Photography as a participatory method in visual anthropology

In this paper my goal is to theoretically ground, and discuss the possible uses of, participatory photography in social and cultural anthropology. However, before discussing photography, I consider the subjectivity of sight and make a claim of multiplicity of realities/perspectives I then briefly outline some previous statements on photography and its connection to reality and informational value. Then I propose a way of combining the theory of vision and perspectivism described earlier with theories of photography to create a new understanding of the informational value of photography. I will also briefly discuss the connection between language and photography. The second part of this essay first discusses several examples of visual participatory projects and some issues emerging out of them. Later I give an introduction to the project "Views from inside" which I conducted together with Maria Lebioda. I discuss several issues of participatory photography methodology and things that need to be taken into account while planning such projects. I provide examples of photos made during this project. The goal of this essay is to introduce a certain way of thinking about photography, and to discuss some aspects of it. It is not a complete manual, and there are many things that are not discussed here, but I hope this essay may be useful to those who are planning a participatory photography project.En este articulo mi objetivo es discutir la teoria y los posibles usos de la fotografia participativa en antropologia social y cultural. Previamente, pongo a consideracion y describo la subjetividad de la vista y presento el concepto de multiples realidades/perspectivas. En la primera parte, expongo algunas afirmaciones sobre la fotografia y sus conexiones con la realidad y el valor informativo. A continuacion, propongo una posibilidad de combinar la teoria de la vision y el perspectivismo, descrito anteriormente, con teorias de la fotografia, creando una nueva compresion del valor informativo de las imagenes. En la segunda parte del articulo, describo en primer lugar algunos ejemplos de proyectos previos de fotografia participativa, asi como diferentes aspectos relacionados con ellos. Mas adelante, presento el proyecto "Views from inside" (miradas desde el interior) que desarrolle junto con Maria Lebioda. Abordo varios aspectos metodologicos que han de tenerse en cuenta en el diseno de un proyecto de fotografia participativa. Como muestra, incluyo fotografias tomadas durante el proyecto. El proposito de este articulo es introducir una nueva compresion de la fotografia, y debatir algunos aspectos de la misma. No pretende ser una guia completa, pues hay muchos aspectos que no se abordan en el texto. La pretension es presentar una experiencia que pueda ser util para cualquier persona que desee hacer un proyecto de fotografia participativa

Photography as a participatory method in visual anthropology

En este artículo mi objetivo es discutir la teoría y los posibles usos de la fotografía participativa en antropología social y cultural. Previamente, pongo a consideración y describo la subjetividad de la vista y presento el concepto de múltiples realidades/perspectivas. En la primera parte, expongo algunas afirmaciones sobre la fotografía y sus conexiones con la realidad y el valor informativo. A continuación, propongo una posibilidad de combinar la teoría de la visión y el perspectivismo, descrito anteriormente, con teorías de la fotografía, creando una nueva compresión del valor informativo de las imágenes.En la segunda parte del artículo, describo en primer lugar algunos ejemplos de proyectos previos de fotografía participativa, así como diferentes aspectos relacionados con ellos. Más adelante, presento el proyecto “Views from inside” (miradas desde el interior) que desarrollé junto con María Lebioda. Abordo varios aspectos metodológicos que han de tenerse en cuenta en el diseño de un proyecto de fotografía participativa. Como muestra, incluyo fotografías tomadas durante el proyecto. El propósito de este artículo es introducir una nueva compresión de la fotografía, y debatir algunos aspectos de la misma. No pretende ser una guía completa, pues hay muchos aspectos que no se abordan en el texto. La pretensión es presentar una experiencia que pueda ser útil para cualquier persona que desee hacer un proyecto de fotografía participativa. Abstract: In this paper my goal is to theoretically ground, and discuss the possible uses of, participatory photography in social and cultural anthropology. However, before discussing photography, I consider the subjectivity of sight and make a claim of multiplicity of realities/perspectives I then briefly outline some previous statements on photography and its connection to reality and informational value. Then I propose a way of combining the theory of vision and perspectivism described earlier with theories of photography to create a new understanding of the informational value of photography. I will also briefly discuss the connection between language and photography. The second part of this essay first discusses several examples of visual participatory projects and some issues emerging out of them. Later I give an introduction to the project “Views from inside” which I conducted together with Maria Lebioda. I discuss several issues of participatory photography methodology and things that need to be taken into account while planning such projects. I provide examples of photos made during this project. The goal of this essay is to introduce a certain way of thinking about photography, and to discuss some aspects of it. It is not a complete manual, and there are many things that are not discussed here, but I hope this essay may be useful to those who are planning a participatory photography project

Being German and being Paraguayan in Nueva Germania : arguing for “contextual epistemic permissibility” and “methodological complementarity”

This thesis involves a collaborative study of emic articulations and quotidian ways of ‘being German’ and ‘being Paraguayan’ in Nueva Germania, a rural municipality in Paraguay. An argument is made that the social categories focused upon during this thesis, were evoked according to different contexts. While many claimed that Germanness or Paraguayanness were key categories, essentialistic characteristics that defined them and others as people of a certain kind, in other situations these social divisions were disregarded or even contradicted. This leads me to the theoretical conclusion that social categories, and epistemic frameworks more broadly, should not be understood as universally relevant or as universally applicable, and should not be treated as such. The thesis therefore proposes to assume ‘contextual epistemic permissibility’ as a key axiom for use within anthropology and in the wider social sciences. The possible theoretical and methodological consequences of such an assumption are elaborated upon. Different theories of self, social action, and agency are debated in the course of this thesis: it is asked which might best analytically accommodate the assumption of contextual epistemic permissibility. Furthermore, in order to reflect the multiplicity of emic epistemic frameworks, the thesis proposes that a notion of ‘analytical and representative complementarity’ be introduced, rather than monistic theoretical models. Such complementarity is practised in the thesis through the use of different multiscalar analyses (for example, the use of different theories of nationalism), and through the simultaneous use of different forms of representation. The above theoretical divagations are intertwined and related to the individual stories of twelve people from Nueva Germania, and are presented with both textual and photographic means. The stories were created through a collaborative process. Each project participant was free to decide upon the subject of their account, and therefore the resulting stories are able to cover a variety of different themes, at the same time introducing the reader to individual histories, struggles, opinions, plans, and critiques. Some elements of these accounts directly relate to the theoretical debates focused upon within the thesis while other elements of the individual stories are left to speak for themselves, and for the reader to make sense of independently. The photographs and texts, in their intertextual presentation, allow for an embodiment of the argument concerning representational complementarity

Encountering, explaining and refuting essentialism

Essentialism manifests itself in a diversity of forms and is used in multiple ways. Yet it is always potentially dangerous — even when it is mobilised strategically and in apparently worthy forms for purposes of overcoming oppressive structures. As the first in a collection of articles focused on various manifestations of essentialism, this article offers a brief historical outline of how social anthropology deployed essentialist thinking, even amongst its canonical exponents. It examines how Durkheimian theorisations and the structuralist traditions to which they gave rise — in particular assumptions of the singular and homogeneous symbolic classification of society — lent themselves to essentialism. It considers the example of South Africa where essentialist social theories contributed to inhumane political formations. Given that essentialism always carries a latency to be used for pernicious ends, the article concludes by considering social anthropological approaches that might permit an understanding of individuals and society in ways that neither lead to nor need essentialist thinking, and instead recognise the contradictoriness, flux and incompleteness inherent in social life.PostprintPeer reviewe

Photography as a participatory method in visual anthropology

In this paper my goal is to theoretically ground, and discuss the possible uses of, participatory photography in social and cultural anthropology. However, before discussing photography, I consider the subjectivity of sight and make a claim of multiplicity of realities/perspectives I then briefly outline some previous statements on photography and its connection to reality and informational value. Then I propose a way of combining the theory of vision and perspectivism described earlier with theories of photography to create a new understanding of the informational value of photography. I will also briefly discuss the connection between language and photography. The second part of this essay first discusses several examples of visual participatory projects and some issues emerging out of them. Later I give an introduction to the project "Views from inside" which I conducted together with Maria Lebioda. I discuss several issues of participatory photography methodology and things that need to be taken into account while planning such projects. I provide examples of photos made during this project. The goal of this essay is to introduce a certain way of thinking about photography, and to discuss some aspects of it. It is not a complete manual, and there are many things that are not discussed here, but I hope this essay may be useful to those who are planning a participatory photography project.En este articulo mi objetivo es discutir la teoria y los posibles usos de la fotografia participativa en antropologia social y cultural. Previamente, pongo a consideracion y describo la subjetividad de la vista y presento el concepto de multiples realidades/perspectivas. En la primera parte, expongo algunas afirmaciones sobre la fotografia y sus conexiones con la realidad y el valor informativo. A continuacion, propongo una posibilidad de combinar la teoria de la vision y el perspectivismo, descrito anteriormente, con teorias de la fotografia, creando una nueva compresion del valor informativo de las imagenes. En la segunda parte del articulo, describo en primer lugar algunos ejemplos de proyectos previos de fotografia participativa, asi como diferentes aspectos relacionados con ellos. Mas adelante, presento el proyecto "Views from inside" (miradas desde el interior) que desarrolle junto con Maria Lebioda. Abordo varios aspectos metodologicos que han de tenerse en cuenta en el diseno de un proyecto de fotografia participativa. Como muestra, incluyo fotografias tomadas durante el proyecto. El proposito de este articulo es introducir una nueva compresion de la fotografia, y debatir algunos aspectos de la misma. No pretende ser una guia completa, pues hay muchos aspectos que no se abordan en el texto. La pretension es presentar una experiencia que pueda ser util para cualquier persona que desee hacer un proyecto de fotografia participativa

People and Identities in Nueva Germania

Softcover, 17x24Nueva Germania, a rural Paraguayan settlement, was founded at the end of the nineteenth century as a racist, eugenic, and anti-Semitic project. Its founders, Bernhard Förster and Elisabeth Nietzsche, hoped to create the nucleus for a new Germanic empire far away from Jewish influence. This history is often used to portray present-day inhabitants of Nueva Germania through a reductive prism of events long past. Nueva Germania is, however, a place where different identities and ways of life intertwine, providing an excellent historical and ethnographic point of departure. This book argues that social identities—such as nationality, ethnicity, or race—are best understood as things we do and stories we tell, rather than things we are. The illusory sense that identities constitute fixed and essential characteristics of people can partially be explained through the significance attributed to identities in the process of generating a sense of a continuous and persistent self. By elaborating on this link between social and personal identities this book elucidates the basis for an anti-essentialist theory. Contesting essentialist and identitarian modes of thought is an urgent undertaking not only in social theory, but also as a political act in the context of the global rise of movements and ideologies that prey on such logic. The book’s additional novelty lies in the collaborative research on which it is based. Twelve participants tell stories from their lives which they themselves considered to be important, using words and photographs as the vehicles of their communication. Some elements of these stories are analysed in the theoretical chapters, while other aspects are left to speak for themselves. This methodological and ethical choice breaks with the conventional imposition of a singular scholarly lens. The polyphony of voices introduces Nueva Germania as inherently constituted from different perspectives. This approach transcends identitarian interpretations and proposes a way by which the social sciences might move beyond essentialist identities

Calcified identities: Persisting essentialism in academic collections of human remains

Kurzwelly J, Wilckens MS. Calcified identities: Persisting essentialism in academic collections of human remains. Anthropological Theory . 2022.Essentialist assumptions about human beings persist in scientific practice, despite their erroneous logic. This article examines essentialism related to research on, and handling of, academic collections of human remains. Historically human remains, and skulls in particular, have served to produce various forms of scientific racialization and racism, confining people to fixed notions of identities and legitimizing violent systems of exploitation and oppression. Contemporary handling of these human remains aims to account for the problematic and violent past, examining the provenance of particular human remains, often leading to their restitution. Despite the different political and ideological motivations of contemporary practice, it too often relies on essentialist categorization and inaccurate or erroneous assumptions. This text exposes the problematic logic of social essentialism and challenges its prevalence in scientific practice

Custody and custodianship: A reflection on collection terminology through the lens of human remains

The vast number of human remains in scientific research, museum and teaching collections bring the multifaceted terms ‘custody’ and ‘custodianship’ into view. The question of ‘custodianship’ and ‘curation’ is part and parcel of the language of collection, yet human remains push the question of ownership to a more elementary level. The authors look at the meanings of custodianship as used (and not yet used) within the framework of an interdisciplinary project on academic collections of human remains. They suggest that expanding from custodial protection, representation and expertise to custodial responsibility and care may offer a lens for framing the past and for ‘letting go’ in the future

Encountering, explaining and refuting essentialism

Essentialism manifests itself in a diversity of forms and is used in multiple ways. Yet it is always potentially dangerous — even when it is mobilised strategically and in apparently worthy forms for purposes of overcoming oppressive structures. As the first in a collection of articles focused on various manifestations of essentialism, this article offers a brief historical outline of how social anthropology deployed essentialist thinking, even amongst its canonical exponents. It examines how Durkheimian theorisations and the structuralist traditions to which they gave rise — in particular assumptions of the singular and homogeneous symbolic classification of society — lent themselves to essentialism. It considers the example of South Africa where essentialist social theories contributed to inhumane political formations. Given that essentialism always carries a latency to be used for pernicious ends, the article concludes by considering social anthropological approaches that might permit an understanding of individuals and society in ways that neither lead to nor need essentialist thinking, and instead recognise the contradictoriness, flux and incompleteness inherent in social life.</p

Encountering, explaining and refuting essentialism

Essentialism manifests itself in a diversity of forms and is used in multiple ways. Yet it is always potentially dangerous — even when it is mobilised strategically and in apparently worthy forms for purposes of overcoming oppressive structures. As the first in a collection of articles focused on various manifestations of essentialism, this article offers a brief historical outline of how social anthropology deployed essentialist thinking, even amongst its canonical exponents. It examines how Durkheimian theorisations and the structuralist traditions to which they gave rise — in particular assumptions of the singular and homogeneous symbolic classification of society — lent themselves to essentialism. It considers the example of South Africa where essentialist social theories contributed to inhumane political formations. Given that essentialism always carries a latency to be used for pernicious ends, the article concludes by considering social anthropological approaches that might permit an understanding of individuals and society in ways that neither lead to nor need essentialist thinking, and instead recognise the contradictoriness, flux and incompleteness inherent in social life.</p