Visual anthropology

Under the name of Visual Anthropology those parts of Ethnology and other Social and Cultural Studies are summarized which explore visual culture representations from an ethnological point of view or produce themselves.

Content

This mainly includes photography and film, but increasingly also television, new media, performance, museums and visual arts. As an academic discipline, the visual anthropology in the 70s in the English language came into being. Audio-visual media, photography, etc. play in visual anthropology different roles:

  • As a cultural document and source of scientific analysis
  • Audiovisual or photographic field notes as a protocol tool and is part of the research process
  • As a method of research and teaching
  • As a form of presentation of research results
  • Study of visual representation and perception

Study

Visual Anthropology can be studied in the following German universities.

  • Visual and Media Anthropology, Continuing Education Master Course, Free University of Berlin.
  • Focus on visual anthropology master's degree in Comparative Cultural and Social Anthropology, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt / Oder
  • Focus on visual anthropology master's degree in Anthropology, Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich
  • Curriculum focus Visual Anthropology master's degree in Cultural Anthropology / European Ethnology, University of Göttingen.

Examples

Cultural document. Photo of a Herero woman, before 1914

Field notes. Bronislaw Malinowski with book, Trobriand Islanders, 1918

Tools

Margaret Mead
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