21 - 24 SEPTEMBER, 1999
UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS
Evaluating Visual Ethnography
The conference 'Evaluating Visual Ethnography: Research, Analysis, Representation, and Culture' opened at the Faculty Club of the Universiteit Leiden with speeches by Professor Reimar Schefold, Dr Dirk J. Nijland (both of Leiden), and Professor Jean Rouch (Musée de l'Homme, Paris) addressing the prime issues on which it was concentrated. The conference marked the retirement of Dr Nijland, who has headed the Leiden Visual Ethnography section for almost 30 years.
By ERIK DE MAAKER
Professor Schefold stressed that at the Anthropology Department of Universiteit Leiden, which hosted the conference, Visual Ethnography already has a history of nearly five decades. During these years, many ethnographic films have been produced, generally based on extensive anthropological research. Most notably Nijland and his predecessor, Professor Adrian A. Gerbrands (1917-1997), have made significant contributions to the development of a theoretical perspective on the utilization of visual media in anthropological research. Senior anthropologist and ethnographic filmmaker Rouch looked back to the year 1980, when an honorary doctorate was conferred on him by the Universiteit Leiden. On this occasion, his close colleagues, Joris Ivens and Henri Storck, were present and they were filmed by Rouch himself in the notorious Cinemafia Rencontre I (1981). 'Paying tribute to the ancestors', Rouch selected a fragment from this film, which was screened during the opening session to commemorate his friend Henri Storck, who had passed away five days earlier.Bringing Leiden scholars together with ten specialists of other major centres for Visual Ethnography in France, the UK, Germany, Japan, and the USA, the conference aimed at comparing distinct theoretical perspectives and practical approaches. Explicitly taking ethnographic films as a starting point for the debate, the conference attempted to proceed from 'praxis' to 'theory', that is, from the concrete to the more abstract. It was this focusing on an extensive evaluation of films made by the participants that determined its format. First, the films concerned were screened ('evening screenings'). Next, generally the following day, one and half hour sessions were devoted to each film. The filmmaker would read a paper on the making of the film; then a discussant reflected on both the paper and the film. Each day was concluded by a round table led by the day's chairman discussing the issues that had emerged during that day's presentations at a more abstract level. The conference was sponsored by: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS); Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW); Nederlands Fonds voor de Film (Amsterdam); International Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden-Amsterdam); Leids Universiteits Fonds (LUF); the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, and the Department of Cultural and Social Studies, Universiteit Leiden.
Evening screenings
In the evening the first three films were screened: The Shadow of the Sun (Dogon, Mali) by Dr Nadine Wanono (CNRS, Paris); Teyyam, the Annual Visit of the God Vishnumurti (Kerala, India) by Erik de Maaker (Universiteit Leiden); and Seven Young Gods of Fortune: Fertility Rite of Dosojin (rural Japan) by Dr Yasuhiro Omori (National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka). Since the screenings had been widely advertised, and thanks to the sponsors were accessible free of charge to anyone interested, that evening the audience grew even larger than just the participants in the conference. This trend continued during the subsequent 'Evening Screenings', which were attended on average by some 50-70 people.
The following day Professor Jos Platenkamp (University of Münster) chaired the session 'Research and Analysis Using Audio-Visual Media'. Starting out with a paper read by Paul Folmer (Universiteit Leiden) on his research on marriage rituals of the Manding of Senegal, attention was directed not towards ethnographic film as a document, but to the manner in which the use of video recordings can enhance the outcome of ethnographic research. Next, Wanono discussed her film, made in co-operation with Dr Philippe Lourdou (Université de Paris X), on the succession of a priest among the Dogon of Mali. The afternoon was devoted to Omori's attempts to refine techniques for video elicitation when doing fieldwork in rural Japan. That evening Song of the Hamar Herdsmen (Ethiopia) by Professor Ivo Strecker and Professor Jean Lydall, and Sacrifice of Serpents: the Festival of Indrayani; Kathmandu 1992/94 by Nijland, Bert van den Hoek (Universiteit Leiden), and Bal Gopal Shrestha (Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal/Universiteit Leiden) were screened.
The third conference day was devoted to 'The Visual Representation of Anthropological Research', and chaired by Dr Jonathan Benthall (Royal Anthropological Institute, London). The first paper was read jointly by Van den Hoek, Shrestha, and Nijland, on the making of their film in Nepal. De Maaker (Universiteit Leiden) discussed the making of his film on the Indian Teyyam ritual, and the manner in which the participants in the filmed ritual assessed it. Strecker and Lydall talked about their thirty years of research among the Hamar of Southern Ethiopia. Janine Prins (filmmaker, Leiden/Amsterdam), for years deeply engaged in ethnographic film making, discussed their work. That evening the film Of Men and Mares (Zeeland, the Netherlands) by Metje Postma (Universiteit Leiden) and a first version of Boarded Up (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) by Steef Meyknecht (Universiteit Leiden) was shown.
The last day was devoted to 'The Narrative in Ethnographic Film'. Postma read the day's first paper, expatiating on the process by which her film on Dutch draughthorses had come about. The last paper was read by Meyknecht, who talked about the making of his film on the demolition and rebuilding of a nineteenth-century quarter in the city of Amsterdam.
Dr Nijland concluded the conference with a farewell lecture. He paid attention to the emergence of Visual Ethnography as a sub-discipline, and specified the reasons why in his opinion the 'visual' plays a prime and even to a certain extent autonomous role in the human mind. As a consequence, he argued, in anthropology, as the study of cultured and socialized human behaviour, a more prominent role should be allotted to the 'visual' in order for scholars to come to a truly holistic understanding of culture.
During and after the conference the guests expressed their satisfaction with the quality and ambiance of the conference. The renowned visual anthropologist Karl G. Heider wrote: 'It was the best organized conference I have been to by showing the films the night before and then spending plenty of time discussing them the next day, we really were able to think out the various issues. (As opposed to the usual strategy of showing a dozen films a day with 20 minutes to discuss each)'. The conference proceedings will be published as an edited volume, including a Digital Video Disk with selected film fragments. *
Erik de Maaker (WOTRO/CNWS),
e-mail: maaker@rulfsw.leidenuniv.nl