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The Anthropology of Media: A Reader
Brings together key writings in the emergent field of theanthropology of media for the first time
Integrates key themes in the anthropology of media by meansof editorial commentary
Explores the theoretical issues that have arisen fromethnographic studies of media offers a critical overview of how mass media represents andconstructs both Western and non-Western cultures. Moving beyondearlier anthropological preoccupation with ethnographic film anddrawing on the recent explosion of creative studies of culture andmedia, this volume heralds the emergence of a new field - theanthropology of media - and brings its key literaturetogether for the first time.
List of contents
Acknowledgments.
Timeline of Media Development.
Introduction: Kelly Askew and Richard R. Wilk.
Part I: Seeing/Hearing is Believing: Technology andTruth:.
1. The Medium is the Message: MarshallMcLuhan .
2. The Technology and the Society: RaymondWilliams. .
3. Mead and Bateson Debate: On the Use of the Camera inAnthropology: Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson.
4. The Ambiguity of the Photograph: John Berger.
5. Save, Save the Lore!: Erika Brady.
Part II: Representing Others:.
6. The Gaze of Western Humanism: James C. Faris.
7. The Color of Sex: Postwar Photographic Histories of Raceand Gender: Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins.
8. The Imperial Imaginary: Ella Shohat and RobertStam.
9. Complicities of Style: Dave MacDougall.
Part III: Representing Selves:.
10. Hollywood and the USA: HortensePowdermaker .
11. Yoruba Photography: How the Yoruba See Themselves: Stephen F. Sprague.
12. Relationships: Daniel Miller and Don Slater.
13. Mediating Culture: Indigenous Media, Ethnographic Film,and the Production of Identity: Faye Ginsburg.
Part IV: Active Audiences:.
14. Radio Texture: Between Self and Others: JoTaachi.
15. The Tongan Tradition of Going to the Movies: Elizabeth Hahn.
16. Rambo s Wife Saves the Day: Subjugating the Gaze andSubverting the Narrative in a Papua New Guinean Swamp: DonKulick and Margaret Willson.
17. It s Destroying a Whole Generation : Television andMoral Discourse in Belize: Rick Wilk.
18. National Texts and Gendered Lives: An Ethnography ofTelevision Viewers in a North Indian City: PurnimaMankekar.
Part V: Power, Colonialism, Nationalism:.
19. Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture: Sut Jhally.
20. The Global and the Local in InternationalCommunications: Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi.
21. In Rascally Signs in Sacred Places: The Politics ofCulture in Nicaragua: David E Whisnant.
22. The Objects of Soap Opera: Egyptian Television and theCultural Politics of Modernity: Lila Abu-Lughod.
Resource Bibliography.
Index.
About the author
Kelly Askew is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studiesat the University of Michigan. She is the author of
Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania (2002).
Richard R. Wilk is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University. He is the author of several books, including
Household Ecology (1991) and
Economies and Cultures (1996), as well as over a hundred papers and articles on topics as diverse as Maya archaeology, research ethics, and global consumer culture.
Summary
* Brings together key writings in the emergent field of the anthropology of media for the first time. * Offers critical overview of how mass media represents and constructs both Western and non--Western cultures. * Integrates key themes in the anthropology of media by means of editorial commentary.
Report
"In its bold presentation of an emergent subfield -anthropology of media - this comprehensive collection is atimely resource for students and others interested incross-cultural research on mass communication. Destined to become astandard text, it explores a wide range of theoretical ideas andspotlights fascinating case studies. Highly recommended!" HaraldE. L. Prins, Society for Visual Anthropology (1999-2001)
"Provides a unique collection of classic and vanguard,theoretical and substantive studies that demonstrates thecentrality of anthropology to contemporary media studies. By ajudicious selection of fascinating papers this volume is able to gobeyond any single study to reveal the many different ways ananthropology sensitive to political and economic environments caninvestigate the production, consumption, and consequences of mediaby creators and users. As such it makes the ideal foundation forteaching a subject that has now clearly come into its own." Daniel Miller, University College London
