Classmates' Contributions

            Anthropology of media addresses many theoretical and anthropological questions of authorship, representation, power relations, and the classic post-modern question of who has the right to represent who? Both Courtney Chaisson and Anna Orlowska address these questions with emphasis on representation and power relations in regards to the reuse of Native American and Aboriginal symbols in fashion.

             Orlowska references the music production "Hey Ya" by Outkast and representations by Ke$ha. In both cases the traditional Native attire and ceremonial pieces are employed by the musicians without regard for the customs or the people whom they culturally "belong" to. The use of these symbols is irresponsible and cruel especially since in history these clichés have been representative of Natives in Media throughout history and usually in an ignorant and often racist manner. The stereotype is homogenizing and oppressive, Orlowska describes it as being, unacceptable due to the lack of context and the colonial past filled with tense and unequal power relations.

            Likewise, Chassion explores the relationship with "trendy Caucasian youth" and the, "thin line individuals walk as they attempt to remediate and re-create significant songs, dances, movies and dress that have originated from different cultures." The blatant involvement of colonialism and power relations as well as the historical events that link the cultures involved in the cross-cultural recycling is touched on. She also emphasizes the artist's "intention" as a factor in the acceptability of an adaptation or reuse of another culture.  

            It is no surprise that both blogs take the position against the ignorant and stereotypical use of Indigenous dress and symbolism. From and anthropological background in which the purpose is to," document and valorize the richness and diversity of human ways of life"(Knauft 1996:48) as well as, "to expose, analyze, and critique human inequality and domination"(Knauft 1996:50). The unequal power relations are made clear by the fact of colonial history in North America. The dominance over the Native population and oppression that is still in many respects an issue to this day; make the misrepresentation and "mocking" of their culture unacceptable. This is a situation in which the right or representation is only acceptable in the celebration and honoring of another culture or by the culture itself. The question of representation and power relations has been addressed by many many anthropologists throughout history, including most post-modernists who also dealt with concepts of reflexivity and objectivity vs. subjectivity. Some of these theorists include, Max Weber, Karl Marx, Michel Fuco and James Clifford to name a few. However, this debate is paramount to anthropology and will thus continue to be discussed by anthropologists.  

Bibliography

Courtney Chaisson

http://upperandlowercases.wordpress.com/

Anna Orlowska

http://mediaanthropology-anna.blogspot.com/

Knauft, Bruce M.

1996. Stories, histories, and theories (Chapter 1). In Genealogies for the Present in Cultural Anthropology. Bruce Knauft, ed. Pp. 9-39. New York and London: Routledge.

Novak, David

2010. Cosmopolitanism, Remediation, and the Ghost World of Bollywood. Cultural Anthropology. American Anthropoogical Association. 25(1): 40-72.

Media Adaptations and Misrepresentations

            In “Cosmopolitanism, Remediation, and the Ghost World of Bollywood”, David Novak discusses the many ways in which globalization and cultural representation have been successful and the cause of misrepresentations and misunderstandings (2010). He problematizes the use of Bollywood song and dance in western medias and the reasons why it works or doesn't work (2010). Much of the media we see today, especially on YouTube, where authorship is not restricted to those with some form of recognized authority on subjects, is offensive to at least some viewers. However if the author is part of a minority group the usual reaction is less intense due to the complexities involved with the power relations between the two (or more) groups represented.

            Many of the YouTube videos that "go viral" are considered offensive to some people, much of the time an accepted amount of un-politically correctness is allowed by popular opinion. However, in the case of the "Bed Intruder" in which a news report was adapted to a kind of music video has been considered by many to be unacceptable mainly due to the unequal economic and power relations and stereotypes in its portrayal of a minority group. It is a perfect example of the way in which we, "sublimate basic ignorance and racism in complacent consumption" especially regarding forms of parody (Novak 2010:47). On the other hand, there are many examples of acceptable appropriation, of medias like in regards to Australia's aboriginal radio (Fisher 2009). Country music has been appropriated and changed to fit the needs of the Aboriginal community (Fisher 2009). The basic underlying reasons that determine whether or not an adaptation is accepted is defined by the power relations and historical relations of those involved.

            Stemming from a news report by Elizabeth Gentle about an attempted rape of a woman in "the projects" of Huntsville Alabama. The woman, Kelly Dodson had a man break into her room and accost her. With the help of her brother they fought off the attacker. The actual news report is definitely no laughing matter considering the severity of the crime that could have come to pass. Dodson's heated reaction to the scenario, "He’s climbing in your windows, he’s snatching your people up, trying to rape them, so you need to hide your kids, hide your wife and hide your husband, because they’re raping everybody out here ” has been appropriated and remade in various YouTube video adaptions. One of which has been especially viewed and has incited many reactions. Many viewers consider the remake to be playing on stereotypes of African Americans, as well as, controversial in regards to the representations of poorer communities (Novak 2010).

            On the other hand in Australia Aboriginally run radio stations often adapt country western music and change the lyrics or slightly alter the music to fit their needs (Fisher 2009). This music has been adopted largely due to the themes of loss, longing, travel and separation in country music and its connection with modern day Aboriginal life styles (Fisher 2009). Aboriginal Australians are often dispersed far from family and kin and thus the music suits their needs (Fisher 2009). Both of these adaptions of media could be criticized for their misrepresentations of the original in question. Due to the serious nature of the "possible rape" and the portrayal of a minority group, the unequal power relations cause the "Bed Intruder" YouTube to be largely considered unacceptable by many people. 

 

Links:

Actual News Clip:

http://wn.com/WAFF_%28TV%29

Bed Intruder Remake:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw

Bibliography

Fisher, Daniel

2009. Mediating Kinship: Country, Family, and Radio in Northern Australia. Cultural Anthropology 24(2): 270-312. American Anthropological Association.

Novak, David

2010. Cosmopolitanism, Remediation, and the Ghost World of Bollywood. Cultural Anthropology. American Anthropoogical Association. 25(1): 40-72.

The movie Machuca: Marxism+Structuralism

Image from: Independent Cinema Office 79-80 Margaret Street, London W1W 8TA

Registered in England and Wales.
http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/machuca?c=4806

           "Machuca" is a feature length film directed by Andrés Wood, a Chilean, who experienced the military coup against Salvador Allende in Chile as a child. The movie is set during the turbulent presidency of Allende just before the coup in Santiago in 1973. The film portrays themes of friendship, loss of innocence and coming of age in a tense political context. The employs Marxist theory in its plot, through the constant action taken by the people as well as the reforms implemented by the Allende government in order to reduce the disparity between the rich and the poor. The overall style of the film however, reflects Structuralism in the stark contrasts of good and bad, right and wrong.

            The film is shot from the point of view of a ten-year-old child named Gonzalo Infante. Stylistically this perspective lends itself to Structuralism because, "the basic preposition of structuralism is that humans engage with, make sense of, and function in the world through sets of binary oppositions- good/bad, right/left..."(Gray 2010: 53). Gonzalo is of the upper class and is from a non-indigenous, wealthy family that benefits form capitalist society and struggles under the reforms imposed by Allende (Wood 2004). Pedro Mauchca another of the main characters is a young indigenous boy who comes to Gonzalo's school via integration reforms and they become friends (Wood 2004).  The use of the point of view of children tends to draw a more contrasting picture of the political situation in which there are more obviously "good" and "bad" characters. For example, the priest, Padre McEnroe is head of Gonzalo's school and is portrayed as a very good man a Marxist and for Allende and his reforms. The good and bad contrasts come into play between the children at school as well; one child who is against the integration of the indigenous children constantly bullies Gonzalo throughout the film. The Structuralist style of the film causes the Marxist argument in the plot to be more pronounced through the intense contrast of good and bad, rich and poor, Indigenous and non-Indigenous (Gray 2010).

            The plot of the film is Marxist in nature because it problematizes the protests of the divided country regarding the re-distribution of land and integration of Indigenous population into the education system (Wood 2004 and Gray 2010). The conflict between classes and control of resources and education by the rich demonstrates Karl Marx's emphasis on the importance of the material conditions and labour of individuals in society (Turner 2007 and McGee et.al 2007). The many scenes of protest throughout the film also inform Marx's notion that,

"'Real history' is made by real men and women acting within and upon socially, politically and culturally constituted relationships, institutions and conventions, reproducing some and changing others"(Roseberry 1997).

as well as, Marx's emphasis on action (McGee et.al. 2007). This also reflects his theories about how the people have to be the ones who create the change in society and that government to implemented laws will ultimately fail (Roseberry 1997).

            Marxism is infused throughout this film, but is especially pronounced in the end. The final scenes are very sad and portray the futility of socialism as instituted by the government (Roseberry 1997). In one of the last scenes of the movie an Indigenous girl Silvana who was friends with both Pedro Machuca and Gonzalo is shot and killed by soldiers against the Allende government (Wood 2004). In order to escape the persecution the Indigenous are enduring by being harassed and killed by the soldiers Gonzalo says to the soldier, "look at me", his appearance as white and wealthy being enough to separate him from his friends (Wood 2004). Through this realism, the viewer is forced to understand that equality and the Marxist Utopia that the Priest imagines is possible, but not via governmental methods but through the uniting of the people.

Bibliography

Gray, Gordon

2010. Film Theory. In Cinema: A Visual Anthropology. Berg, Oxford International     Publishers Ltd. (Chapter 2) Pp. 35-73.           

Marx, Karl and Fredrich Engels

Feurebach: Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook (From The German      Ideology1845-1846). In Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History. R. Jon McGee, Richard L. Warms Chapter 3. Chapter 4.

Roseberry, William

1997. "Marx and Anthropology" in Annu. Rev. Anthropol. Department of Anthropology, Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, New York,

      NY (26) pp. 25-46.

Turner, Terence

2008. "Marxian Theory: An Anthropological Perspective" in Anthropological Theory 8(43) pp. 43-55.

Wood, Andrés et.al

2004. "Machuca" Directed by Andrés Wood. Written by Mamoun Hassan and Andrés Wood. 121 min. Paraiso Producciones. Chile. 

Radio-> creating and reflecting community

Image from: All Canadian Music Online Radio Station. http://evolvedmediagroup.ca/site/2011/03/alll-canadian-music-online-radio-station/

          In Australia, Aboriginal radio is very flexible and reflective of the history and needs of the Aboriginal population changing to fit the requests of the people it serves. Australia has a colonial history in which Aboriginal groups and families were separated especially in the case of "half cast" children (Fisher 2009). This history of separation, in addition to the lifestyles of the people who frequently move to and from various institutions like conferences, ceremonies, or prisons has utilized the medium of radio in order to "link up" peoples who are far apart (Fisher 2009). On the other hand, in Israel the radio acts more as a regulatory media both fulfilling public needs as well as, dictating schedules, "engineering national identity" and changing "moods"(Kaplan 2009). In these two cases the role of radio is very different and it is largely due to the active or passive participation of the listeners involved and the necessity of the function of radio.

            In Israel radio serves as a nation-building tool in which the imagined community of Zionist Jews is unified through the schedule of programming by the radio station (Kaplan 2009). Danny Kaplan discusses how radio in Israel is used in a "uniform manner" to "alter" the responses and moods of the people through the types of music played in response to current events (2009). Kaplan gives examples of events focusing on Jewish holidays as well as terrorist or war related news developments (2009). He addresses these starkly different occurrences and the way in which radio stations make their program to fit or influence national sentiments (Kaplan 2009). In order to either quell fears and tensions in times of emergency and war or to reinforce a celebratory and united atmosphere. Kaplan gives the example of 103fm which is normally station that focuses on being a talk show, but will play non-stop music on Jewish holidays (2009). In this way the radio in Israel reinforces existing bonds in the Zionist Jewish community reflecting on current events as well as "engineering the public mood" and reactions to news (Kaplan 2009).  

            While in the same way Australian Aboriginal radio creates notions of "authenticity" regarding aboriginal people (Fisher 2009). Daniel Fisher discussed briefly how the emphasis placed on the notion of kinship has reinforced and maybe exaggerated familial aspects of Aboriginal culture (2009). However for the most part Fisher describes the way in which the radio (as opposed to the people) has been influenced and dictated by the listeners. I stipulate that the overall style of radio in Australia is very different from that of Israel.

            The radio in Australia contrasts that of Israel in that it serves to unify the Aboriginal kin networks through the crucial participation of the communities. Its collaborative nature is the basis of its success. Programs like, "Top End Aboriginal Bush Broadcasting Association" encourage the public to call in and send songs and messages to people across the country that may be listening (Fisher 2009). Much of this cross-country communication is related to the dispersal of family and friends across a wide expanse (Fisher 2009). The Aboriginal stations started as a form of activism to keep Aboriginal culture and language alive (Fisher 2009). But over time it transformed in order to better suit the people themselves. Due to the high rate of incarcerated male, aboriginals the radio stations started by keeping them in contact with their families enabling them to send recorded messages home (Fisher 2009).  Fisher uses the example of "Nanna Evie" who via radio broadcast sends a message to her relative in jail (2009). The broadcast includes a song called "choices" which in combination acts as a slight scolding as well as a loving message across space and connecting or "linking up" families (Fisher 2009). In this case the radio is utilized by the people, as opposed to programmed for the people, as is the case in Israel.  

Bibliography

Fisher, Daniel

2009. Mediating Kinship: Country, Family, and Radio in Northern Australia.Cultural Anthropology 24(2): 270-312. American Anthropological Association.

Kaplan, Danny

2009. The Songs of the Siren: Engineering National Time on Israeli Radio. Cultural     Anthropology 24(2): 313-345. American Anthropological Association.

Graffiti

Photo: Laurel street alley between 10^th and Broadway, Vancouver BC

         Since the 1970s graffiti has been associated with ‘urban degeneration’, a spatial scale of economic means (Carrington 2009). In Vancouver graffiti is still very much a marker for the social class of neighborhoods. The difference in pervasiveness of graffiti in the less wealthy communities vs. the more economically endowed parts of the city is clear; even within these larger sections of the city graffiti vs. non graffiti spaces seem to be segregated, for example alleyways vs. busy streets. The more wealthy sections of the city can fund the maintenance and preventative measures (like cameras) in their public space more efficiently than those areas with less funding. Thus inequality is one of the main discourses in and around graffiti. The geography of graffiti in the city reflects imagined communities and their, “challenge [to contemporary] notions of consumption driven public space”(Carrington 2009 and Anderson 1983).

            The definition of ‘graffiti’ is tied into its reputation as the media of the masses and middle class (Riggle 2010 and Carrington 2009). It has been debated widely whether or not graffiti is a form of art or vandalism (Riggle 2010 and Carrington 2009). The article, “Street Art: The Transfiguration of the Commonplaces” by Nicholas Riggle differentiates between ‘graffiti’ and ‘street art’. Street art, “tak[es] art out of the museum gallery and private collection and put[s] it in the stream of everyday life” (Riggle 2010). Whereas, Victoria Carrington uses graffiti as a comprehensive term which includes stickering, stenciling, tagging, throwups, graffiti, street art, bombing, vandalism ect. Riggle on the other hand posits that some graffiti can be considered street art if it meets certain criterion but that street art is not necessarily graffiti (2010). Graffiti is the desecration of public space but does not utilize the space in the way that street art does, Riggle sort of elevates certain forms of graffiti in an attempt to legitimize it as a public art form and disconnect it from its label of ‘vandalism’.

         Art is largely perceived as ordained by the mainstream and popular media; authenticated by its presence in museums and galleries (Carrington 2009 and Riggle 2010). Museums house art that is expensive to make and to see, viewed most frequently by the upper and middle classes and the pieces themselves are chosen by the same (Riggle 2010). In galleries art enjoys the protection of social norms and the law, as well as displaying the authorship of the artist, street artists give up the right to their work as well as the recognition and possibility of monetary gain (Riggle 2010). According to Riggle, a graffiti artist who sells his/her art is no longer deemed a graffiti artist by the graffiti community, but a sellout to the commercial industry (2010). Personally, I still really like commissioned graffiti and don’t agree that this should be the case. I like the idea of art available to the public for free and the reclaiming of the public space by the public.

         As long as the work is done in a public space graffiti and street art remain blurred (Riggle 2010). I disagree with vandalism, however the criterion differentiation vandalism from graffiti and art is unclear. The difference between graffiti and vandalism is that graffiti is done on public space whereas vandalism is done on private space (Riggle 2010). The definition blurs when one takes into consideration space owned by large corporations like billboards as opposed to the city, the public. In this capitalist society urban space has become a valued commodity and a dynamic canvas for both sanctioned and non-sanctioned graffiti (being advertisements) to express ideas and communicate within imagined communities (Anderson 1983 and Carrington 2009).

Bibliography

Anderson, Benedict 

                      1983. Imagined Communities, Pp. 9-46. London, New York: Verso.

Carrington, Victoria

2009. I Write, Therefore I Am: Texts in the City. Visual Communication. 8:409. Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies, University of South Australia.

Mazarella, William

              2004. Culture, Globalization, Mediation. Annual Review of Anthropology 33:345-367.

Riggle, Nicholas Alden

2010. Street Art: The Transfiguration of the Commonplaces. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 68:3. The American Society for Aesthetics.

links:
http://www.blublu.org/

Jai Ho

  

According to Walter Benjamin’s definition of an object’s “aura” as, “that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art” the authenticity of the piece in relation to life history and context legitimizes the piece’s aura (Benjamin, 1936). Therefore, from Benjamin’s point of view films themselves lack “aura” due to the fragmentation and process of filming and editing as well as the disconnect between actor and viewer as compared to theater (Benjamin, 1936). Likewise, I don’t think that any of the Jai Ho videos have and “aura” in this sense; technology mediates the experience of the viewer and thus the experience is not authentic (Benjamin, 1936).

Benjamin maintains that a reproduction detaches the object from tradition and the authority of life history and tradition is what gives the “aura” authenticity (Benjamin, 1936). The dance sequence itself could be authenticated and thus have an “aura” through its own context and history (Benjamin, 1936). However, since it’s not a Bollywood movie it is a mere adaptation of a Bollywood musical genre and thus lacks authenticity and “aura”.

If “aura” could be allocated in various degrees than the Jai Ho from the film would have a higher “aura” in comparison to the youtube productions, but the fact of reproduction in “youtube” take the dance/song out of its context and thus none of the versions have “aura”. They are vapid reproductions, especially in relation to the “Pussycat Dolls Jai Ho” version in which the background story is completely different and the video is much more sexualized Americanized to capitalist ends.

         In spite of their lack of “aura” the other versions of “Jai Ho” reminded me of Geertz’s concept of “blurring of cultures”(Moore, 1999). The dances portray a hybrid of Western and Bollywood music videos incorporating both. In Arjun Appaduri’s article, “Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology” he describes a de-territorialization of culture largely due to media and globalization (1996). Putting Jai Ho at the end of this movie that focused on some of the most impoverished people in India reminded me of Appaduri’s point that, “…even the meanest and most hopeless of lives, the most brutal and dehumanizing of circumstances, the harshest of lived inequalities are now open to the play of the imagination”(1996). The film portrays the link between imagination, media, globalization and de-territorialization which have become integral to everyone’s social lives connecting the viewer on perhaps a less visceral, but no less important level than “aura”.  

Links:

Official YouTube version of Jai Ho from the end of the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRC4QrUwo9o

Pussycat Dolls Jai Ho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc5OyXmHD0w

Slumdog Millionaire Dance Jai Ho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7AuQKFlhXI

Karan Khokar and Divya Ikara- Jai Ho Dance - Tamil Sneham - Tampa, Florida

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqWkFMoLocM

Bibliography

Appadurai, Arjun
1996. Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology. In Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Pp. 48-65. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. 

Benjamin, Walter
1936. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility. In Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 3: 1935-1938. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press.

Moore, Henrietta L.
1999. Anthropological theory at the turn of the century. In Anthropological Theory Today. Henrietta L. Moore, ed. Pp. 1-23. Cambridge: Polity Press. 

 

Globalization, Media and Culture

William Mazarella takes us through a short genealogy of anthropology after the introduction of the concept of globalization and he show how anthropology of media has been impacted and forced to reconstruct notions about culture and “authenticity”. He discusses mediation in relation to globalization and how the anthropology of media has changed with globalization. As well as, the process of mediation in regards to the construction of culture, the way we are now able to imagine it and then represent it to ourselves. Mazarella notes the way different form of media can limit or facilitate the spread of information, ideas and culture. He addresses in more detail the way in which media is flexible depending on the type duration (eg. Difference between and ad and a full length film) medium (tv, radio, census, press ect…).

Mazarella also notes the way that anthropological studies of media and globalization have been portrayed as stripping away the  “authenticity of culture”. Media is thus implicated in the creation of homogeneity via. globalization. When in fact globalization has increased emphasis on the “local” and thus the conservation of heterogeneity. Mazarella and Appaduri both address the reason for anthropologist’s fear of “Mc. World-style homogenization” stems from colonialism and “cultural imperialism”. I really like Mazarella’s image of a“Mc.World” and that this hasn’t come to pass in the wake of globalization. I wish Mazarella had focused a bit more on the adaptive strategies and appropriations of characteristics and aspects of mediation and globalization among cultures. His argument reminds me of the book, “Materializing the nation : commodities, consumption, and media in Papua New Guinea” by Robert Foster. Foster analyzes the way the media has been a large part of the contemporary notions of the “nation” in Papua New Guinea, in which there are so many separate cultures. It is also reminiscent of Benedict Anderson's concept of "Imagined communities" which are largely created and reinforced through media. An  example of an "imagined community" created by the media, is the "nation" and is the most directly related to media in relation to the Olympics' emphasis on unity apparent in most forms of media in 2010.

I agree with Mazarella that media and globalization go hand in hand and together are responsible for the high rate of cultural hybridity and change that has become the norm. I also agree with his deduction that cultural change and globalization has not yet led to homogenization and has on the contrary been utilized as a self-reflection. I think that his points would have been stronger had he given more examples in his article of the way in which cultures have  appropriated aspects of each other and adapted/changed without losing their “authenticity”.

Bibliography

Mazarella, William

         2004. Culture, Globalization, Mediation. Annual Review of Anthropology 33:345-367.

        Anderson, Benedict 

         1983. Imagined Communities, Pp. 9-46. London, New York: Verso.