Discussion questions for Feld

Discussion Questions; for all responses, provide examples and specific line citations.

Remember, each student is asked to provide a minimum total of 12 lines in response to the following questions, using the "Comments" feature below. Please indicate clearly which Discussion Question you are responding to in your comment(s). [Edited to add]: You are encouraged to respond not only to the Questions but also to other seminar members' comments.

Also note: Comments function for this set of Questions will be open only through Nov 28 11am; you must complete your comments prior to that deadline.

This article is a good candidate for the "3 passes – 3 layers" reading approach we discussed earlier in the semester. Feld’s goal in this 1976 article is both to analyze and problematize the use of film in ethnography; to propose a more thoughtful, consistent, and rigorous analytical approach to film; and to provide a very extensive and carefully-annotated filmography, or list of films useful in teaching ethnomusicology. It is not necessary to read every word of this article—but don’t make the mistake of assuming you can skip the reading entirely. Rather, focus on those sections (as indicated by markup on the pdf) which indicate important information. And, of course, read with the Discussion Questions (and your responses) in mind.

Something else to which you should pay attention: the clarity, sanity, and straightforward nature of Feld’s writing. This is a good model: you can learn a lot about how to write well by reading such writing.

1. Unpack the phrase "the anthropology of visual communication." What kinds of tools might be relevant in such anthropology? How does "cultural anthropology" translate into the visual media? (Hint: consider the possiblity that a number of tools from CA may actually be readily transferrable, without excessive modification, directly from other types of CA observation situations.)

2. Note the technique, and the type of evidence, which he employs to assess the development of ethnographic film over the history of the discipline. Be prepared to relate this to Doubleday's article on frame drumming; what are the similiarities of approach?

3. Feld articulates the reality that most ethnomusicologists are *not* "pure" researchers (that is, spending all of their time in the field or writing up their findings). Rather, most ethnomusicologists wear multiple hats: at the very least, they are *both* fieldworkers *and* teachers--and so they often seek to use field materials for teaching purposes. What does Feld say has been the impact of this? What kinds of clarity of *motive* and *purpose* does Feld say need to be developed?

4. Feld cites Mantle Hood’s work with ethnographic film several times, and favorably. Based upon our reading of Hood’s "Bi-Musicality" article from 1960, why might there be overlap between Hood's interests and Feld's? In what ways do they share conceptual priorities? In other words: how are "bi-musicality" and "ethnographic film" related?

[Not a Discussion Question, but worth your attention: Lomax’s "Cantometrics" theory: now a discredited attempt to "map" musical style-preferences onto cultural/social types. Reveals a lot about the lasting ubiquity of the "universalist" impulse even into the 1970s.]

5. On p298, be prepared to unpack Feld’s "mediated symbolic event." Why do we need to understand this phenomenon via this terminology? Why is this technical terminology better than other language?

6. pp298-99: Discuss the "selectivity" which Feld sees as underreported but ubiquitous in ethnographic film. Why is it important to identify, recognize, and take-into-account this selectivity?

7. Feld argues that words "can not only equal but greatly surpass the information level of the still or moving image." We have repeatedly suggested in our seminar that additional media (especially audio- and video-recording) can provide more information; why does Feld contradict this? What does he suggest are the pitfalls of the presumption of film’s "superiority"?

[Not a Discussion Question, but a term you need to know, and whose implications you need to understand: "graphic notation." What is it, when/why is it used, what are its advantages?]

8. Unpack the meaning and significance of the passage beginning in the last paragraph of p308; relate Feld’s cautions to your own fieldwork; cite at least one situation in your own fieldwork where the uncritical use of film, presuming its "more complete information," might actually distort more than print does.

9. Second full paragraph on p309 is incredibly revealing: of what? Of whom? What is the relationship between how "tourists" see and how "anthropologists" see? What does this reveal about observers’ cultural biases?

10. Bottom of p310: who does Feld say needs to take more "responsibility"? How? Why? What would be the advantages of this? Give at least one example of such "responsibility" necessary in your own fieldwork. Compare to the examples offered by others in comments.