Jay Ruby

Sometimes thought to be a bizarre Victorian custom, photographing corpses has been and continues to be an important, if not recognized, occurrence in American life. It is a photographic activity, like the erotica produced in middle-class homes by married couples, that many privately practice but seldom circulate outside the trusted circle of close friends and relatives. Along with tombstones, funeral cards, and other images of death, these photographs represent one way in which Americans have attempted to secure their shadows.

Death and Photography in America

Secure the Shadow

Like Conrad's Marlow, whose tale of journeying into the "heart of darkness" gives us as much insight into one man's personality as it does into the mysteries of the dark world he explored, so the anthropologist's record of another culture contains more than objective, scientific data about his investigation. Embedded within it are clues to the "personality" of anthropology itself: the attitudes, approaches, even prejudices that at any given stage in history are inextricable from the ideology of the anthropologist. Therefore, the mirror he holds up to show us another culture can never be a perfect one. His own professional attitude toward his subject, as well as his choice of medium, are factors that create "cracks" in the mirror of anthropology through which we believe we view the life of other cultures. Hence, the concept of "reflexivity" and the striving to recognize how it warps in the portrayal of anthropological truth lie at the core of the twelve finely wrought essays collected in this volume. Wide ranging in geography as well as viewpoint, they highlight various methods and media (film, ethnography, text) through which an anthropologist chooses to portray a culture, and the various forms, such as art, theater, and ritual, through which a culture portrays itself. Recognizing the link between these two processes provides the key to cultural and methodological self awareness. Reflexivity is defined and clarified in the introduction and in three of the essays, and the remaining nine essays evince the principle through fieldwork and startling case studies. Essays by Jay Ruby and Eric Michaels shed new light on the enormous potential of film and video, showing how a form generally thought to be "nonscientific" can in fact give fresh insight into the scientific premises underlying the discipline's methodology. Essays by Barbara Babcock and Carol Ann Parssinen focus on the novel and ethnography, examining existing works. Anthropologists, as well as students of film, art, and theater, will find that this intriguing work begins to redefine traditional distinctions between science and the arts and brings to light fresh resources that are utilized in the search for anthropological truth. Contributors: Richard Schechner, Victor Turner, Barbara Myerhoff, Jay Ruby, Eric Michaels, Dennis Tedlock, George Marcus, Paul Rabinow, Barbara Babcock, Carol Ann Parssinen, and Dan Rose.

Reflexive Perspectives in Anthropology

A Crack in the Mirror

Larry Gross

John Stuart Katz

This pathbreaking collection of thirteen original essays examines the moral rights of the subjects of documentary film, photography, and television. Image makers--photographers and filmmakers--are coming under increasing criticism for presenting images of people that are considered intrusive and embarrassing to the subject. Portraying subjects in a "false light," appropriating their images, and failing to secure "informed consent" are all practices that intensify the debate between advocates of the right to privacy and the public's right to know. Discussing these questions from a variety of perspectives, the authors here explore such issues as informed consent, the "right" of individuals and minority groups to be represented fairly and accurately, the right of individuals to profit from their own image, and the peculiar moral obligations of minorities who image themselves and the producers of autobiographical documentaries. The book includes a series of provocative case studies on: the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman, particularly Titicut Follies; British documentaries of the 1930s; the libel suit of General Westmoreland against CBS News; the film Witness and its portrayal of the Amish; the film The Gods Must be Crazy and its portrayal of the San people of southern Africa; and the treatment of Arabs and gays on television. The first book to explore the moral issues peculiar to the production of visual images, Image Ethics will interest a wide range of general readers and students and specialists in film and television production, photography, communications, media, and the social sciences.

The Moral Rights of Subjects in Photographs, Film, and Television

Image Ethics

Larry P. Gross

'Image Ethics in the Digital Age' brings together leading experts in the fields of journalism, media studies, & law to address the challenges presented by new technology & assess the implications for personal & societal values & behavior.

Image Ethics in the Digital Age

Marcus Banks

Made to be Seen brings together leading scholars of visual anthropology to examine the historical development of this multifaceted and growing field. Expanding the definition of visual anthropology beyond more limited notions, the contributors to Made to be Seen reflect on the role of the visual in all areas of life. Different essays critically examine a range of topics: art, dress and body adornment, photography, the built environment, digital forms of visual anthropology, indigenous media, the body as a cultural phenomenon, the relationship between experimental and ethnographic film, and more. The first attempt to present a comprehensive overview of the many aspects of an anthropological approach to the study of visual and pictorial culture, Made to be Seen will be the standard reference on the subject for years to come. Students and scholars in anthropology, sociology, visual studies, and cultural studies will greatly benefit from this pioneering look at the way the visual is inextricably threaded through most, if not all, areas of human activity.

Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology

Made to Be Seen

Beate Engelbrecht

Nadja Valentinčič Furlan

Monika Kropej Telban

Evgeny V. Aleksandrov

Paolo Chiozzi

Vanja Huzjan

Vesna Mia Ipavec

Allison Jablonko

Elizabeta Koneska

Naško Križnar

Sarah Lunaček

Renato Morelli

Martina Piko-Rustia

Dragana Radojičić

Marko Smole

Nena Židov

Področje vizualne antropologije in etnografije je že pred časom prešlo fazo formiranja in mnogi akterji, ki so spremljali in soustvarjali zgodovino, se danes ozirajo na svoje delo, ga ponovno presojajo, sistematizirajo, pa tudi iščejo nova vprašanja ali teme za raziskave, ki bi zaokrožile in dopolnile njihov opus. V ta prostor sodi tudi knjiga, v kateri so objavljeni prispevki šestnajstih domačih in tujih antropologov oz. etnologov. Nekateri iščejo širši, oddaljeni pogled na svoje dolgoletno delo, dejavnosti in sodelovanja, drugi obravnavajo ožje teme ali vprašanja, na primer o izobraževalnih modelih in pristopih, o terenskih izkušnjah in metodah, definiciji etnografskega filma in uporabi vizualnega v muzeologiji, ob raziskavah in predstavitvah kulturne dediščine. Knjiga je hkrati tudi poklon Našku Križnarju, spiritusu movensu slovenske vizualne etnografije, ki že več desetletij deluje in ustvarja na tem področju, skrbi za njegov razvoj in uveljavitev doma in v tujini. Njegovo delo je v knjigi obravnavano iz več vidikov, najprej je umeščeno v širši okvir vizualne antropologije v Sloveniji, nato je posebna pozornost namenjena nekaterim zamejenim sklopom njegovega delovanja, kot so leta v Goriškem muzeju, delu na Koroškem ter sodelovanju s kolegi v regiji. Te prispevke dopolnjujejo bibliografija, izbrana filmografija in intervju, v katerem Naško Križnar poda nekaj lucidnih misli in opažanj o svojem preteklem delovanju – o poteh in stranpoteh etnologa s kamero. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ The field of visual anthropology and ethnography has long since passed its formation phase, and many protagonists, who co-created its history, are today reflecting on their own work, evaluating and systematizing it, but also searching for new research questions and topics that would complement and conclude their contributions. This monograph of 16 papers from Slovene and international visual anthropologists and ethnologists firmly places itself in a self-reflective perspective. Some of the researchers are attempting to find a distant, broader view of their work; others are discussing more narrow topics and research questions in which they were more deeply engaged, e.g. educational models and approaches, fieldwork experiences and methods, definitions of ethnographic film and use of the visual in museology, in research and in the representation of cultural tradition. This book is also a tribute to Naško Križnar, the spiritus movens of Slovene visual ethnography, who has been working and creating in this field for several decades, taking responsibility for its development and affirmation at home and abroad. Several papers discuss different aspects of his work; he first is positioned in the broader context of visual anthropology in Slovenia, and then attention is drawn to some distinct examples of his activities, such as his employment at the Goriško Museum, his fieldwork in Carinthia/Koroška (Austria), and to his cooperation with professional colleagues from the region. These papers are supplemented by the bibliography, selected filmography and interview, in which Naško Križnar articulates his thoughts and observations about his past experiences and his work – about his highways and byways as an ethnologist with a camera.

Osebne izkušnje in institucionalni vidiki / Personal Experiences and Institutional Aspects

Vizualna antropologija / Visual Anthropology

This unique auto-ethnographic study of life at the Coffee House Positano—a Bohemian coffee house in Malibu, California—during the late 1950s and early 1960s is a combination of historical reconstruction and personal memoir. An ebook consisting of a collection of memories expressed through multiple formats—text, image, audio, and video—it describes in illuminating detail the great range of people who frequented Positano and the activities that took place there over its short but influential existence. As an ethnographer analyzing his own culture, author Jay Ruby uses a unique ethnographic method known as “studying sideways.” He combines the exploration of self and others with the theoretical framework of anthropology to provide deep insight into the counterculture of late 1950s and early 1960s America. He shares his connection to Positano, where he lived and worked from 1957 to 1959 and again in 1963, and reflects on Positano in the context of US counterculture and the greater role of countercultures in society. This intimate and significant work will be of interest to anthropologists as well as scholars and the general reader interested in California history, Beat culture, and countercultural movements.

A Bohemian Oasis in Malibu, 1957–1962

Coffee House Positano

Secure the Shadow uses a combination of cultural anthropology and visual analysis to explore the photographic representations of death in the United States from 1840 to the present. It looks at the ways in which people have taken and used photographs of deceased loved ones and their funerals to mitigate the finality of death. Ruby employs newspaper accounts, advertisements, letters, photographers' account books, interviews, and other material to determine why and how photography and death became intertwined in the nineteenth century. He traces this century's struggle between America's public denial of death and a deeply felt private need to use pictures of those we love to mourn their loss.

Jay Ruby

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