Introduction
This project aims to further develop the experimental side of documentary practice, with special focus on ethnography. It will take the form of an experimental documentary juxtaposing enactments of the past with depictions of the present, through a case study focusing on North-Eastern Romanian villages, engaging villagers into re-enactments of traditional life from the past as method of documenting their self reflection on the transition to the present.
The setting of the re-enactments is based on the Romanian ballad The Little Ewe and more specifically on the journey described in the Mihail Sadoveanu novel inspired by it, The Hatchet (1930). These two texts are widely known in Romania having become compulsory reading material in schools as one of the four fundamental myths of Romanians and a monographic representation of the Romanian village and its customs respectively. The main themes of the two stories are transhumance and death, both highlighting the traditions and the way of life of shepherding communities. Furthering the reasons for this choice, these texts have become engrained into the collective consciousness of Romanian people as to become an unconscious memory.
Its relevance within ethnographic practice is given by the documentation of the transition process from traditional to modernity within the Romanian village, as well as its universal exploration of humans facing change and their ways to adapt to it.
I will interrogate documentary practices
On the story, she commented, “Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I supposed that by setting a particular brutal ancient rite in the present and in my village the story’s readers with a dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives.”
Firstly, it is important to understand how the documentary form is best suited to illustrate the film’s theme. In order to do this, one must have an overview of the documentary style of filmmaking. Documentaries concern themselves with the “exploration of
"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" is significant as it establishes the issue of representation in ethnography. The purpose of the article is to raise the question of how can we study a different culture from the outside and how can we understand our own culture from within. Culture can be defined in many ways, Tylor (1871) stated that culture is; “…that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Therefore, the article presents the topic of cultural relativism, arguing that there is no impartial viewpoint from which to assess cultures, that every culture should be interpreted and understood from the
Burial Rites, a novel written by Hannah Kent is heavily based on story telling and the effect it has. Through the course of the novel, readers observe the significance story telling has for both the individual and the community. For an individual story telling can make the speaker feel empowered whereas for the community story telling’s main significance is the entertainment it provides. Since Kent’s purpose of Burial Rites is to tell the life journey of Agnes Magnusdottir in an ambiguous light, story telling also becomes important for the reader.
This study examines Horace Miner’s essay “Body Rituals Among the Nacirema. While using the participant observation approach, he gives us a new perspective on the daily behaviors within this group of people. Exploring ethnocentrism and how we view cultures outside of our own.
The documentary Who Get’s In? examines the immigration policies and priorities of the Canadian government, said to represent the economic needs and values of the Canadian people. The film documents the experiences of migrants from asian and african countries and the barriers particular groups of migrants face.
As we begin to go on an excursion through literature, it is important to understand the concept of what an ethnography is. Ethnography is known to be a descriptive type of work that analyzes culture and customs of individual people. James Clifford has implemented this work into his studies and has influenced many others to do the same. I saw through the books I have read, ethnography makes these books become vivacious for a reader.
Ethnographic methodology provides rich and complex data (Brownlow, 2012). In the ethnographic approach a researcher joined the studied group in their natural environment, stayed as a part
The essential question I will focus on in this CREQ is “What do societies want from their schools?” The use of societies in this essential question is somewhat broad, so I am primarily going to discuss what the dominant society in the United States wants from their schools. The United States wants higher standardized test scores and lower drop-out rates; our ranking in comparison to other countries is embarrassing. However, the dominant society does not want schools to actually educate their students if it doesn’t fit the dominant perspective. This is exemplified by the documentary, Precious Knowledge, in which ethnic studies programs were deemed un-American and banned. Additionally, abstinence-only education and evolution vs. creation theory
When you surf the internet to look for the new about Central African Republic you hear stories about terror, civil war, rebels, murder, bloodshed etc. But what are the other aspects of life in the region that no news reporter wants to cover? A trip to the Center of the African rain forests reveals what happens and has been happening for very many years to the region’s residents. In Listen Here is a Story, Bonnie L Hewlett deals with different aspects of women’s lives of the Aka (Foragers) and Ngandu (Farmers) in this part of Central African Republic mainly, and reveals the political, social, cultural, Ideology in life of these people. There are some studies where people are travelling to explore the subjective experience of women’s in small societies, and this book is one of them.
“The documentary tradition as a continually developing “record” that is made in so many ways, with different voices and vision, intents and concerns, and with each contributor, finally, needing to meet a personal text” (Coles 218). Coles writes “The Tradition: Fact and Fiction” and describes the process of documenting, and what it is to be a documentarian. He clearly explains through many examples and across disciplines that there is no “fact or fiction” but it is intertwined, all in the eye of the maker. The documentarian shows human actuality; they each design their own work to their own standards based on personal opinion, values, interest and whom they want the art to appeal to.
In this essay, I will explain why a documentary is always more realistic than a fiction film. I will show my thesis by exploring elements that influence how realistic a film is: film editing and format, genre, and transparency. I will use the documentary of Armadillo (2010), by Janus Pedersen, and the fiction film of The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968), by Danièle Huille as examples.
Malinowski’s most prominent contribution to ethnography and fieldwork was his method of research - participant observation, his own form of conducting fieldwork. Participant observation is the method giving researchers the ability to gain understanding of the activities of the people under study in the natural setting through observing and participating in those activities. It gives access to the context for development of sampling guidelines and interview guides (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2002). However, fieldwork involves "active looking, improving memory, informal interviewing,
The subject of this paper has at least five names. Documentary Hypothesis and JEDP Theory are the most common. In this paper, this scholarly position will always be referred to as Documentary Hypothesis with a few exceptions.
The old-traditional way of life has vanished for ever. Today only villages and some small towns remind us of this kind of life, and as time passes, more people choose to abandon traditional way of life, to move to the “big city”. Modern way of life has nothing in common with the traditional one. Human habits, values, norms have changed. The most important of these social changes can be observed in human relationships, family economy, education, government, health, and religion. To be able to examine these changes, one has to compare traditional and modern way of life.