Visual Anthroplogy: The Social Lives of Images Joshua A.

Bell

VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY: THE SOCIAL LIVES OF IMAGES

ANTH 3521/6591 (Fall Semester 2016)
Dr. Joshua A. Bell
Thursday 1 3.30 pm
Cooper Room, National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), 10th and Constitution
bellja@si.edu || 202.633.1935
Office hours Thursday 10-12 pm or by appointment (NMNH Rm 318)

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 questions emerging from visual anthropology, and the long
history of image making in the discipline. Analyzing these cultural understandings, methods and histories the
seminar will develop tools for deconstructing our own ways of seeing and thus engaging the world. We will
draw on the rich photographic and film collections of the National Museum of Natural History to examine
these issues, and the seminar will culminate in a visually based project.

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Visual Anthroplogy: The Social Lives of Images Joshua A. Bell

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).
have developed more critical speaking, reading, image making and writing skills
have developed skills to engage with archival and museum collections

Assignments
1. Class Participation and Engagement with the Readings 10% Students will participate in each
seminar discussion this means you will: (1) send me by noon on the day of the seminar, three
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. Photo Essay - 10% Each student will take three to five photographs with two pages (1.5 spacing) of
accompanying text to explore some aspect of our readings from Week 2. This is your chance to
think creatively about the materiality of images, the technology through which they are made and
the social lives of images in the world. DUE September 22nd.

3. Blog Project - 15% Each student will choose a collection from the Smithsonian Institutions
National Anthropological Archives (NAA) and or the Human Studies Film Archive (HSFA) and write a
three page paper (not including images; 1.5 spaces) about the materials selected (drawing,
photograph, or film). Please consult the list of materials at the end of the syllabus (Appendix I), as
well as examples (Appendix II). 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 seminars readings please consider the
following when writing:
a. Biographical Details who made the material(s)?; when and why?; how did the materials
come to the NAA?
b. Forensic Details what does the selected collection document? What are the properties of
the selected material (i.e., what is it made of)?
c. 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 seminars readings (please consult examples in Appendix II).
This blog post is a chance for you to conduct some work on archival material, and I encourage you

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Visual Anthroplogy: The Social Lives of Images Joshua A. Bell

to be creative with your use of images. In keeping with any paper you will need to have citations.
Working with the staff of the NAA/HSFA we will edit the post as needed to make it publishable on
one of the Smithsonians Blogs. Please note that you will have to schedule at least one visit to the
NAA/HSFA to better acquaint yourself with the collection you select.
DUE October 13.

4. Leading Seminar Discussion 15% Each student will work in pairs to lead a seminar discussion
(Weeks 7 to 11). This does not mean that you will summarize the readings for the seminar, rather
working together you will prepare a set of discussion questions that will be the basis for the
seminar discussion which you will lead. These questions are to be e-mailed to the entire seminar
ahead of time or brought to the seminar. Please feel free to create a power-point, hand-out or bring
something to help lead the discussion. I encourage you to be creative and critical.

5. Final Project 50% Each of you will do a final research project on a topic of your choice within the
broad remit of the seminar: a particular image or film, a collection at the Smithsonian, an exhibit, a
media campaign, role of images in social media, a cultural pactice in which images play a role. I am
more than happy to work with you to select a topic. Having chosen a topic, using the readings for
the seminar, as well as other sources, you will research and 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
three forms:
a. Research paper this paper can take the form of standard research paper (15 pages, 1.5
spacing and without bibliography or images) or be more akin to an extended photographic
essay (10 pages with no less then 20 images taken by you, maximum of 35). See examples
here:
i. https://culanth.org/photo_essays
ii. http://photo.journalism.cuny.edu/week-5/
b. 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.
c. Regardless of your choice on October 27 before seminar you will email me an outline of
your final project. This outline will provide in a minimum of two pages a sketch of the aim,
scope, and method of your intended paper and include a working bibliography of relevant
sources. 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 paper. No late outlines will be accepted. To have a successful paper I strongly advise
you meeting with me to discuss your project as the semester unfolds.
d. For our final two seminars (December 1 and 8) each student will give a short presentation of
their project (15 minute). While I dont 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 10% of your final paper grade.

The final paper is due on December 17 (before 12 midnight).

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Visual Anthroplogy: The Social Lives of Images Joshua A. Bell

General guidelines for written assignments: Please submit assignments on time. Late work will
not be accepted. All written assignments should be typed in standard fonts (12 point Times,
Palatino, or Calibri are recommended) with 1-inch margins. Please follow the citation/bibliographic
format used in Current Anthropology. Please email me all your.

I strongly advise you to read Orwells 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language before you
begin this and the other written assignment. Good writing takes time and thought:
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

6. Attendance to this seminar is mandatory and absences must be accompanied with a valid excuse
(e.g. death in the family, documented illness, natural disaster). If you need to attend a religious
holiday please let me know 2 weeks in advance of the date.

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. Please make every effort to call me
or come by my office hours if you have questions about this seminar, and its assignments.

Required texts are available for purchase at GWU bookstore and will be made available in the GWU
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. 2010. Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National Modernity in Java.
Durham: Duke University Press.
Meyer, B. 2015. Sensational Movies: Video, Vision and Christianity in Ghana. Oakland: University of
California Press.
Pandian, Anand. 2015. Reel World: An Anthropology of Creation. Durham: Duke University Press.
Mazzarella, William. 2013. Censorium: Cinema and the Open Edge of Mass Publicity. Durham: Duke
University Press.

Expectations: I expect you to come to the seminar having done the readings and ready to actively
discuss the topics at hand.

Week 1 (Sept 1) Orientations The Social Lives of Images

During this initial meeting we will discuss the syllabus and seminars 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.

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Visual Anthroplogy: The Social Lives of Images Joshua A. Bell

Week 2 (Sept. 8) 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 of images - what they want from us.

Required Reading
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.marxist.org.reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm
Edwards, Elizabeth. 2012. "Objects of Affect: Photography Beyond the Image." Annual Review of
Anthropology 41:221-234. 13 pages
Gershorn, Illana, and Joshua A. Bell. 2013. "Introduction: The Newness of New Media." Culture,
Theory and Critique 54 (3): 259-264. 5 pages

Further Reading
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
Taussig, M. 2009. What Do Drawings Want? Culture, Theory & Critique 50(2-3): 263-274. 11 pages
Knappett, C. 2002. Photographs, Skeuomorphs and Marionettes: Some Thoughts on Mind, Agency
and Object. Journal of Material Culture 7(1): 97-117. 20 pages
Keane, Webb. 2003. 'Semiotics and the social analysis of material things.' Language and Communication
23:409-25.

Week 3 (Sept. 15) Histories II: Archives and Material Things*

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.

*We will be making a trip to the Smithsonians Museum Support Center (MSC) which entails taking a
shuttle out to suitland. The shuttle leaves at 1pm. If this posses a difficulty for people we can collectively
take the metro.

Required Reading
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
Scherer, Joanna C. 1992. "The Photographic Document: Photographs as Primary Data in
Anthropological Inquiry," pp. 32-41 in Anthropology and Photography. Elizabeth Edwards, ed. New

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Haven: Yale University. 9 pages

Wintle, P. 2013. Moving Image Technology and Archives. In Bell, JA., Brown, A. and R.J. Gordon,
eds. 2013. Recreating First Contact: Expeditions, Anthropology and Popular Culture. Pp. 31-40.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. 9 pages
Sorenson, E.R. 2003 [1975] Visual Records, Human Knowledge, and the Future. In P. Hockings
(ed) Principles of visual anthropology Pp. 493-506. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 13 pages

Further reading
Sekula, A. 1986. "The Body and the Archive." October 39: 3-64. 61 pages
Buckley, Liam 2005 Objects of Love and Decay: Colonial Photographs in a Postcolonial Archive.
Cultural Anthropology 20(2): 24970. 21 pages
Kopytoff, Igor. 1986. The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process. In The Social
Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, edited by A. Appadurai. Cambridge: University
of Cambridge Press. PAGES
Poole, Deborah. 1997. Introduction. Vision, race, and modernity : a visual economy of the Andean
image world. Pp. 1-22. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 22 pages

Film September 16. Mbuti Pygmy Film Study (1954; 30 min) by Colin Turnbull and Frances Chapman

DEADLINE FOR SELECTING BLOG PROJECT

Week 4 (Sept. 22) Histories III: Anthropology, Expeditions and Image Making
Following Pinney, 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.

Required Reading
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
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

Further reading
Geismar, H. 2014. Drawing It Out. Visual Anthropology Review 30: 97113. 16 pages
Morton, C. 2009. The Initiation of Kamanga: Visuality and Textuality in Evans-Pritchards Zande
Ethnograpy. In Photography, Anthropology and History: Expanding the Frame edited by C. Morton
and E. Edwards. Pp. 119-142. Surrey: Ashgate. 23 pages
Schneider, A. 2011. "Unfinished Dialogues: Notes toward an Alternative History of Art and
Anthropology." Pp. 108-136. In Banks, M. and Ruby, J. (eds) Made to be seen: perspectives on the
history of visual anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 28 pages

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Glass, A. 2009. Frozen Poses: Hamatsa dioramas, recursive representation, and the making of a
Kwakwakawakw icon. In C. Morton and E. Edwards (eds) Photography, Anthropology, and History:
Expanding the Frame. London: Ashgate Press. Pp 89-116. 27 pages

Film Sept 23. The Feast (1970; 29 min) and The Ax Fight (1975; 30 min) by Timothy Asch and
Napoleon Chagnon

PHOTO ESSAY DUE

Week 5 (Sept. 29) 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.

Required Reading
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 Cin-ethnography. Edited and translated by Steven Feld.
Pp. 29-46. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press. 17 pages
Barbash, I. and Taylor, L. 1996. Reframing Ethnographic Film: A Conversation with David
MacDougall and Judith MacDougall. American Anthropologist, 98: 371387. 15 pages
Gardner, R. Rushes: Forest of Bliss. And Camera Visions. In Impulse to Preserve: Reflections of A
Filmmaker. Pp. 278-305; 365. New York: Other Press. 28 pages

Further reading
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
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
Henley, P. 2007. Seeing, Hearing, Feeling: Sound and the Despotism of the Eye in Visual
Anthropology. Visual Anthropology Review, 23: 5463. 9 pages
Ruby, J. 2000. The Ethics of Image Making; or, Theyre Going to Put Me in the Movies. Theyre
Going to Make a Big Star Out of Me. In Picturing Culture: Explorations of Film & Anthropology. Pp.
137-150. Chicago: University of Chicago. 13 pages

Film Sept. 30 N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman (1980; 59 mins) by John Marshall

Week 6 (Oct. 6) Ways of Seeing I: Returns & Reversals

Influenced by the reflexive shift of anthropological filmmakers, and confronted with the sheer amount
of material in archives and museums anthropologists have increasing striven to understand what

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intercultural legacies these materials partake in. Parallel to this move, indigenous communities are
increasingly using media to assert their sovereignty and negotiate their identities and heritage. Within
this seminar we will examine the possibilities, ethics and issues that emerge when returning historial
materials to communities of origin, as well as what occurs when the camera is reversed.

Required Reading
Bell, Joshua A. 2008. 'Promiscuous Things: Perspectives on Cultural Property Through Photographs
in the Purari Delta of Papua New Guinea.' International Journal of Cultural Property 15 (2):123-139.
16 pages
Tsinhanahjinne, H.J. 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
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
Turner, T. 1992. Defiant Images: The Kayapo Appropriation of Video. Anthropology Today 8(6):5-
16. 11 pages

Further reading
Weiner James F. 1997. Televisualist anthropology: representation, aesthetics, politics. Current
Anthropology 38 (2): 197235. 37 pages
Bell, J.A., Kim Christen, and Mark Turin. 2013. Introduction: After the Return. Museum
Anthropology Review 7 (1-2):1-21. 20 pages
Christen, Kim. 2011. "Opening Archives: Respectful Repatriation." American Archivist 74:185-210.
25 pages

Film Oct. 7 Trobriand Cricket (1975; 53 min) Gary Kildea and Jerry Leach

Week 7 (Oct. 13) Ways of Seeing II: Political Subjects and Communities in Java
Reading Strasslers ethnography of photography and photographic practices in Java, we will explore
the particularities of photography as a medium through which history, identity and community are
articulated. We will also think about the different cultural understandings of this technology and its
object that Strasslers work raises.

Required Reading
Strassler, Karen. 2010. Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National Modernity in Java.
Durham: Duke University Press.
Focus on Introduction (1-28), Chapters 1 & 2 (29-122), and Chapter 6 (251-294)

Further reading/viewing
Azoulay, A. 2013. Potential History: Thinking Through Violence. Critical Inquiry 39(3): 548-574.
Pinney, C. 2003. Notes from the Surface of the Image: Photography, Postcolonialism, and
Vernacular Modernism. In Pinney, C. & N. Peterson. eds. Photography's other histories. Pp 202-
221. Durham: Duke University Press.

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Film Oct 14 Hermgenes Cayo/Imaginero (The Image Man) (1970; 52 mins) Jorge Prelorn

BLOG PROJECT DUE

Week 8 (Oct. 20) Ways of Seeing III: Sensational Movies

This week we will examine the vernacularization of video technology in Ghana through Meyers
ethnography. In the process we will consider the ways in which this medium intersects with politics,
and peoples religious and peoples world views.

Required Reading
Meyer, B. 2015. Sensational Movies: Video, Vision and Christianity in Ghana. Oakland: University of
California Press. Focus on Introduction (1-38), Chapters 1 & 2 (39-115); and Chapters 4 & 5 (153-
222).

Further reading
Behrend H. 2003. Photo magic: photographs in practices of healing and harm in East Africa. Journal
of Religion in Africa 33 (Fasc 2):12945
Sprague, S. 2003. "Yoruba Photography: How the Yoruba See Themselves." In C. Pinney and N.
Peterson eds. Photography's other histories. Pp. 240-260. Durham: Duke University Press. 20 pages.

Film Oct 21. Photo Wallahs (1991; 60 min) David and Judith MacDougall

Week 9 (Oct. 27) Ways of Seeing III: Censorship

In this seminar we will turn our attention to Indian film censorship as articulated in Mazzarellas
ethnography. Thinking through the banning of images we will think about what images do in mass-
mediated societies and what the attempts to control the publics that they help foster does and cannot
do.

Required Reading
Mazzarella, William. 2013. Censorium: Cinema and the Open Edge of Mass Publicity. Durham: Duke
University Press. Focus on Introduction (1-28), Chapters 1, 2 (29-155).

Further Reading
Latour, B. 2010 "What is Iconoclash? Or Is There a World Beyond the Image Wars?" In On the
Modern Cult of the Factish Gods. Pp. 67-98. Durham: Duke University Press. 21 pages
Pinney, C. 2001. Piercing the Skin of the Idol. In Pinney, C., and Thomas, N. eds. 2001. Beyond
aesthetics: art and the technologies of enchantment. Pp 157-180. Oxford: Berg.

Film Oct 28 Forest of Bliss (1986; 90 min) Robert Gardner

RESEARCH PAPER OUTLINE DUE

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Visual Anthroplogy: The Social Lives of Images Joshua A. Bell

Week 10 (Nov. 3) Ways of Seeing IV: Creation

Staying within South Asia, in this seminar we will discuss Panadians ethnography of Tamil cinema and
filmmakers, and through it examine his call for an ecology of creative process both as manifest
among his interlocutors as well as in his textual practices.

Required Reading
Pandian, A. 2015. Reel World: An Anthropology of Creation. Durham: Duke University Press. Focus
on Chapters 1-10 (1-150), and Chapter 19 (267-284).

Further Reading
Ingold, T. 2012. Toward an Ecology of Materials. Annual Review of Anthropology 41: 427-442.
Hallam, E. and Ingold, T. 2007. Creativity and Cultural Improvisation: An Introduction. In Hallam,
T. and Ingold, T., eds. Creativity and Cultural Improvisation. Pp. 1-24. Oxford: Berg.

Film Nov 4 A Weave of Time (1986; 60 min) Susan Fanshel

Week 11 (Nov. 10) Ways of Seeing V: Digital & Social Media

In this seminar we will turn to the new affordances and attending anxieties that digital, mobile and
social media technologies are enabling and creating globally.

Required Reading
Deger, J. 2016. "Thick Photography." Journal of Material Culture 21(1): 111-132. 21 Pages
Miller, D. 2015. Photography in the Age of Snapchat. Anthropology & Photography. Volume 1.
London: RAI. 22 Pages
https://www.therai.org.uk/images/stories/photography/AnthandPhotoVol1B.pdf
Walton, S. 2016. Photographic Truth in Motion: The Case of Iranian Photoblogs. Anthropology &
Photography. Volume 4. London: RAI. 24 Pages
http://www.therai.org.uk/images/stories/photography/AnthandPhotoVol4.pdf

Further Reading
Madianou, M. & Miller, D. 2013. Polymedia: Towards a new theory of digital media in
interpersonal communication. International Journal of Cultural Studies 16(2): 169187. 18 pages
Horst, H. 2012. New Media Technologies in Everyday Life. In Horst, H. and Miller, D. eds. Digital
Anthropology. Pp. 61-79. London: Bloomsbury. 18 Pages
Manning, P. and Gershon, I. 2013. Animating interaction. HAU 3(3): 107-37. 30 Pages

Film Nov 11. Dancing with the Incas (1992; 58 min) John Cohen

Week 12 (Nov. 19) No Seminar American Anthropology Association Meetings

Please use this week to catch up your reading and to work on your final presentations.

Week 13 (Nov. 26) Thanksgiving No Seminar

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Visual Anthroplogy: The Social Lives of Images Joshua A. Bell

Week 15 (Dec. 1) FINAL PRESENTATIONS

Week 16 (Dec. 8) FINAL PRESENTATIONS

Week 17 (Dec. 17) FINAL PROJECT DUE

APPENDIX I Collections for Blog Post

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 handcolored, 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.
Ezra Zubrow aerial photos - During the summer of 1967 or 1968, Ezra B. W. Zubrow was a graduate
student at the University of Arizona and a field foreman at the Southwestern Archaeological
Expedition, led by Paul S. Martin of the Field Museum of Chicago. After a flyover by United States
Air Force U2 airplaines in which the planes took aerial pictures, Zubrow contacted the Air Force to
obtain views of the archeological site and received these photographs in response. Dr. Ezra Zubrow
is now an archeologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Buffalo and Senior
Research Scientist at the National Center for Geographic Information Analysis Laboratory, which he
helped found. Aerial photographs of Rio Grande Pueblos made circa 1967 from 60,000 feet by a U2
aircraft, commissioned by Ezra Zubrow. Pueblos photographed include Acoma, Cochiti, Ildefonso,
Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Nambe, Picuris, Pojoaque, Sandia, San Felipe, San Juan, Santa Ana, Santa
Clara, Taos, Tesuque, Zia, and Zuni.
Napoleon Bonaparte photographs - The collection is comprised of nine photographic albums (two
are duplicates) of Omaha, Chinese, Kalmyk, Hindu, Hottentot, Somali and Surinamese people that
were assembled by Prince Roland Bonaparte and published in a series of albums entitled the
Collection Anthropologique du Prince Roland Bonaparte. Many of the photos were undertaken at
various international exhibitions of the late nineteenth century: the Kalmyk and Omaha
photographs were executed in Paris at the Jardin dAcclimatation (1884) and the Hindu, Somali,
Surinamese and Chinese photographs were taken during the 1883 Colonial Exposition in
Amsterdam. All of the albums, except for the volume on Surinamese peoples, is comprised of
albumen prints. The Surinamese album includes photographs, collotypes, imprints, and text. Each
album, except for those of the Hottentot and Surinamese people, is accompanied by an inventory
produced by Bonaparte that lists the name, age, job and family lineage of each person.
Robert T. Smith papers (unprocessed) This collection was generated by Smith while he was in the
US Army stationed in the Pacific, specifically Guadalcanal, Bougainville (Piva-Torokina) and New
Guinea in 1943-44. He stayed after the end of the war in New Guinea working to recover the

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remains of downed aircraft crews, and became fluent in Tok Pisin. The collection includes: One
sketch book (100 pages) - 8x10 notebook, and has lots of drawings of people and drawings, some
watercolors, flora and fauna (few loose pages); One painting; Pages of written/type-written
folktales; letters in pidgin - stack of three inches (8x10; 11x 14).
Winifred Smeaton Thomas papers Dr. Winifred Smeaton Thomas (1903-1987) was an
anthropologist whose main focus was the Near and Middle East. In 1932, she traveled to Baghdad,
Iraq, where she lived with the family of Ali Jawdat. Thomas conducted anthropological fieldwork
throughout her time in Iraq. In 1934, Thomas took part in the Field Museum Anthropological
Expedition, which traversed the country to collect anthropometric and other data on various ethnic
groups in and around Iraq. Also in 1934 and 1935, she taught an English class at the Central High
School for Girls in Baghdad. Thomas earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of
Chicago in 1940. From 1943 to 1945, she worked as a Research Analyst for the U.S. War
Department, Military Intelligence Division. Her papers comprise her professional and research
materials, in particular documenting her time in Iraq, 1932-1935. The collection includes writings,
publications, correspondence, field diaries, photographs, passports, and class notes from Thomas's
time as a student and later as a professor. It includes Thomas's photographs, writings, and research
from the Field Museum Anthropological Expedition in 1934 and her time with the Jawdat family in
Baghdad.
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

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Visual Anthroplogy: The Social Lives of Images Joshua A. Bell

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

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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.

APPENDIX II Examples of Blog Posts

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 Smithsonians 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

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