Visual anthropology is a subfield of
social anthropology that is concerned,
in part, with the study and production
of ethnographic photography, film and,
since the mid-1990s, new media. More
recently it has been used by historians
of science and visual culture. Although
sometimes wrongly conflated with
ethnographic film, Visual Anthropology
encompasses much more, including the
anthropological study of all visual
representations such as dance and other
kinds of performance, museums and
archiving, all visual arts, and the
production and reception of mass media.
Histories and analyses of
representations from many cultures are
part of Visual Anthropology: research
topics include sandpaintings, tattoos,
sculptures and reliefs, cave paintings,
scrimshaw, jewelry, hieroglyphics,
paintings and photographs. Also within
the province of the subfield are studies
of human vision, properties of media,
the relationship of visual form and
function, and applied, collaborative
uses of visual representations.
History 
Even before the emergence of
anthropology as an academic discipline
in the 1880s, ethnologists used
photography as a tool of research.
Anthropologists and non-anthropologists
conducted much of this work in the
spirit of salvage ethnography or
attempts to record for posterity the
ways-of-life of societies assumed doomed
to extinction
The history of anthropological
filmmaking is intertwined with that of
non-fiction and documentary filmmaking,
although ethnofiction may be considered
as a genuine subgenre of ethnographic
film. Some of the first motion pictures
of the ethnographic other were made with
Lumière equipment. Robert Flaherty,
probably best known for his films
chronicling the lives of Arctic peoples,
became a filmmaker in 1913 when his
supervisor suggested that he take a
camera and equipment with him on an
expedition north. Flaherty focused on
"traditional" Inuit ways of life,
omitting with few exceptions signs of
modernity among his film subjects. This
pattern would persist in many
ethnographic films to follow.
By the 1940s and early 1950s,
anthropologists such as Hortense
Powdermaker, Gregory Bateson, Margaret
Mead and Mead and Rhoda Metraux, eds.,
were bringing anthropological
perspectives to bear on mass media and
visual representation. Karl G. Heider
notes in his revised edition of
Ethnographic Film that after Bateson and
Mead, the history of visual anthropology
is defined by "the seminal works of four
men who were active for most of the
second half of the twentieth century:
Jean Rouch, John Marshall, Robert
Gardner, and Tim Asch. By focusing on
these four, we can see the shape of
ethnographic film". Many, including
Peter Loizos, would add the name of
filmmaker/author David MacDougall to
this select group.
In 1966, filmmaker Sol Worth and
anthropologist John Adair taught a group
of Navajo Indians in Arizona how to
capture 16mm film. The hypothesis was
that artistic choices made by the Navajo
would reflect the 'perceptual structure'
of the Navajo world. The goals of this
experiment were primarily ethnographic
and theoretical. Decades later, however,
the work has inspired a variety of
participatory and applied
anthropological initiatives - ranging
from photovoice to virtual museum
collections - in which cameras are given
to local collaborators as a strategy for
empowerment.
In the United States, Visual
Anthropology first found purchase in an
academic setting in 1958 with the
creation of the Film Study Center at
Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology
and Ethnology. In the United Kingdom,
The Granada Centre for Visual
Anthropology at the University of
Manchester was established in 1987 to
offer training in anthropology and
film-making to MA, MPhil and PhD
students and whose graduates have
produced over 300 films to date. John
Collier, Jr. wrote the first standard
textbook in the field in 1967, and many
visual anthropologists of the 1970s
relied on semiologists like Roland
Barthes for essential critical
perspectives. Contributions to the
history of Visual Anthropology include
those of Emilie de Brigard, Fadwa el
Guindi, and Beate Engelbrecht, ed.. A
more recent history that understands
visual anthropology in a broader sense,
edited by Marcus Banks and Jay Ruby, is
Made To Be Seen: Historical Perspectives
on Visual Anthropology. Turning the
anthropological lens on India provides a
counterhistory of visual anthropology.
At present, the Society for Visual
Anthropology represents the subfield in
the United States as a section of the
American Anthropological Association,
the AAA.
In the United States, ethnographic films
are shown each year at the Margaret Mead
Film Festival as well as at the AAA's
annual Film and Media Festival. In
Europe, ethnographic films are shown at
the Royal Anthropological Institute Film
Festival in the UK, The Jean Rouch Film
Festival in France and Ethnocineca in
Austria. Dozens of other international
festivals are listed regularly in the
Newsletter of the Nordic Anthropological
Film Association [NAFA].
Timeline and breadth of prehistoric
visual representation 
While art historians are clearly
interested in some of the same objects
and processes, visual anthropology
places these artifacts within a holistic
cultural context. Archaeologists, in
particular, use phases of visual
development to try to understand the
spread of humans and their cultures
across contiguous landscapes as well as
over larger areas. By 10,000 BP, a
system of well-developed pictographs was
in use by boating peoples and was likely
instrumental in the development of
navigation and writing, as well as a
medium of story telling and artistic
representation. Early visual
representations often show the female
form, with clothing appearing on the
female body around 28,000 BP, which
archaeologists know now corresponds with
the invention of weaving in Old Europe.
This is an example of the holistic
nature of visual anthropology: a
figurine depicting a woman wearing
diaphanous clothing is not merely an
object of art, but a window into the
customs of dress at the time, household
organization, transfer of materials and
processes, when did weaving begin, what
kind of weaving is depicted and what
other evidence is there for weaving, and
what kinds of cultural changes were
occurring in other parts of human life
at the time.
Visual anthropology, by focusing on its
own efforts to make and understand film,
is able to establish many principles and
build theories about human visual
representation in general.
List of visual anthropology academic
programs 
Aarhus University: Master in Visual
Anthropology
Australian National University: The
Research School of Humanities and the
Arts Centre for Visual Anthropology
California State University, Chico: Home
to the Advanced Laboratory for Visual
Anthropology which offers students use
of RED Digital Cinema cameras in its
Masters of Anthropology program.
Students receive a four-fields degree
but complete an ethnographic film as
partial fulfillment of their thesis
requirement. A Certificate in Applied
Anthropology is also available for
students who would like to pursue Visual
Anthropology, and make ethnographic
films as Undergraduates.
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias
Sociales Ecuador: offers a master
program in visual anthropology .
Freie Universität Berlin: - M.A. in
Visual and Media Anthropology.
Harvard University: Harvard offers a PhD
in Social Anthropology with Media in
conjunction with its Sensory Ethnography
Lab
Heidelberg University: The chair of
Visual and Media Anthropology offers BA
and MA courses in the field of visual
and media anthropology.
New York University: The Program in
Culture and Media
Pontifical Catholic University of Peru:
The Social Sciences Department at PUCP
offers a two-year MA program in Visual
Anthropology.
San Francisco State University: Visual
Anthropology program and Peter Biella
Temple University: Undergraduate track
in Visual Communication. Graduate
specialization in Visual Communication.
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana:
Laboratorio de Antropología Visual
Universitat de Barcelona: postgraduate
and Master's programs in Visual
Anthropology
University of British Columbia: The
Ethnographic Film Unit at UBC
University College London: offers
postgraduate courses that can be taken
as part of a master's degree for credit
or they can be audited with a
certificate of completion provided.
University of Kent: The Department of
Anthropology offers a Masters in Visual
Anthropology that explores traditional
and experimental means of using visual
images to produce/represent
anthropological knowledge.
University of Leiden: offers the
Bachelor course Visual Methods and
Visual Ethnography as a Method as part
the Master's programme. It teaches
students how to use photography, digital
video and sound recording both as
research and reporting tools as part of
ethnographic research.
University of London, Goldsmith's
College: The anthropology department
offers an MA and PhD in Visual
Anthropology.
University of Manchester: The Granada
Centre for Visual Anthropology offers
MA, MPhil and PhD courses that combine
practical film training, editing and
production, photography, sound
recording, art and social activism.
Established in 1987, the Granada
Centre's postgraduate programme has
produced over 300 documentary films. Its
students have made films for numerous
international broadcasters, including
the BBC and Channel 4. Manchester
includes an Oscar nominee, two BAFTA
winners, and a BAFTA nominee among its
alumni.
University of New South Wales: offers a
PhD in Visual Anthropology
University of Oxford: The Institute of
Social & Cultural Anthropology
collaborates with the Pitt Rivers Museum
to offer the highly ranked one-year MSc
and two-year MPhil in Visual, Material,
and Museum Anthropology and also awards
DPhil degrees with numerous competitive
funding opportunities.
University of South Carolina offers a
Graduate Certificate in Visual
Anthropology for graduate students
enrolled in M.A. or Ph.D. programs in
Media Arts and Anthropology but which
also serves graduate students in such
areas as Education, the Department of
Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, as
well as Sociology and Geography.
University of Southern California - USC
Center for Visual Anthropology: The MAVA
was a 2–3 year terminal Masters program
from 1984 to 2001, which produced over
sixty ethnographic documentaries. In
2001, it was merged into a Certificate
in Visual Anthropology given alongside
the Ph.D. in Anthropology. A new
digitally based program was created in
the Fall of 2009 as a [new one year MA
program in Visual Anthropology
e.usc.edumasters-in-visual-anthropology/
]. [2]. Since 2009, the program has
produced twenty five new ethnographic
documentaries. Many have screened at
film festivals and several are in
distribution.
University of Tromsø: The University of
Tromsø offers a program in Visual
Culture Studies
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität
Münster: Visual Anthropology, Media &
Documentary Practices Programme which
accompanies employment. Master of Arts
degree within 6 semesters.Provides
skills in the area of visual
anthropology, documentary films,
photography, documentary art, culture
media and media anthropology.
List of films 
See also 
Ethnofiction
Ethnographic film
Gregory Bateson
Visual sociology
References 
Bibliography 
Alloa, Emmanuel Penser l'image II.
Anthropologies du visuel. Dijon: Presses
du réel 2015. ISBN 978-2-84066-557-1.
Banks, Marcus; Morphy, Howard:
Rethinking Visual Anthropology. New
Haven: Yale University Press 1999. ISBN
978-0-300-07854-1
Barbash, Ilisa and Lucien Taylor.
Cross-cultural Filmmaking: A Handbook
for Making Documentary and Ethnographic
Films and Videos. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1997.
Collier, Malcolm et al.: Visual
Anthropology. Photography As a Research
Method. University of Mexico 1986. ISBN
978-0-8263-0899-3
Daniels, Inge. 2010. The Japanese House:
Material Culture in the Modern Home.
Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Coote, Jeremy and Anthony Shelton. 1994.
Anthropology, Art and Aesthetics.
Clarendon Press.
Edwards, Elisabeth: Anthropology and
Photography 1860–1920. New Haven, London
1994, Nachdruck. ISBN 978-0-300-05944-1
Engelbrecht, Beate. Memories of the
Origins of Ethnographic Film. Frankfurt
am Main et al.: Peter Lang Verlag, 2007.
Grimshaw, Anna. The Ethnographer's Eye:
Ways of Seeing in Modern Anthropology.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2001.
Harris, Claire. 2012. The Museum on the
Roof of the World: Art, Politics and the
Representation of Tibet. University of
Chicago Press.
Harris, Claire and Michael O'Hanlon.
2013. 'The Future of the Ethnographic
Museum,' Anthropology Today, 29(1). pp.
8–12.
Heider, Karl G. Ethnographic Film.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.
Ruby, Jay. Picturing Culture: Essays on
Film and Anthropology. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2000, ISBN
978-0-226-73099-8.
Morton, Chris and Elizabeth Edwards
2009. Photography, Anthropology and
History: Expanding the Frame. Farnham:
Ashgate Publishing
Mead, Margaret: Anthropology and the
camera. In: Morgan, Willard D.:
Encyclopedia of photography. New York
1963.
Peers, Laura. 2003. Museums and Source
Communities: A Routledge Reader,
Routledge
Pink, Sarah: Doing Visual Ethnography:
Images, Media and Representation in
Research. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
2006. ISBN 978-1-4129-2348-4
MacDougall, David. Transcultural Cinema.
Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1998.
Pinney, Christopher: Photography and
Anthropology. London: Reaktion Books
2011. ISBN 978-1-86189-804-3
Prins, Harald E.L.. "Visual
Anthropology." pp. 506–525. In A
Companion to the Anthropology of
American Indians. Ed. T. Biolsi. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
Prins, Harald E.L., and Ruby, Jay eds.
"The Origins of Visual Anthropology."
Visual Anthropology Review. Vol. 17,
2001–2002.
Worth, Sol, Adair John. "Through Navajo
Eyes". Indiana University Press; 1972.
Further reading 
Visual Anthropology - Encyclopedia of
Cultural Anthropology, article by Jay
Ruby
Watching Anthropology Films and Videos,
article – University of South Dakota
Visual anthropology in the digital
mirror: Computer-assisted visual
anthropology, article by Michael D.
Fischer and David Zeitlyn, University of
Kent at Canterbury
Legends Asch and Myerhoff Inspire A New
Generation of Visual Anthropologists -
article by Susan Andrews [3]
External links 
Organizations
European Association of Social
Anthropologists Visual Anthropology
Network
SVA Society for Visual Anthropology
Publications
Visual Anthropology Review
Resources
VisualAnthropology.net
OVERLAP: Laboratory of Visual
Anthropology
Visual Anthropology Archive
Visual Anthropology Films & Educational
Resource Library
Royal Anthropological Institute,
Ethnographic Film
National Anthropological Archives and
Human Studies Film Archives - collect
and preserve historical and contemporary
anthropological materials that document
the world's cultures and the history of
anthropology.
Audio-Visual Resources
Films of anthropological and other
"ancestors"
A kiosk of films and sounds in
Ethnomusicology - Robert Garfias
Documentary Educational Resources
Documentary "El mal visto".
Interpretation about the evil eye from
the visual anthropology.
Visual anthtropology
Articles on Fieldwork
The Ovahimba Years Collection
Visual Anthropology of Japan
Artpologist an Art project using Art and
Anthropology
Ethnographic Terminalia - A curatorial
collective and exhibition series.
