Anthropology: The academic discipline devoted to the study of humans. It is generally divided into three broad fields: socio-cultural, archeology, and physical (or biological) anthropology.
Culture: The traditional behavior, customs, material goods and life-style shared by a people (a society). Although it is what most characteristically differentiates human groups, culture is acquired subsequent to birth: it is a learned phenomenon, not a genetic or racial one.
Ethnography: The study, through appropriate fieldwork techniques (mainly participant observation), of any culture or society. The term is also applied to the resultant representation (either written or audio-visual) of that culture or society. Ethnography can be either broadly focused on the culture, or narrowly focused on particular institutions or aspects.
Ethnographer: A trained, professional cultural anthropologist in the role as a fieldworker and expert on a particular culture. Although many anthropologists have knowledge and interest in a variety of different cultures, today most anthropologists are required to do fieldwork in at least one culture as part of their graduate degree.
Ethnographic present: A culture at the time of its representation in an ethnography. Sometimes this refers to the time of a particular study, but usually it refers to a period from the time a culture was first described up to the present; in this case its use connotes the reconstruction of a now vanished traditional culture, or a culture's traditions isolated from its past history and current changes (often devastating changes).
Ethnology: The comparative study of a broad range of human cultures and societies. The basis of such comparison is ethnographies.
Visual anthropology: The sub-discipline of anthropology which concentrates on the visual representation of culture, behavior and institutions.
Tribe, tribal, savage, primitive, etc. Often these terms are used, more or less wittingly, in a derogatory sense. Normally the word culture is preferable since it is more neutral and non-valuative. When a particular kind of culture or society is meant, then more neutrally descriptive terms may be included, such as "relatively small, isolated, cultures," (for 'primitive') "large, urban, industrialized societies" (for 'modern').
Native or folk may be used to describe the perspective from within a particular culture or sub-culture: eg. "American folk categories of foods," "the native term for ..." "In the (American cultural) native belief system prayer is thought to aid healing ..."
Expressive traditions: any artistic tradition, such as song, dance, folklore, music, etc.
Qualitative Evaluation in and of Ethnographies.
Ethnocentrism: Assessing and interpreting the behavior, customs and life=style of the people of another culture in terms of ones own culture's standards. While perhaps a normal practice, it is one which interferes with understanding the behavior of others, and as such a hinderance to ethnography, which places understanding above evaluating cultural behavior.
Cultural Relativity: The attempt to portray, interpret and understand the actions, customs, institutions and life-style of other cultures as the people of that culture interpret and understand them. This is an ideal ethnography aims toward.
Realistic and realism are characteristics of most ethnographic representation. Most ethnography tends to present its findings in a realistic mode; however, other modes are found: speculative, reflective, reconstructive, etc. Selectivity effects realism. Film and writing present somewhat different kinds of realism.
Objectivity is usually held as an ideal in ethnography, but it is recognized that since ethnography is done through personal observation, the subjective evaluation of the ethnographer always effects his/her observations. Anthropologists are people studying people, and thus there is always subjectivity in assessing the differences between them.
Humanism/humanistic imply a concern with common human needs and an empathetic responses to these; the emphasis is on human nature, the human collectivity. The disciplines identified with the humanities are those concerned with the human condition: literature, language, philosophy, history.
Accuracy is a goal of ethnography. Tape recordings and photography help to ensure that the ethnographer preserves what is said and seen. But there are almost always many levels of truth and accuracy and uncovering them depends on the skill and insight of the ethnographer.
Representativeness of the beliefs, thought, behavior, etc. of the people of another culture is usually what the ethnographer aims for. But often this is out of the question, as when studying a large, diverse culture such as India. In such cases the anthropologist tries to limit his/her claims by specifying the location and contacts s/he has had.
Biases are things we all grow up with and often don't see in ourselves until we are confronted with them. Cultural biases, racial biases and gender biases are among those anthropologists have had to struggle with in the course of their own work as well as in their discipline generally.
(For further reference see: Ensign, Lynne Naylor and Robyn Eileen Knapton. 1985. The complete dictionary of television and film ; foreword by Norman Lear. PUBL. INFO. New York. Stein and Day, 256 p. ; 24 cm. (Television, Motion pictures, Cinematography: Terminology and Dictionary.)
narrative: A 'story'; any kind of visual or verbal communication with a 'storyline,' or plot-structure. Many kinds of narratives are part of our everyday life: serials dramas on TV, most commercial movies, written fictional literature, oral folktales and folksongs (eg. ballads), stories in our conversations (eg. telling someone about an interesting past event), etc. Narrative can be (and often is) used as a part of a larger exposition, or can be the dominant expressive form used in a presentation (eg. a novel).
narration: Although the word can mean the telling of a story, in documentary films we more often use the term in a more restricted sense of the voice-over portion of a documentary film. The narration can be descriptive, interpretive, and/or explanatory, contextualizing the visual presentation, and shaping the viewers' comprehension of what they are seeing.
Fiction Film: Most commercial ('Hollywood') films are fictional, having a scripted narrative-structure and are 'staged.' The film maker controls all aspects (script-writing, staging, directing, shooting and editing) of its construction.
documentary film: Audio-visual documentation of 'real life,' places, events, institutions and people. Traditionally associated with the use of written, voice-over' narration and interviews. The film maker often has little control over either the action or the event, although various shooting techniques (interviews, narration) and editing skills allow the film maker considerable interpretation and sequence manipulation in the overall presentation.
Ethnographic film: A film representing a culture, usually a non-Western, indigenous culture. Although it may focus on certain institutions and themes, it is generally associated with portraying a culture's way of life. Some ethnographic films emphasize the documentation (to put on record) of culture, while others emphasize portraying it to others, interpreting or understanding some representative aspect of it.
Educational Film: Educational films are primarily concerned with educating their audience. They make extensive use of interviews with experts and include narration written by experts to convey information. They are often framed in an educational setting: a university classroom, a scientists's laboratory or office, or the narrator, placed in a representative setting, explaining the film's mission to the audience. Otherwise, visual presentation is often used primarily to illustrate the information presented in the narration.
Kinds of Films Presented in a Documentary Mode
Traditional Documentary films make extensive use of written voice-over narration as a form of description and explication of the subject, conveying a sense of "realism" at the same time as getting across the film maker's opinion and interpretations.
Observational or Direct Cinema is a style of documentary film-making which tries not to interfere with reality. It relies heavily on synchronous sound recording, entails minimal interference by the camera in the event filmed and avoids narration.
Participatory Cinema uses the film-maker's presence (voice, camera) as a catalyst for the subject's actions or discussion. The film-maker makes it obvious to the viewer that s/he is present and interacting with the subjects.
Interview-based films try to avoid the use of narration to present commentary, using instead participants in, or observers of, the action or event which is the subject of the film. Although the film-maker's opinion and values may still be inherent in the film, the viewer assumes it is that of the participants.
Perspective is the viewpoint from which the audience sees the subject. The film- maker imposes this on the viewer consciously or not. The Visual (and audio) perspective can be from outside the activity area (and either close up or distant), or can be in the midst of it. The narration also provides a sense of perspective, conveying, say, a commentary from outside the action, or from a different future frame. Conceptually, the narrational perspective can be an over-view, representing either individual opinion, a collective assessment, an outside observation, or many other kinds of views. The perspective may change at various points and in various ways during the course of a film.
Flash back. Not often used in ethnographic film due to lack of previous, long-term coverage, but when it is used (eg. !Nai, The Story of a !Kung Woman) it is often very effectively contextualizes dramatic changes cultures.
Staged means that the action and speech of the subjects is scripted by the film-maker. It may, however, be representative of 'normal' behavior.
Interviews relate a person's (whether a participant, an interpreter, an expert or an observer) views on a topic related to the subject of the film. The views of the interviewee may be in direct and obvious response (through frontal shots) to the questions of an interviewer, or, more subtly, presented as if they are spontaneous comments on the subject while the interviewee is involved in a routine activity. The questions of the interviewer (implicit or otherwise) may be "pointed" or "leading" or "open-ended". The responses of the interviewee may be characterized as being direct and informational, expressing opinion, reflections of their beliefs, idealistic or one of many other modes of responding to questions.
Simultaneous action is conveyed by switching back and forth between scenes which are presented as happening at the same time.
Flash-backs relate pertinent past action to the present action. In documentary films, this is often achieved by historically archived footage such as news clips. It is rare to find this sort of material relevant to ethnographic film, but the films of John Marshall on the !Kung, most notably !Nai, The Story of a !Kung Woman, are an exception.
Embedding is when a film-maker uses two levels of similar device, one within the other, such as a film-within-a-film, or a story-within-a-story, either to have one comment on the other, or to achieve the effect of two different perspectives, such as using (or even showing) people filming themselves, thus presenting the possibility of an insider's view and the film-maker's own view. This is used in literature as well, where it is called a "frame- story" (embedding one or more levels of stories within stories).
Film editing is an essential part of all kinds of documentary films except, perhaps, "live coverage" of events on TV newscasts. Many dimensions of a film's final form are constructed in the editing stage of production through a variety of editing processes and techniques too numerous to list.
drama is frequently conveyed in long (or commercial) documentary film by a 'story' (either visual or verbal), by an unexpected event, by the 'pace' of sequences, or by the inherent interest to the audience (eg. as sensational, emotional, fascinating).
Specific Cultures and Dimensions of Cultures.
The !Kung
India
America
Immigrants. First generation.
ethnic, ethnicity.
diaspora
Global culture, economy
Western, Westernized
Urban
Rural, Folk, Peasant
Elites, Literati,
Dominant Culture