Visual Anthropology and Visual Culture
Patrick Laviolette
Paride Bollettin
23/02/2022
Picture by: Vadim Trunov (Russia)

For today…
Reading Sarah Pink: Introduction and Chapter 1 from Doing Visual Ethnography (2013)
Source: https://i.imgur.com/FurLBLm.jpg
From Pink 2013:6.
Main points?
Source: Lorenzo Taccioli (Kutna Hora)

“Images are everywhere”
Source: Fancis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse now (US, 1979, in: https://youtu.be/fc3G_f34Wrc
Source: Bekwy Xikrin, Metoro (2021, Brazil - shared via WhatsApp)
[USEMAP] [USEMAP]

Subjectivity
Source: Robert Capa, Ernest Hemingway and son (US, Sun Valley, Idaho, October 1941).
Small things, indispensable for our life yet taken for granted so that we can hardly notice them in
spite of their great number...
If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough
Source: Běla Kolářová, Znaky (Czech Republic, 1964)

Methodologies and the field
Source: Andrea Arnold, COW (UK, 2021) - Official Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA23-RzhkzY
Source: Saumya Sharma, Yaya (India, 2017) - Official trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY1jmYSsupY
Andrea Arnold's COW is in UK & Irish cinemas January 14. Exclusively on MUBI in the UK, Ireland,
Turkey, Germany, Austria, Italy, India & Latin America. A MUBI Release: mubi.io/cow 30 Days of
Great Cinema Free: https://mubi.com/youtube Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
https://mubi.io/2XVL0VN Follow us on Instagram: http://mubi.tv/299eJ7G Follow us on Twitter:
http://mubi.tv/1PcdRyO Follow us on Facebook: http://mubi.tv/29adiHj “I want to understand the
world from your point of view. I want to know what you know in the way you know it. I want to
understand the meaning of your experience, to walk in your shoes, to feel things as you feel them,
to explain things as you explain them. Will you become my teacher and help me understand?” ― James
P. Spradley As the above quote rings in my mind countless times, I remember my first virtual
encounter with the Gond tribes of Bastar. It was just after returning from a seminar in Raipur and
my bewilderment at the artistic finesse of the souvenir I was presented with. A small brass work
human figurine of the Bison Horn Maria Gond, a name which is derived from a dance performed
exclusively by men, wearing a horn shaped headdress, which was earlier made by a Bison’s horn.
Following this lead I began to dig deep into the ancestral heritage and sociocultural structure of
this indigenous group. Though some ethnographic books and papers gave some understanding of this
tribe, the majority were old accounts written by British or European Anthropologists, with major
sociocultural loopholes. The current material also in films or books was limited to either few
social characteristics or had the current inclinations of Bastar’s political issues. Since in
Anthropology we say, to understand an individual or group one must succumb completely to their
ways, I decided to carry out a holistic research and present a film that had a comprehensive view
of the Gond Tribes. If you are wondering from where all the funds came in for such a detailed
project, I would modestly say from some lovely angels I contacted while crowd funding for the
project and from two generous people Rakesh Paliwal & Rajiv Ranjan Sir, who offered the entire
camera equipment for free. My sole reason for choosing this group out of many others is its
geographic and cultural vastness in South Asia, where in, it is the largest indigenous group.
Further if someone attempts to carry out anthropological similarities with other aboriginal groups
in Gondwana, the Gonds would probably outnumber the rest. Once I packed my bags and reached Raipur
with my team( Sonu, Swaroop & Waris), my next task was to find someone whom I could depend upon for
a more inner perspective of the tribe. Thus came sparkling my lady’s luck and formed a chain of
connections beginning from my mentor Satish Jayaswal, Senior Writer-Journalist, Bilaspur to Indu
Sahu of Chetna NGO, Raipur to ultimately my guiding light, my friends of Koya Bhoomkal Kranti Sena.
For an avid fan of various ethnicities, like me, there is no bigger revolutionary than a person
discovering, preserving and promoting his or her own sociocultural heritage. Before reaching the
conclusion solely because of word limit, I must tell you all that my first interaction was an
icebreaker between my guides and myself. To see my eagerness and gravity towards their tribe, I was
first asked how I pronounce the most important word of the comprehensive Gond society. On hearing
“Ghotul” from me, they were slightly taken aback, however I further explained to them that my
understanding comes from the Ethnographic literature I have read about their group. After
convincing them that my motive is only to present the accurate picture of their society, they
generously agreed to help me and told me that the most valuable institution of the Gond life is
pronounced as “Gotul”. Since we cannot dig the graves of the old Anthropologists for this blunder,
we can make earnest efforts to change all records with the correct word. In the end to conclude I
would quickly sum up that as the journey ended after 12 days of shooting, I had accumulated many
important elements of this tribe. Just to mention a few, the film would include the dance & music
known as Rela, death & birth ceremonies, calling of the ancestors spirit and 35000 year old rock
paintings that connect us to the early Homo Sapiens. There is still a lot of time to finish the
postproduction of the film, after which it would be first screened at Kanker, from where it all
began. As they say save the best for the last, the film has been titled as “YaYa” which means
Mother in the Gondi Language. Due to their strong belief and affection for Mother Nature & Female
Form plus my personal belief in Naturalism, I could not come up with a better name. Thus “YaYa”
also honors the only omnipresent power, Nature. On this note I would end the story of my journey
here, though a whole book remains to be shared. Ending this in the way the Gonds do – JAYSEVA!
(LONG LIVE SERVICE TO HUMANITY, TO NATURE) - Saumya Sharma (Ethnographic Filmmaker)

Ethnography as methodology
Source: Aleksandra Bartoszko, Integration (Norway 2011) - in:
https://anthrocomics.wordpress.com/author/anthrocomics/
Source: Lucy Wright, Ethnographics (US-Vermont, 2018) -  in:
https://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/fieldnotes/culture-through-comics-wright

Ethnography as methodology
VŠE PRO DOBRO SVĚTA A NOŠOVIC / ALL FOR THE GOOD OF THE WORLD AND NOŠOVICE! Director: Vít Klusák
Czech Republic 2010 82 Min The documentary takes a searching look at growing industrialization in
the course of globalization: will what looks like a step forward turn out, in some cases, to be a
lurch backwards? For more info on the movie at goEast Beyond Belonging Segment, please visit:
http://www.filmfestival-goeast.de/index.php?article_id=92&clang=1&mode=event&event_id=983 [USEMAP]

Um índio é pego numa torrente de experiências estranhas, revelando mistérios de tempo e espaço.
Source: Leonardo Cadaval, Pajerama (2008, Brazil) - in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFzv0UhHcS0)
Ethnography as methodology
A folk tale from Arunachal Pradesh
Source: Tara Douglas and Adivasi Art Trust, Abotani (2015, India) - in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yo00F9Eb4A&t=1s)

Task for next week
See the movies:
Takumã Kuikuro, 2015, Ete London. Color, 19:59, UK-Brazil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciwjZ_1B1w&t=170s
Jean Rouch, 1961, Chronicles of a Summer (Eng. subtitles)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct-49TYmzMg
Than think about possible connections, comparisons, contrasts, and bring your ideas to the
collective…