Anthropology and visuality in the indige- nous context

Abstract

The elaboration and presentation of
sounds and images is approached here as part of a
constantly reflexive movement, which goes beyond
the products of film production to reveal a polypho-
nic process of the construction of images and auto-
images. In this analysis, emphasis has been given to
forms of representation in ethnographic film and
video, a genre that develops in parallel to the docu-
mentary movement, in which the central elements are
realism and the analysis of difference. In the develop-
ment of this article, the analysis of forms of represen-
tation reveals a complex process of communication,
which articulates different concepts of the visual. The
emergence of a reflexive audio-visual practice among
indigenous societies not only bears influence on the
terms of inter-ethnic dialogue and dialogue with the
dominant culture but is also relevant in the develop-
ment of new approaches to the role of the image in
the field of anthropological investigation, which in
turn go beyond forms of representation to inscribe
themselves on conceptions of the visual.