*112571*
Seksenbayeva Gulzira Ashimkhanovna
VISUAL
ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF MODERN HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE
The Kazakh national pedagogical University named after Abay (Almaty)
In the article attention is paid to the anthropological
information concentrated in such types of historical sources as film documents,
allowing get a new look to historical range of problems. The main perspective
tasks of the visual anthropology that decision becomes reality at
interdisciplinary level have been formulated.
Keywords: historical source, visual
anthropology, audiovisual document, film anthropology, film document, film,
filmed item, photo document, phone document, video document.
By the end of the XX century the humanitarian branch
of scientific knowledge in its anthropological aspect was replenished with a
number of the scientific directions (historical anthropology, social
anthropology, cultural anthropology, structural anthropology, etc.). Among the various anthropological
disciplines «the visual anthropology» is allocated, whose scientific interests
directly are extended on those parties of human activity that can be fixed by audiovisual
means. In nowadays situation the visual
anthropology is cultural activity where screen art, both the humanities science
and information technologies cooperate and that is directed to receive and
inculcate of information about the little-known parties of culture in social
practice. The synthetic nature of the visual anthropology, where expressive
possibilities of the modern art and achievement of sciences about the person
are organically combined, is focused to studying of the person in all variety
of his personal, social and natural manifestations.
Acting as one of aspects of a science about the
person, the visual anthropology has already been developed branch of knowledge
of cultural and historical reality within that the researches of this sort are
consistently conducted in many countries (the USA, England, France, Germany,
Canada, and Hungary).
The visual anthropology is an interdisciplinary
science, with its help arises possibility to read anew a lot of things from
that sign system that is contained in spiritual culture. The fixed authentic
material gives objective storing, documentary exact picture where, besides
other, is present the temporary characteristic of represented, also it is
possible to feel the atmosphere that an action take place. Using of a visual
method in unity with application of methods of other humanitarian science
essentially expands possibilities of penetration into study processes, allows
not only to describe, to reconstruct and to analyze, but also to see diverse
elements of culture in real time. The visual anthropology
based mainly on documents of an audiovisual origin, closely adjoins to other
scientific disciplines and directions such as historical, cultural,
philosophical, sociological and art profile that gives it strongly pronounced
interdisciplinary orientation.
There is no still consensus concerning
of time of emergence of this scientific direction in historical, ethnographic
and culturological literature.
The most part of researchers connects
it’s origin with distribution of processes of photo phone film documenting (the
second half of the XIX c.) as a way of fixing of original culture, mode, way of
life, customs, rituals of people. Scientists and experts of Western Europe and the USA for the last
century brought a major contribution to development of theoretical methodical
bases of study of the historical and cultural foretime in the sphere of
traditions of people all over the world. They were argumented that the visual
anthropology can perform: as special
area of humanitarian researches -on the one hand and also as independent
scientific discipline-on the other hand.
Today the major number of researchers,
rejecting «ethnographic or anthropological film», put in the concept «visual
anthropology», emphasize that «the audiovisual anthropology» is a huge volume
of the various information is daily created mainly on film or digital storage
media (the photo, different sound recording, advertising, design, architecture,
etc.) [1]. Within the unity of humanitarian knowledge and knowledge of «the
vital world» of person, the visual anthropology as the independent direction in
its art specificity discovers the ways of cultural development of the real
world. The visual anthropology includes in the sphere of
attention of researches: public psychology, public consciousness and an inner
spiritual world of people, mass culture, customs, a way of life, the history of
family and mode. Point out that the American archivists have considerable
experience of similar researches. In a certain extent the direction of this
problem is connected with development and strengthening of «modern social
history» in the 60-80th years in the American historiography, declared that its
purpose is studying of life of so-called «the simple person», daily activities
of ordinary people, family, mass culture, social psychology, ordinary
consciousness, a mode, customs and a way of life. Nowadays it is possible to
say that the visual anthropology is one of fundamental scientific branches
conducts to formation of more accurate and reasoned representations in the
society, first of all about the life and an existing of indigenous people of
any country.
Meanwhile this problem in the visual
anthropology and national history practically isn't investigated, though
research of cultural norms, values, stereotypes as elements of motivation of
behavior, existence make the
maintenance of the subject of studying of visual anthropology, it remains
constantly actual.
In this article the main attention will
be given to the question of search and detection of audiovisual documents of
this subject in national audiovisual archive (The Central state archive of film
photo documentary and sound recordings of the RK) as the experts studying
various aspects of domestic culture, with rare exception use documentary base
of film archive. The special urgency of researches in the field of visual
anthropology in this foreshortening assumes that they open real perspectives of
recovering of history of creation of works of film documentary of
anthropological subject during a certain chronological period and create
preconditions of theirs assessment as historical sources. Archival film
documents, as a whole, and archival documents on visual anthropology, in
particular, are valuable means of collection of information and they can be
effectively used in works of historians, ethnographers and other researchers as
a high-grade historical source.
Addressing to the problem of studying of
films of the ethnographic contents, it has been possible to establish that in
the percentage and qualitative relation these films deserve the right to take a
worthy place in scientific researches. Proceeding from it, we will consider in
general volume of the audiovisual documents have been kept in national archive
(the first films belong to the second half of the 20th years of the XX c.),
various by its character and by the contents, that it will allow to raise the
question about necessary of using as wider promoting of archival funds on
visual anthropology among scientific community, as and their special studying the
historical sources and objects of archival storage.
Point out that at first there was no general plan and
system in the organization the work in
creation of ethnographic films. Their production has been run by the order and
an initiative of the central organizations, strict according to the production
plans of a concrete film studio. The most part of it had geographical and
ethnographic character and was focused on display of life, mode, and culture of
the people living in various corners of our country.
In whole it is possible to say that this rather
representative assembly of pictures with some details of a life and with
accompanying inscriptions of the ideological contents. In the early 1930-s
there was a possibility of a new approach to statement of a question of
systematic release of films of ethnographic character. These years the works on
implementation of the program of creation «Kinoatlas of the USSR» with a series
of local history and ethnographic films were intensified. The
purpose of the project was creation of the cinema serial film about life and
customs of the Soviet people [2]. Considering that «Kinoatlas the USSR» was
created at the initiative of the Central bureau of study of local lore, authors
of films should be based on the general installations of the Soviet study of
local lore: orientation to illumination of relations of production; sufficient
attention to the person and creation round it the certain environment
testifying to successes of our country these years with fixing of the moments,
connected with socialist reconstruction of the country, changes in a life,
national policy etc. Such the same is character of the film «Gold coast»,
created by Almaty production office of the All-Russia joint-stock company
"Vostokkino" in 1930 (director operator A. Lemberg) where pictures of
pre-revolutionary life and customs of Kazakh poor people are embodied and for
comparison life of fights and mullahs is shown. As a whole, it can possible to
say that in film documents of the 1920-1930th years more fixing and reflection
of outer side of traditional ethnography of the Kazakh people prevails. At the
same time, value of these shootings is indisputable, as from historical, so
welfare points of view. On the basis of the data concentrated in film documents
of this subject, it is possible visually to present and create a certain
opinion figuratively on a rich heritage of Kazakhs. It is also necessary to
emphasize especially that the overwhelming part of films had propaganda,
custom-made character and had the purpose to show essential social and economic
changes that occurred within the days of the Soviet power in life of the people
of the USSR. For objectives of this research it is extremely important to mean
that any film work irrespective of specific and genre accessory (here film
documents of visual anthropology aren't an exception) express in this or that
form the whole frame of reference, the ideas, created in society as a whole.
Such views can be expressed by the cinematographer on various stages of creation
of the film or of a plot, beginning from their plan before preparation of the
final product. Thus, shootings of ethnographic subject of this period had quite
certain orientation caused by time and conditions of their creation.
The next years (50th up to the middle of
1980) ethnographic shootings were made in small volume and unsystematic. The
content of all arrays of the film documents revealed during research on visual
anthropology was reflected of some spheres of spiritual and material life of Kazakh
people and separate ethnic groups for a certain period of time. These materials
are revealed in the main forms: 1) specific shootings; 2) chronicle and
documentary shootings of separate events; 3) shootings of different types of
decorative and applied arts; 4) shootings of a way of life and customs. So, in
the documentary films devoted to folk applied art were showed ancient manual
ways of manufacturing of felt carpets (tekemets, syrmaks), house utensils,
jewels [3]. The cycle of films shows horse competitions (alamen bayga, zhorga
zharys, audaryspak, kokpar, etc.) which carried out appreciable public
functions, such as educational, ritual, entertainment, esthetic and
communicative, etc. [4].
On the basis of the carried-out research
it is possible to formulate the main immediate perspective objectives of the
visual anthropology decision of which becomes reality only at interdisciplinary
level. Here it is obviously possible to allocate the following largest
directions of studying of a visual anthropology: scientific, applied, advocacy
(including here not only exhibition work, but also festival movement),
interdisciplinary and educational using achievements of modern ethnology,
anthropology, cultural, archival science, art criticism, a cinematography, sociology,
etc. At a new stage of investigation
first of all is offered: to
continue search and identification of film, video documents in this field in
domestic and foreign archives, museums; to analyze comprehensively the
structure and contents of archival film documents of the ethnographic subject
postponed in the Kazakhstan archives; to carry out cataloguing of revealed
ethnographic film, video documents, paying special attention to search aspects
of the problem (level of the description of assembly shots or film plans;
carrying out of attribution of the remained films, establishment of reliability
of the facts, etc.).
The question of fund formation on film anthropology is
represented actual, as the analysis of funds of national audiovisual archive
reveals a fragmentariness of film documenting of a way of life and customs of
the people occupying our country, their traditions, religious practices etc.
This circumstance taking into account enormous need for audiovisual
supervision, raises the question about coordination of activity of scientific
and archival institutions on fixing the information of process and result of
revival of crafts, way of life and customs of the various people living in the
territory of Kazakhstan with prospect of creation of a database about structure
and the contents of Kino photo phone and video documents on visual anthropology
to new data carriers.
The problem of scientific use of information concluded
in films of visual anthropology in historical and other humanitarian researches
has independent value. Documents of visual anthropology with their strongly
pronounced daily occurrence haven’t become still the object of scientific
interests of historians and ethnographers. In this regard there is an actual
problem of studying of all complexes of film photo phone video documents of
this sort in a context of real historical reality. Such approach opens
opportunities for using of the comparative method in humanitarian knowledge.
1 Alexandrov E.V. Experience of
consideration of theoretical and methodological problems of visual
anthropology. Ì., 2003.
2 Magidov V.Ì. Film documents on visual anthropology of Russia (history archive and
source study aspects) / Material resources of sphere of culture. The
Scientifically-information collection. Ì., 1998. Issue. 2. P. 11
– 21.
3 Central State Archive of Film,
Photo Documents and sound recordings of the Republic of Kazakhstan (CSÀ FFDR RÊ), arch. ¹
133, 497,580,176.
4 (CSÀ FFDR
RÊ), arch. ¹ 76,18, 41.
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