Knowledge and Perception :: Demystifying Paradigmatic Orientation in Visual Anthropology and its Effect on Ethnographic Film

Authors

CORREIA DA VEIGA, Eduardo Jorge
stagiaire

Keywords:

Films,, visual arts,, cinema, film industry,, anthropology,, ethnography, social sciences,, Industry,, visual anthropology,, ethnographic, film

Synopsis

Ethnographic film theories, like the social sciences, are divided between positivist theories and interpretive theories. The literature of ethnographic filmmaking only implies this distinction, with the assumption that a certain theory of filmmaking will lead to a certain type of film. However, there are no explicit distinctions in the contemporary literature of what makes a
theory, and thereby a film, either positivist or interpretivist. This dissertation makes an explicit distinction between these types of theories in ethnographic film theory, and then makes use of a semiotic film analysis of each type of film in order to assess if the distinction holds, both theoretically and practically.

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Published

July 5, 2023

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