anthropology. Pp. 190-208. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 18 pages  Grimshaw, A. and Ravetz A. 2009. “Rethinking Observational Cinema.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15(3): 538-556. 18 pages 11 detail of a Mother Tongue Film Festival Banner Week 6 (Feb 18) Histories V: Indigenous Media In this seminar we will look at the ways in which indigenous communities have taken up various visual media – feature film, documentary, animation, video, televison and new media - to assert their sovereignty, challenge misleading representations and negotiate their identities and heritage. Doing so they have opened up new ways of seeing and being in the world. Please note that the Mother Tongue Film Festival will begin this week (February 17) and run till March 4. While the films are being finalized, you will be expected to watch the opening night film for our seminar on the 18th. Required Reading/Viewing  Bootlegger (2021; Dir. Caroline Monnet; 83 min) or Beans (2020; Dir. Tracey Deer; 93 min) https://mothertongue.si.edu/ (link will be here)  Van Oostenburg, Maddie, Tabachnick, Mariel and Maya Sanchez 2021. “What Is a Mother Tongue Film?” February 18 https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/what-is-a-mother-tongue-film  Ginsburg, F. 2002. “Screen Memories: Resignifying the Traditional in Media.” In Ginsburg, F., Abu-Lughod, L. and B. Larkin, eds. Media Worlds: Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Pp. 39- 57. Berkeley: University of California Press. 18 pages  Salazar, JF. and Córdova, A. 2008. “Imperfect Media and Poetics of Indigenous Video in Latin America.” In Global Indigenous Media: Cultures, Poetics and Politics. Edited by P. Wilson and M. Stewart, Pp. 39-57. Durham: Duke University Press. 18 pages  Cache Collective 2008. “Cache: Provisions and Productions in Contemporary Igloolik Video” In Global Indigenous Media: Cultures, Poetics and Politics. Edited by P. Wilson and M. Stewart, Pp. 74-88. Durham: Duke University Press. 12 pages Further Reading/viewing  Turner, T. 1992. “Defiant Images: The Kayapo Appropriation of Video.” Anthropology Today 8(6):5-16. 11 pages  Chalfen, R. 1992. “Picturing Culture Through Indigenous Imagery: A Telling Story.” In Film As Ethnography, Peter Crawford and David Turton (eds.), pp. 222-241. Manchester: University of Manchester Press. 19 pages  Weiner J.F. 1997. ‘Televisualist anthropology: representation, aesthetics, politics.’ Current Anthropology 38 (2): 197–235. 37 pages  Wilson, P. and Stewart, M. 2008. ‘Indigeneity and Indigenous Media on the Global Stage.’ In Global Indigenous Media: Cultures, Poetics and Politics. Edited by P. Wilson and M. Stewart, Pp. 1-38. Durham: Duke University Press. 37 pages  Atanarjuat Made the Impossible Possible for Indigenous Filmmakers (2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwoRtJqkmac 12 detail of Kairi Evo’o and his family examining photographs by F.E. Williams, 2002 JA. Bell Week 7 (Feb 25) Histories VI: Returns Influenced by the reflexive shift of anthropological filmmakers, by the rise of indigenous media and confronted with the sheer amount of material in archives and museums anthropologists have increasing striven to understand what intercultural legacies these materials partake in. Within this seminar we will examine the possibilities, ethics and issues that emerge when returning historial materials to communities of origin, and what happens when indigenous scholars, artists, activists and community members engage with these legacies and collaborate with outside researchers. Required Reading  Kingston, D.P. 2003. ‘Remembering our Namesakes: Audience reactions to archival film of King Island, Alaska.’ In Peers, L. and Brown, A. eds. Museums and Source Communities: A Routledge Reader. Pp. 123-135. London: Routledge. 12 pages  Bell, JA. 2010. "“Out of the Mouths of Crocodiles: Eliciting Histories with Photographs and String Figures.” History and Anthropology 21 (4):351-373. 21 pages  Thomas, J. 2014. ‘At the Kitchen Table with Edward Curtis.’ In Evans, B, and Glass, A. eds. Return to the Land of the Head Hunters. Pp. 128-144. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 14 pages  Hennessy, K., Lyons, N., Loring, S., Arnold, C., Joe, M., Elias, A., Pokiak, J. 2013. ‘The Inuvialuit Living History Project: Digital Return as the Forging of Relationships Between Institutions, People, and Data.’ Museum Anthropology Review 7(1-2) Spring-Fall 2013: 44-73. 29 pages See also http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/  Archival Roundtable – will be broadcast on February 23 and will then be available for later viewing – we will be convening archivists to talk about the restoration project (https://www.der.org/special- initiatives/yanomamo-preservation-campaign/) and then Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars to talk about the engagement around the Yanomamö Series (1968-1971) with Yanomamö scholars.  https://mothertongue.si.edu/ Please feel free to continue to watch the Mother Tongue Festival – while all the films are wonderful, I recommend the following feature films o I Had A Dream (Dir. Bir Rüya Gördüm; 2019; 66 min) o Book of the Sea (Dir. Aleksei Vakhrushev 2018; 85 min) o Chasing Voices (Dir. Daniel Golding 2021; 51 min) Further reading/viewing  Boast R. 2011. “Neocolonial collaboration: museum as contact zone revisited.” Museum Anthropology 34:56–70. 14 pages  Christen, K. 2011. "Opening Archives: Respectful Repatriation." American Archivist 74:185-210. 25 pages  Bell, JA., Christen, K. and Turin, M. 2013. “Introduction: After the Return.” Museum Anthropology Review 7 (1-2):1-21. 20 pages  A Weave of Time: The Story of A Navajo Family (1986, Dir. S. Fanshel, 60 min) https://www.kanopy.com/product/weave-time-story-navajo-family PROJECT OUTLINE DUE 13 detail of Open Your Mouth, 2002, F. X. Harsono Week 8 (March 4) Ways of Seeing I: Political Subjects and Communities in Java Reading Strassler’s ethnography of photography and photographic practices in Java, we will explore what she terms “image-events” to think about how images are “become the material ground of struggles over [Indonesia’s] past, present and future.” Doing so we will also think about the different cultural understandings of this technology and its objects that Strassler’s work raises. Required Reading  Strassler, Karen. 2020. Demanding images: democracy, mediation, and the image-event in Indonesia. Durham: Duke University Press. 246 pages Further reading  Warner, M. 2002. ‘Publics and Counter Publics.’ Public Culture 14(1): 49-90. 41 pages  Edwards, E. 2015. 'Photographs as Strong History.' in Photo Archives and the Idea of Nation. Edited by Costanza Caraffa and Tiziana Serena. Pp. 321-329. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 8 pages  Azoulay, A. 2013. “Potential History: Thinking Through Violence.” Critical Inquiry 39(3): 548-574. 26 pages detail of “Race after Technology” graphic showing Melby Roy with patent for jail locking mechanism (https://www.ruhabenjamin.com/credits) Week 9 (March 11) Ways of Seeing II: Technologies of Oppression and Liberation In this seminar we will delve into the labor, and thus prejudices, that creates the digital systems through which images circulate and are consumed. Engaging with Benjamin’s work we will discuss how if technology can led to new forms of oppression, that technology also contains the possibilities for liberation. Required Reading  Benjamin, R. 2019. Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Polity Press. 197 pages Further Reading  Bonilla, Y. and Rosa, J. 2015. "#Ferguson: Digital protest, hashtag ethnography, and the racial politics of social media in the United States." 42(1): 4-17. 13 pages  Richardson, AV. 2020. "Why cellphone videos of black people’s deaths should be considered sacred, like lynching photographs." The Conversation. May 28. https://theconversation.com/why-cellphone-videos-of- black-peoples-deaths-should-be-considered-sacred-like-lynching-photographs-139252  Richardson, A.V. 2020. "Smartphone witnessing becomes synonymous with Black patriotism after George Floyd’s death." The Conversation July 13.https://theconversation.com/smartphone-witnessing-becomes- 14 synonymous-with-black-patriotism-after-george-floyds-death-142153  Bell, Joshua A., Joel C. Kuipers, and Alexander S. Dent. 2021. "Mob Rule, American Fascism, and Cellular Telephony." Hot Spots, Fieldsights, April 15. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/mob-rule-american-fascism-and- cellular-telephony Mother Tongue Film Festival Response Paper Due Week 10 (March 18) Spring Break (no seminar) detail from screen capture from Ringtone, 2014 Miyarrka Media Week 11 (March 25) Ways of Seeing V: Relational Technologies In this seminar we will continue to look at the new affordances and attending anxieties that digital, mobile and social media technologies are enabling and creating but through the collaborative ethnography of Miyarrka Media which examines the image practices of the Yonlgu of Arnhem Land, Australia. In the process we will think through what anthropology is and should be. Required Reading  Miyarrka Media 2019. Phone & Spear: A Yuta Anthropology. London: Goldsmiths Press. 231 pages Further Reading/viewing  Deger, J. 2016. "Thick Photography." Journal of Material Culture 21(1): 111-132. 21 Pages  Schüll, N. 2022. “Devices and selves: From self-exit to self-fashioning.” In Geismar, H. and Knox, H. eds. Digital Anthropology. Pp. 137-156. London: Bloomsbury. 19 Pages  Geismar, H. 2017. ‘The Instant Archive.’ In the Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography. Edited by Larissa Hjorth, Heather Horst, Anne Galloway and Genevieve Bell. Pp. 331-343. London: Routledge. 12 pages  Ringtone (2014, Dir. J.Deger and P. Gurrumuruwuy, 30 min) https://www.tieff.org/en/films/ringtone/ (I will get our seminar an access copy to view) 15 detail from screen capture from The Flow of Images, 2020 Aarhus University Week 12 (April 1) Ways of Seeing VI: Assembling Images This week we will examine social media how it blurs the division of private and public in the context of Muslim women in Norrebro, Denmark. Doing so we will think more widely about the media devices that our glowing plastic and metal rectangles enable. Required Reading  Waltorp, Karen 2020. Why Muslim Women and Smartphones Mirror Images. London: Routledge. 154 pages Further reading/viewing  Marcus, G. 2005 ‘The Anthropologist as Witness in Contemporary Regimes of Intervention.’ Public Culture 1(1): 31-50. 19 pages  Duclos, V. 2017 ‘Inhabiting Media: An Anthropology of Life in Digital Speed.’ Cultural Anthropology 32(1): 21- 27. 6 pages  Karen Waltorp The Flow of Images in Anthropology – May 31, 2020 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir5Zss3vrJU Detail of Image 3. mage 3. The coffee farmer doesn’t pick up her phone. Kyrstin Mallon Andrews, 2019 https://culanth.org/fieldsights/borderwaters Week 13 (April 8) Ways of Seeing VII: Writing with Light Drawing on the work we have done all semester and to help you conceptualize your final project we will do some readings of and about photo-essays and some short films from the Grandma’s Project. We will use them to think about how one takes and thinks about writing with light. Required Reading  Hoffman, Daniel. 2014. "Corpus: Mining the Border." Photo Essays, Cultural Anthropology website, January 31. Also read “Photographic Figure Studies as a Mode of Ethnography?” by Zeynep Devrim Gürsel on the same link - https://culanth.org/fieldsights/corpus-mining-the-border  Rabasa, José, and Laurence Cuelenaere. 2014. "Imagining Precarious Life in Tulum, Mexico." Photo Essays, Cultural Anthropology website, February 3. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/imagining-precarious-life- in-tulum-mexico 16  Bach, Amy J., Julia A. McWilliams, and Elaine Simon. 2019. "'This is about racism and greed': Photographs of Philadelphia’s Mass School Closures." Writing with Light, Cultural Anthropology website, October 29. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/this-is-about-racism-and-greed  Sindhi Kadhi (8 min, India/USA/France, 2018; Dir. Natasha Raheja) Produced by The Grandmas Project  Salade Cuite (8 min, France/Morocco 2018 Dir. Ninette Zagury) Produced by The Grandmas Project  Mehchi (8 min, Brazil/Lebanon 2018 Dir. Mathias Mangin) Produced by The Grandmas Project Further Reading/Viewing  Shankar, Arjun. 2019. “Listening to Images, Participatory Pedagogy, and Anthropological Reinventions.” American Anthropologist 121: 229–42.  Bhattacharya, Sreedeep. 2018. "Navigating the Anarchy of Debris: Observing the Loss of Material Sovereignty." Writing with Light, Cultural Anthropology website, November 5. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/navigating-the-anarchy-of-debris-observing-the-loss-of-material-sovereignty  Oktyabrskaya, Irina, Valeriy Klamm, Craig Campbell, and Vasilina Orlova. 2016. "Ryzyka: A Curated Conversation." Writing with Light, Cultural Anthropology website, November 19. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/ryzyka-a-curated-conversation  http://grandmasproject.org/ Week 14 (April 15) FINAL PRESENTATIONS I Half of the seminar will present their project. This session will have to be via Zoom. Week 15 (April 22) FINAL PRESENTATIONS II Rest of the seminar will present their project. Week 16 (May 6) FINAL PROJECT DUE By 11.59 on May 6th. Film Reels, Human Studies Film Archive, JA Bell 2018 17 COLLECTIONS ESSAY – This is a project that was part of the syllabus when collections were accessible. With the onset of the pandemic, the film review essay took the place of this assignment in 2022. For this assignment, each student chose a collection from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Anthropological Archives (NAA) and or the Human Studies Film Archive (HSFA) and wrote a three-page paper (not including images; 1.5 spaces) about the materials selected (drawing, photograph, or film). A critical aspect of this assignment was my working out with archivists prior to the seminar to make a list of series of collections that would be good for the students to work on, be accessible and which further research on would help augment the NAA and HSFA (see the list of examples below). Here I took my inspiration from Greene’s collection history assignment.1 A subsidiary aim of the assignment was for good essays to be converted into blog entries for the Smithsonian Collections Blog (which at the time of posting this syllabus has been discontinued).2 Through the blog I wanted to help make the collections more visible and help the students with a publication of sorts. Assignment Rubric Taking your cue from Edwards and Hart (2004), the aim of this piece is to think through the scale and scope of the selected material and then to situate it within the wider discipline of anthropology. Drawing on the seminar’s readings please consider the following when writing about the collection you choose:  Biographical Details – who made the material(s)?; when and why?; how did the materials come to the NAA and or HSFA?  Forensic Details – what does the selected collection document? What are the properties of the selected material (i.e., what is it made of)?  Significance – what is important about this collection for academics, communities of origins and the wider public? What does this collection or object say about society at the time? Each piece needs to have 3 to 6 images associated with the narrative about the collection using ideas that you have gathered from the seminar’s readings (please consult examples listed below). This assignment is a chance for you to conduct some work on archival material, and I encourage you to be creative with your use of images. In keeping with any paper you will need to have citations. Successful papers will be edited with help from me and staff of the NAA to be made publishable on one of the Smithsonian’s Blogs. Please note that you will have to schedule at least one visit to the NAA/HSFA at the Museum Support Center in Suitland Maryland to better acquaint yourself with the 1 Greene, Candace. 2018. “Anthropology in the museum”. George Washington University; Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology. https://hdl.handle.net/10088/99170 2 The following blogposts are examples of students work: Krishnan, Shweta 2017. “Accessing the Bonaparte Collection at the National Anthropological Archives, Part Two.” https://si-siris.blogspot.com/2017/12/accessing-bonaparte-collection- at_8.html; Ross, Scott. 2017. “Southwest Archaeology and “The Time of Vietnam”: Part One.” https://si- siris.blogspot.com/2017/11/southwest-archaeology-and-time-of.html; Vourlides, Evy 2017. “Robert T. Smith “Smitty” at the National Anthropological Archives: Part One” https://si-siris.blogspot.com/2017/11/robert-t-smith-smitty-at- national_15.html 18 collection you select. While we will go to the Museum Support Center as a class, please consult the following materials to schedule a subsequent visit: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/anthropology/collections-and- archives-access DUE October 13. Collections to be considered for short collections research paper  George Waite Lantern Slides - George L. Waite was a photographer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the spring of 1930, when he was about 60 years old, Waite volunteered as photographer in the spring of 1930 for the sixth Beloit College Logan Museum of Anthropology Algerian expedition, led by Alonzo W. Pond. His primary role was to provide photographic and cinematic documentation of the excavation activities and daily lives of the 20 expedition members. The collection consists of 47 lantern slides, some hand-colored, that appear to have been made to illustrate a talk by Waite entitled, “Desert Sheiks.” Images show Algerian nomadic people, their camps, and activities including animal husbandry, Algerian towns and villages, and views of the Algerian countryside. There are also several images of the Beloit College expedition camp and participants, including one photograph of George Waite taping up film cans.  Steinberg Expedition to Samoa – In 1873 the US Department of state sent Colonel A. B. Stienberger as special agent to the Samoan Islands to report of the state of region. The 68 watercolors from this expedition are signed by Moody, and explore the expedition.  Faces of Change Series (1979-83) The series consists of 26 films of thematic similarity across 5 different geographic/cultural areas. Funded by the National Science Foundation, these films were made during the heyday of ethnographic filmmaking, and during the Cold War. All titles are cataloged in SIRIS (or shortly will be). Can be keyword searched under “Faces of Change” You could focus on one of these series, or on one of the films:  5 films from Kenya created by David MacDougall and James Blue o Boran Herdsmen o Boran Women o Harambee: Pull Together o Kenya Boran I o Kenya Boran II  5 films from Afghanistan created by David Hancock and Herb Di Gioia o Afghan Nomads: The Maldar o An Afghan Village o Afghan Women o Naim and Jabar o Wheat Cycle  6 films from Bolivia created by Hubert Smith and Neil Reichline o Andean Women o The Children Know o Magic and Catholicism o Potato Planters o The Spirit Possession of Alejandro Mamani 19 o Viracocha  5 films from “China Coast” (Soko Islands) created by George Chang, Richard Chen and Norman Miller o China Coast Fishing o Hoy Fok and the Island School o The Island Fishpond o Island in the China Sea o Three Island Women  5 films from Taiwan created by Richard Chen and Frank Tsai o Chinese Farm Wife o People are Many, Fields are Small o A Rural Cooperative o They Call Him “Ah Kung” o Wet Culture Rice  HSFA has extensive documentation including study guides, reviews, promotional information and student essays on these films that can be consulted.  Those creators still living may be available for interviewing (and it would be great to have interviews to supplement this collection) o David MacDougall o Herb Di Gioia o Hubert Smith o Norman Miller o Richard Chen o Neil Reichline  Long Bow Collection (88.5) consists of 5 edited films that were originally created for television, but they havesunk into obscurity. One could focus on the entire collection and or one of the films:  5 Edited films are cataloged in SIRIS o All Under Heaven, 1982 (88.5.4) o Stilt Dancers of Long Bow Village, 1979 (88.5.2) o Small Happiness: the Women of a Chinese Village, 1982 (88.5.3) o To Taste a Hundred Herbs: Gods, Ancestors and Medicine in a Chinese Village, 1982 (88.5.5) o First Moon, 1987 (88.5.6)  Sandra Nichols Collection. Sandra is a cultural geographer who produced several films per the below. She could be interviewed.  Titles are cataloged in SIRIS o Maragoli, 1976 (2012.5.5) filmed in Kenya o The Fountains of Paradise, 1984 (2012.5.3), filmed in Sri Lanka o The Fragile Mountain, 1982 (2012.5.1), filmed in Nepal o An African Recovery, 1988 (2012.5. 8) filmed in Niger (Sahel) (Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunDuo-ODSI)  We have paper records documenting these films  Land Divers of Melanesia. HSFA has the Kal Muller film project, 1971 (75.1.3) shot on the Pentecost Island from which Land Divers of Melanesia was edited. HSFA also has a more 20 “experimental” film edited by the BBC from film shot by American James Bruce, Naghol, The Tower of Land Divers, 1983 (2002.17.13), also shot on Pentecost Island. Examples of Blog Posts that you can emulate in terms of style and tone  June 10, 2011; The Summer of Super 8; by Adrianna Link http://si- siris.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-of-super-8.html  Feburary 12, 2012; Archivist Michael Pahn Free Associates Among the Smithsonian’s Music and Film Collections http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/archivist-michael-pahn- free-associates-among-the-smithsonians-music-and-film-collections-95858822/?no-ist  September 6, 2012; Real-Life Sons (and Daughters) of Anarchy; by Amelia Raines http://si- siris.blogspot.com/2012/09/real-life-sons-and-daughters-of-anarchy.html  October 24, 2012; Changing Perspective; by Karma Foley (blog post on NMNH exhibit More Than Meets the Eye) http://si-siris.blogspot.com/2012/10/changing-perspective.html  March 13, 2013; The Sweetest Sound; by Daisy Njoku http://si-siris.blogspot.com/2013/03/the- sweetest-sound.html  May 10, 2014; Invitation to Voyage; by Mark White http://si-siris.blogspot.com/2013/05/invitation- to-voyage-travelogue-films.html 21