Reading Response: Study And Production Of Art Or Photography

Response on article
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Introduction
Visual anthropology can be interpreted as the branch of anthropology that is mainly concerned with the study and production of art or photography that is related to a certain ethnic group. Paul Hockings’ Principles of Visual Anthropology tries to come up with a new meaning of the branch, by looking at a collection of various interpretations and examples. In this article by Christof Thurnherr titled Visual anthropology as a discipline of words, the author combines the arguments by various scholars over the continuing debate about visual anthropology. The various dimensions brought about and debated by the author in relation to the various ideas put forth, are quite insightful and a source of even more discussion. The author, in particular, tries bringing out the importance of the verbal aspect in visual archiving.
With the increased sophistication and technological embracement of the current generation, there has been a rather obvious and inevitable shift towards the visual aspects of anthropology, than the verbal. To some extent, this has gone overboard to openly and unfairly favor the visual over the verbal. It is quite a good point to note however, that just like any two complementary sets of systems, these two aspects of anthropology cannot and will never be independent of each other. Thurnherr is indeed right on this one too, since the visual and verbal aspects constitute the basics of anthropology, be it social or historical.
Lending from Mead Margaret’s ‘Visual Anthropology in a Discipline of word’ in Paul Hockings’ interpretation, the author clearly illustrates how it is necessary for a joint application of both the visual tools and verbal tools in carrying out any research (Thurnherr). Even while the visual aspect of research and archiving can be the most preferred of the current generation, it cannot be entirely operational, without the assistance of the verbal. The verbal aspect is virtually indispensable for any sort of anthropological research or archiving.
It should be noted that Anthropology in itself, is a broad term that encompasses a number of fields, from archaeology, ethnography, physical and human geography, history, linguistics as well as elements of socio-cultural anthropology. The meaning of this therefore, is that the research methods employed in the field are as diverse as the fields that constitute it. It is inte...