Showing papers in "Visual Anthropology in 2012"

The Martyrs' Museum in Tehran: Visualizing Memory in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Abstract: The Central Martyrs’ Museum in Tehran is the largest cultural repository in Iran displaying personal items and art relating to individuals who died during the Islamic Revolution (1979) and the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988). Although scholarship often considers the museum a secular invention of the Enlightenment, this study argues that it also can provide a ceremonial setting that prompts ritual activity. The Martyrs’ Museum, a case in point, reveals how a cultural institution can provide a dramatic field in which visitors engage in communal acts of remembrance and mourning, thereby uniting them into a civic body. Based on analysis of this museum, its layout and displays, and interviews with its staff and visitors, this study explores the institutionalization and aesthetizication of trauma and violence in post-revolutionary Iran with the aim to expand and challenge prevailing theoretical approaches to the concept of “the museum.”

Photography and Anthropology

Abstract: Photography and Anthropology, a new addition to the intriguing ‘‘Exposures’’ series published by Reaktion Books, gives an overview of the uses of photography by anthropologists from ca. 1840 down to the present, analyzing parallel developments that have often linked the two endeavors. This well-illustrated, short treatment of the subject by a well-known visual anthropologist outlines anthropology’s changing engagement with photographs over time, while also attempting an anthropological theory of photography. Early anthropologists were concerned about the uncertainty of verbal testimonies. Anxieties about native speech, as Pinney explains, were part of the background ‘‘against which the anthropological potentiality of photography was defined’’ [14]. Anthropologists were suspicious of ‘‘verbal data,’’ and ‘‘personal observation’’ was not supported by the ‘‘methodological rigor’’ that it later acquired. Anthropologists were not likely to understand ‘‘native testimony’’ because most of them lacked the necessary linguistic skills. They were also skeptical about the ‘‘transparency’’ of native informants, and assumed that anything gleaned from such testimony would be either irrelevant or false [14]. Photography, in contrast, seemed to offer a fixed record of incontrovertible fact whose authority was certain. Most early anthropologists theorized from a distance at their desks or in the comfort of their armchairs, analyzing reports submitted from faraway lands, typically by traders, missionaries, army men or colonial administrators. The 19th-century British anthropologist E. B. Tylor was the mainspring behind the establishment of Notes and Queries on Anthropology, a publication that contained checklists for collecting ethnographic data and advice about photographic apparatus, intended for use by travelers and residents in ‘‘uncivilized lands,’’ and eventually running to six editions. Photography was considered a ‘‘crucial mediator’’ in anthropological research, and photographs were recognized as ‘‘vital tool[s] in the transmission of . . .what was thought to be reliable data . . .’’ [30–31]. Fieldwork emerged as a methodology central to the anthropologist’s vision late in the 19th century, at which time anthropologists started doing their own research, typically including photography of indigenous peoples, activities and settings. Bronislaw Malinowski came to be ‘‘enshrine[d] . . . as the founder of a new discipline’’ [16–17] when new methodologies in fieldwork became the Visual Anthropology, 25: 261–263, 2012 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0894-9468 print=1545-5920 online DOI: 10.1080/08949468.2012.629932

The Adventure of the Real

Abstract: Henley, Paul. The Adventure of the Real. Jean Rouch and the Craft of Ethnographic Cinema. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2010, 536 pp.; 131 photos, tables, maps, index. Hdbk, US $...

Discursive Formation, Ethnographic Encounter, Photographic Evidence: The Centenary of Durkheim's Basic Forms of Religious Life and the Anthropological Study of Australian Aboriginal Religion in His Time

Abstract: Historical research on the work of Emile Durkheim has often been confined to textual analysis aiming to reconstruct his research in the context of anthropological discourses at the turn of the 20th century. As radical changes in the visual culture of the late 19th century shaped the formation of anthropology as an academic discipline, the ambition of this article is to elaborate the ways Durkheim's use of ethnographic data and visual material formed the foundation of the theoretical and methodological design of his approach to religion. By tracing features in his Basic Forms that emphasize visual material and prioritize religious practice, I submit that the photographic evidence given in Spencer and Gillen's account of Aboriginal religion allowed Durkheim to theorize religion primarily through ritual. Photography, as a visual means of representation, enhanced the study of religion by focusing on ritual without necessarily demanding consideration of its mythical narratives and cosmological accounts. Based ...

From the Light of the Eyes to the Eyes of the Power: State and Dissident Martyrs in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Abstract: In 2006 the courtyard of Sanati Sharif University in Tehran became a battleground over the geographies of life and death. The conflict transpired between students who protested the burying of state martyrs on campus, while the state and its supporters carried out the act regardless of the protest. In analyzing this act this essay traces the genealogy of the transforming geographies of life and death in modern Iran. It strives to demonstrate how the imposition of the dead in the eyes of the living and the struggles against it are informed by modern discourses and rationalities and are in keeping with, while transforming, the presumed boundaries between life and death and their sociality. The author sees the incursion of state martyrs into the public eye as a means to marginalize and render invisible the deviant “other,” the dissident martyrs. It demonstrates how the conflation of the vicinities of the dead and the living by burying corpses in public arenas reveals the stark contrast between the hyper-visib...

No Longer a Frivolous Singing and Dancing Nation of Movie-Makers: The Hindi Film Industry and Its Quest for Global Distinction

Abstract: This article discusses the unexpected trajectories of media production under the conditions of neoliberalism in India. Focusing on the Hindi-language film industry (better known as “Bollywood”), the article describes how the rise of neoliberal economic ideals in state policy has produced conditions within the film industry that make it possible for concerns about prestige, symbolic capital, and global distinction to take precedence over ideologies of comparative advantage and branding that are more commonly associated with neoliberalism. It illustrates how Hindi filmmakers regard their cinema's cultural distinctiveness as alienating and limiting rather than as an asset within the larger global cultural economy. The article argues that the contemporary moment of Hindi filmmaking is marked by efforts to erase, rather than highlight, the signs of cultural difference in order to circulate and accrue distinction globally. However, the article relates the challenges faced by Hindi filmmakers in trying to fashio...

Introduction: Unburied Memories

Abstract: Since antiquity, remembrance of heroes and heroic acts has been part of Iranian folklore, history and landscape. Heroes seem always to be present in the battlefields, fighting the enemies of their motherland (mam-e vatan), Persia. Some of their legendary battles and heroic acts are recorded in historical literature, others are visualized in manuscripts, and a few are engraved on the rocks and mountains of this ‘‘land of lions’’ (sarzamin-e shiran). Contemporary commemorations of Iranian heroes form a significant aspect of the cultural heritage of Iran (tangible and intangible): war and battlefield memories, commemorations and material culture [Figure 1]. All of the information we have today on Iran, Iranians, and their roles and reactions in wars is based on what was inherited from probable witnesses and the work of historians. Historiographies, collective memories, and tangible heritage clearly demonstrate that Iranians have never accepted or appreciated the political intervention and military aggression of other nations and their policies in Iran, regardless of whether they were Arab, Mongol, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, British, American or Iraqi. Additionally, some documents and materials in which we find traces of Iran and its warriors confirm that the remembrance of dead heroes and the performance of important public funeral ceremonies in their honor have long been part of the cultural landscape [Khosronejad 2006]. Needless to say, such remembrances have grown since Shiite Islam became the official religion of Iran and the commemoration of the martyrdom of Shiite imams and saints—especially Hoseyn ibn-Ali, the Prince of Martyrs—became part of Iranian religious memorial rituals and performances [Figure 2]. National bereavement and the commemoration of martyrs were common due to state policy and social demands during and immediately after the Iran–Iraq

Death, the Great Equalizer: Memorializing Martyred (Shahid) Women in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract: In the Islamic Republic of Iran the Bonyad-e Shahid (Martyrs Foundation) has recently added a new wing to its Museum of Martyrs. That addition is dedicated solely to female martyrs, to honor the “fallen ones.” The decision to build a women's section at the Museum of Martyrs reflects the Islamic Republic's new intention to project public images of modernization and gender equality. This article explores the concept of martyrs in Shiite tradition, and more specifically the newly emerging phenomenon of the female martyr. Here an effort will be made to understand the diverse meanings and uses of the word shahid (martyr), not only by the Iranian government but also in the daily lives and popular religious practices of the Iranian people. The discussion will also address the importance of images and personal objects housed in the museum.

Redemptive Memories: Portraiture in the Cult of Commemoration

Abstract: The practice of placing martyrs’ photographs on tombstones has become particularly widespread in Iran since the late 1970s: a practice which is directly linked to sociopolitical realities, characterized by revolutionary protest and war. The self-sacrifice of modern martyrs of revolution and war is ideologically related to the martyrdom of the Shiite saints, whose example they have emulated. In this article, I situate contemporary martyrs’ grave images culturally and historically in the Shia visual culture of Iran, and discuss two other genres of commemorative images, the saintly martyrs’ portraiture and portraits of diseased and sick members of the local community. The presence of the three genres of portraiture in contemporary Iranian public life invites questions such as, how is portraiture used in the memorial culture other than in the politicized martyrdom culture, what are viewers of saintly martyrs’ portraiture invited to remember, why is it important to remember the saints’ sacrifice, and how does ...

Memory and Identity in South Africa: Contradictions and Ambiguities in the Process of Post-apartheid Memorialization

Abstract: The article explores commemorative markers as containers of intangible heritage in post-apartheid South Africa, with special reference to the case study of the Duncan Village Massacre memorial that was unveiled in 2008 in the Buffalo City Municipality (Eastern Cape) in memory of the victims of the so-called Duncan Village Massacre of August 1985. This event is an example of many similar cases of apartheid-era township violence, where state security forces shot and killed members of a protesting community crowd; and the memorial is an example of many similar commemorative markers that have been installed under the aegis of the national post-apartheid government since 1994. After considering the historical background of the Duncan Village Massacre and the significance of the way in which it is now being commemorated, the article traces the process of the memorial's production, installation and public reception, considering in particular the issue of community consultation and the role of heritage in develop...

Documenting Acts of Cruelty: The Practice of Violent Criminals Making Visual Records of Their Crimes

Abstract: The substantive focus of this article is a small collection of image-based case studies of significant criminal acts of interpersonal cruelty that are now in the public domain. In all instances those engaged in criminal acts of violence record and document aspects of their own behavior. The case studies range from military personnel and terrorists to examples from popular culture. Self-created images have the potential to serve as evidence of criminal behavior. For the viewing public recorded images are attributed with a “commonsense” evidential documentary potential. The article looks at the documentary method and the rationale behind recorded images serving evidential purposes.

Variations in the Martyrs' Representations in South Tehran's Private and Public Spaces

Abstract: This article analyzes the presentation of the martyr's portrait and how it is displayed in Iranian society today. The study is based on a corpus of photos taken in public and private spaces between 2003 and 2007, mostly in Tehran in the Aliabad area and the cemetery of Behesht-e Zahra. The birth and development of martyr worship in Iranian society and diverse forms of public and private representation are examined. The key part of the article analyzes the image of the martyr in a poor neighborhood of the Iranian capital.

The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement

Abstract: Berry, Chris, Lu Xinyu, and Lisa Rofel, eds. The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement: For the Public Record. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010; 304 + xiv pp., ill. Hbk. ISBN 978-988-802...

The Interaction between Visual and Written Ethnography in Subtitling

Abstract: This article explores how subtitles are applied in ethnographic film editing. Based upon doctoral research and accompanying films, I will illustrate how the key ideas in the writing could be re-addressed and re-interpreted in the films through certain ways of subtitling. I argue that appropriate subtitling not only presents the individuality of the subjects directly, but also allows the filmmaker to pronounce his/her own voice indirectly, which responds to as well as differs from written anthropology.

Adding Value: Rethinking Late 19th-Century Torres Strait Islander Drawings in Anthropological Inquiry

Abstract: This article focuses on the cultural and artistic value of a collection of Torres Strait Islander drawings that were commissioned and collected in the late 19th century. I argue that these drawings, made during Alfred C. Haddon's “salvage anthropology” expeditions, can provide insight into the nature of Islander graphic systems and the production of contemporary Islander art. By focusing on stylistic links between the drawings and other forms of decorative art, and their role as resources and inspiration for contemporary Islander artists, I explore the role these collections play in investigating regional artistic traditions, and how they act as agents in reaffirming Islander identity.

Articles of Faith: Material Piety, Devotional Aesthetics and the Construction of a Moral Economy in the Transnational Sathya Sai Movement

Abstract: Despite a broad and growing devotee base for the transnational Sathya Sai Movement, little research exists on Sai sacred objects: their meanings, their patterns of circulation and their production and exchange in the world of Sai devotion. This article offers a meditation on these Sai sacred artifacts, their visuality, their modes of acquisition by devotees and their multiple biographies in various realms. I analyze the hermeneutics of quiddity to demonstrate how ideas of transcendence and transformation are embedded within and shaped around the Sai objects, thereby creating a language and disciplined practice of material piety that shapes the ontology of Sai devotion. I examine how the sacred objects act, and are acted upon, to shape a “politics of visual materiality” in three ways: (1) as iconic magical devices to legitimate Sai Baba's long-distance charismatic authority for the transnational devotee base, through innovative “strategies of affiliation,” (2) as desirable objects that devotees cherish for...

Made to Be Seen

Abstract: Banks, Marcus, and Jay Ruby, eds. Made to Be Seen: Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011; 419 pp., notes, bibliography, index, 37 illus., IS...

Indigenous Screen Cultures in Canada

Abstract: Indigenous Screen Cultures in Canada is an intriguing and useful addition to the body of literature on indigenous media. This edited volume combines an overarching theoretical agreement—namely Faye Ginsburg’s assertion that indigenous media are a form of cultural activism or transformative action [Ginsburg 1997, also 1991]—with a disciplinary heterogeneity. Contributors to the book include academics from anthropology, film and media studies, communication studies, and North American studies; and non=former academics working as media professionals. The book itself is an attempt by the contributors to explore the transformative abilities of Canadian indigenous media, especially the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), vis-à-vis the Canadian state and the dominant society. Organized in three sections, contributions to this volume describe and analyze the potentials and pitfalls that indigenously produced media and media outlets (such as APTN) have navigated historically, and continue to navigate, during the long and often fraught engagement of First Nations and Inuit peoples with the state. The first section of Indigenous Screen Cultures is dedicated to providing the context of production for indigenous media in Canada. The first paper provides a comprehensive outline of the historical and social context in which indigenous media have developed, starting from early policies and experiments by the Canadian government in facilitating television access to northern communities, to the creation of national institutions such as APTN. The second chapter focuses on a particular social and cultural concern, the importance of indigenous media in retaining and teaching Aboriginal languages. The second section provides a series of case studies illustrating how the transformative actions of indigenous media play out, particularly in the content shown on APTN. These chapters range from analyses of children’s programming, to news programming choices, to the dramatic series Moccasin Flats, to the development of international co-productions. The third section of the book looks to more recent developments in indigenous media, particularly the role of new media such as the Internet. The penultimate chapter investigates the pros and cons of Internet usage—namely that new information technologies simultaneously allow for an opening of communications channels and an increased marginalization of Native peoples due to their lack Visual Anthropology, 25: 250–252, 2012 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0894-9468 print=1545-5920 online DOI: 10.1080/08949468.2012.629923

Living Pictures, Reviving the Dead: Claiming Ritual and Identity through Posthumous Films

Abstract: This text explores the construction and appreciation of posthumous films—filmed portraits of dead loved ones—in The Netherlands. The authors support the argument that, in this country, posthumous films function both as identity markers for the deceased and the bereaved, and as coping instruments. The study is based on interviews with the maker and commissioners of three posthumous films, and on an analysis of these films. We find posthumous films to be vehicles for bereaved people's emotions and thoughts that are closely intertwined with their everyday lives; as stimuli reviving people's memories of the dead; and as powerful media invoking individual agency in mourning.

War Painting and Pilgrimage in Iran

Abstract: The Iraqi army entered the border town of Khoramshahr, in Iranian territory, on September 22, 1980, triggering a war that lasted for eight years The Khoramshahr mosque houses a mural painted by Nasser Palangi (born 1957) after the liberation of the city in 1982 This work is becoming the pictorial support of a pilgrimage I seek to understand—through its modes of elaboration, its contents and the echo that the painting still receives in Iran today—what this war painting shows To this end, I build my analysis on another work, the triptych War (1929–1932), painted in Europe, following the First World War, by the German artist Otto Dix

Every Good Marriage Begins with Tears

Abstract: This film by Simon Chambers captures much of the social and cultural conflict and confusion entailed in being both Bangladeshi and British, as it chronicles the difficulties of arranged marriages for two sisters. Born and reared in London, Shahanara and her younger sister Hushnara are the daughters of traditional parents who are attempting to assure their proper marriages to Bangladeshi husbands. Indeed Shahanara has already gone though a wedding in Bangladesh six months before appearing in the film, which begins on the day of her husband’s arrival in London. On the same flight is her sister, who is for the first time to meet Rashed, the London-based husband her parents have chosen for her after consultation with his parents during a trip to Bangladesh. Shahanara talks about the reasons she married Mamun and her understanding of why he married her. Having been evicted and abandoned by her father five years earlier because of her refusal to conform to Bangladeshi social standards for young women, she sees her marriage as a way back into the family, and especially as a way to re-establish a relationship with her mother. She is suspicious of Mamun’s claim that he loves her, and assumes that he has married her because she has a British passport which will allow him legal entry into the United Kingdom. She is willing to give the marriage a chance, but makes it clear that if it doesn’t work she will end it. Although Hushnara’s vacillation about her impending marriage and her eventual wedding ceremony occupymuch of the film, the focus is clearly on Shahanara, whose intelligence, humor, openness, profanity and volubility make her an extremely attractive protagonist to non-Bangladeshi viewers. Although questioning her new husband’s commitment to her rather than to her passport, she agrees to ‘‘give it a try,‘‘ and expresses compassion for Mamun because he has left his family behind in Bangladesh. During their first few hours together she displays a somewhat teasing affection despite his reprimanding her about her profanity. Two months later she has left her husband and is living with an older married Visual Anthropology, 25: 228–230, 2012 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0894-9468 print=1545-5920 online DOI: 10.1080/08949468.2012.629595

Dance and the Nation

Abstract: Dance and the Nation is a historical ethnography that describes the appropriation and transformation of a ritual dance form of the Sinhala people into a national Sri Lankan symbol, and the effects of this process on traditional male dancers, Sinhala women, and the dance form itself. In her introductory chapter Reed asserts that historical accounts of national dances are most often by and about elite dancers, frequently ‘‘misleading, devaluing and even erasing the experiences and contributions of nonelite communities’’ [13]. She addresses this by presenting the perspective of traditional ‘‘nonelite’’ dancers, whose work as dancers and dance teachers, she tells us, must now adhere to the ‘‘values of middle-class culture and an aesthetic of respectability’’ [14]. In Chap. 1 Reed describes the ritual known as Kohomba kankariya (or simply kankariya) as practised in the traditional villages in the central Kandy region, out of which what she refers to as ‘‘Kandyan dance’’ developed. She discusses the multiple participants in this ritual, which include dancers (yakdessas) and drummers (berakarayas), both of whom are members of the berava caste, a service (lower) caste of the Sinhala in the Kandy region. Also participating is a chief ritual specialist (mul yakdessa) who organizes and leads the events, and sponsors from aristocratic radala (upper caste) families. The author outlines the ‘‘fundamentals’’ of what she calls ‘‘Kankariya dance,’’ which apparently serve as the basis for all kinds of Kandyan dancing today. This can include forms of dancing performed during the Kankariya ritual as well as those performed on the stage. The author provides descriptions of structural elements such as basic body positions, hand movements, footwork, movement sequences, basic spatial formations and movements found in solo and group dances in the kankariya. However, these descriptions only provide information of gross physical movements and do not expound on what specific movements mean. According to Reed, the Sri Lankan state is now the primary patron of such Kandyan dances. State-sponsored events today showcase this dancing for purposes of tourism and education, as well as for supporting the original Kohomba kankariya ritual. However, these new contexts involve transformations in the dancing and other elements of the performance in order to accommodate stage presentations. Such changes, Reed tells us, include reductions in the length and complexity of dances, the introduction of new mimetic elements, and Visual Anthropology, 25: 247–249, 2012 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0894-9468 print=1545-5920 online DOI: 10.1080/08949468.2012.629598

The Domestication of an Alien System of Representation: The Arms of the Kingdom of Halvad-Dhrangadhra

Abstract: Since the 1990s with the liberalization of the Indian economy and a new emergence of wealth, this domesticated alien visual symbolic system has been revived and deployed to advance the status of individuals and groups [Appadurai 1986]. The agency of the heraldic device has grown, demanding a presence at social, religious and political events, seeking legitimacy in the public imagination. Appropriation and acquisition [Jhala and Powell 1995] and patronage and nationalism [Jhala and Grumbkow 2011] as pedigree and privilege are contending debates in contemporary western India. Who may deploy the heraldic symbol, and how, are important issues in local society. Visual symbols have agency in the world and are actors, even as it is equally true that individuals, groups and institutions manipulate the symbols to advance agendas. This article explores and illustrates these issues.

Picturing India: Nation, Development and the Common Man

Abstract: This article explores the popular Indian cartoonist R. K. Laxman's daily newspaper “pocket cartoon” as a visual narrative of the modern nation, and a space to think through the place of corruption in democratic politics. In his cartoons the figures of the politician and the ordinary citizen, as well as the trope of air travel, picture a nation where the anomalies of a developmental agenda are evident every day. Despite this gloomy image, newspaper readers celebrate Laxman's cartoons, eagerly awaiting their daily dose of political humor over breakfast. The Indian state too signaled its appreciation by awarding Laxman national honors. This disjuncture between the cartoons’ discontent and the evocation of pleasure and appreciation offers remarkable insight into corruption and humor as part of everyday life in India.

Chinese Entertainments, Filmed

Abstract: The American film critic and theoretician Bill Nichols, in a recent introduction to film studies, argues that there are two ‘‘core questions’’ for a viewer who wishes to evaluate a film [2010: 24]. One is how the filmmaker uses, reinvents or subverts existing film conventions. This question is about the film’s formal properties. The other is whether the filmmaker provides a fresh perspective on the historical world. This question is about the film’s social impact and context. As Nichols notes, there is no reason why a viewer would necessarily assess a film’s formal and social properties in the same way. Nichols’ approach is helpful for thinking about Marc L. Moskowitz’s Dancing for the Dead and Weiqi Wonders. Both films give Western audiences a glimpse of Chinese practices that are absent from most media and scholarly representations. Dancing for the Dead is an investigation of a fascinating innovation in Chinese popular religious practices: the use of strippers to entertain gods, ghosts and ancestors, as well as human communities, in Chinese rituals in Taiwan. Weiqi Wonders is a set of interviews about the game of Go (or weiqi) in the contemporary PRC that touches on parent–child relations, the role of traditional Chinese thought in contemporary life, and Chinese national identity. Both films offer the ‘‘fresh perspective’’ on the historical world that Nichols lauds. We learn about practices that are relatively invisible to Western audiences, the people who follow them, and the broader social and cultural issues to which they speak. In terms of formal properties however I find Moskowitz’s use of film language distracting and hard to follow. Dancing for the Dead explores the use of ‘‘Electric Flower Cars’’ as part of funeral processions and public ritual events. As we learn in the film, Taiwanese first included Electric Flower Cars in funeral processions during the 1980s, although the first use of strippers at religious rituals dates back to the late 1800s. Through a combination of narrator’s voice-over and informant interviews, viewers learn a history of Electric Flower Cars, the range of their uses, and the beliefs behind the practice of ritual stripping. We get a glimpse of the endogamous social group that has formed among the somewhat-stigmatized performers and managers. The interviewees include former funeral strippers, managers of Visual Anthropology, 25: 455–458, 2012 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0894-9468 print=1545-5920 online DOI: 10.1080/08949468.2012.718978