The Corporeal Image: Film, Ethnography, and the Senses

THE CORPOREAL IMAGE FILM, ETHNOGRAPHY, AND THE SENSES

David MacDougall

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD

COPYRIGHT © 2006 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 41 WILLIAM STREET, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 3 MARKET PLACE, WOODSTOCK, OXFORDSHIRE OX20 1SY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA MACDOUGALL, DAVID. THE CORPOREAL IMAGE: FILM, ETHNOGRAPHY, AND THE SENSES / DAVID MACDOUGALL. P.CM. INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES AND INDEX ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12155-0 (ALK. PAPER) ISBN-10: 0-691-12155-9 (ALK. PAPER) ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12156-7 (PBK.: ALK. PAPER) ISBN-10: 0-691-12156-7 (PBK. : ALK. PAPER) 1. VISUAL ANTHROPOLGY. 2. PHOTOGRAPHY IN ETHNOLOGY. 3. MOTION

PICTURES IN ETHNOLOGY. I. TITLE. GN347.M322006

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BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGING-INPUBLICATION DATA IS AVAILABLE THIS BOOK HAS BEEN COMPOSED IN SABON PRINTED ON ACID-FREE PAPER.

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In Memory of Jean Rouch 1917-2004 John Marshall 1932-2005

CONTENTS

Illustrations

ix

Acknowledgments xiii INTRODUCTION

Meaning and Being

1

PART I: MATTER AND IMAGE

11

1 The Body in Cinema

13

2 Voice and Vision

32

PART II: IMAGES OF CHILDHOOD

65

3 Films of Childhood

67

4 Social Aesthetics and the Doon School

94

5 Doon School Reconsidered

120

PART III: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGINATION

6 Photo Hierarchicus: Signs and Mirrors in Indian Photography

147

7 Staging the Body: The Photography of Jean Audema

176

145

viii

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS PART IV: THE ETHNOGRAPHIC IMAGINATION

211

8 The Visual in Anthropology

213

9 Anthropology's Lost Vision

227

10 New Principles of Visual Anthropology

264

1.1

From Le sang des betes (1949)

14

1.2

From Les yeux sans visage (1959)

15

3.1

From Zero de conduite (1933)

69

3.2

From Jeux interdits (1952)

83

Filmography

275

3.3

From Ivan's Childhood (1962)

84

Bibliography

283

4.1

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visiting Doon School in 1957

101

The blue and gray shirt of the Doon School games uniform, from Doon School Chronicles (2000)

103

4.3

Students near Doon School's Main Building

104

4.4

Measuring a student at Doon School, from Doon School Chronicles (2000)

105

4.5

"Toyes" at Doon School

110

4.6

Stainless steel tableware at Doon School

112

4.7

A group of first-year boys in Foot House

115

5.1

A Doon School dormitory, from Doon School Chronicles (2000)

124

Karam during his last lunch as a Foot House boy, from With Morning Hearts (2001)

130

5.3

Abhishek, from The Age of Reason (2004)

135

6.1

The Maharao Raja Raghubir Singh of Bundi with some of his possessions, 1912

149

Studio portrait of a working-class man. France, ca. 1910

150

Index

299

4.2

5.2

6.2 6.3

Plate from Watson and Kaye's The People of India,

1868-1875

151

6.4

Painted photograph of a young prince

153

6.5

Bharat Kumar, street photographer, at work in Dehra Dun, 1989

157

x

ILLUSTRATIONS

ILLUSTRATIONS

Photograph of the author by a street photographer, using the paper negative process

159

6.7

Four young princes of Kapurthala

161

6.8

Tourist in costume with water jar

166

6.9

Tourist posing as a Pathan

167

6.10

Photograph of a missing boy shown on Indian television, November 1989

170

6.11

R. S. Sharma at the door of his studio, Mussoorie, 1988

171

6.12a

A married couple from Garhwal

172

6.12b

A married couple from Garhwal

172

7.1a

"Un Campement dans la Vallee de la Moundji Mayumbe," postcard by J. Audema, French Congo, ca. 1905

177

"17. Un Campement dans la vallee de la Moundji," postcard by J. Audema, French Congo, ca. 1905

177

"Guerriers Oudombo - Region de l'Ogooue," postcard by J. Audema, French Congo, ca. 1905

180

"Guerrier Yenvi," postcard by J. Audema, French Congo, ca. 1905

182

A 5-centime stamp issued by Postes Congo Fran