Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : rethinking visual anthropology / Howard Morphy and Marcus Banks -- The eye in the door : anthropology, film and the exploration of interior space / Anna Grimshaw -- Beyond the boundary : a consideration of the expressive in photography and anthropology / Elizabeth Edwards -- First exits from observational realism : narrative experiments in recent ethnographic films / Peter Loizos -- Burlesquing knowledge : Japanese quiz shows and models of knowledge / D.P. Martinez -- Balinese on television : representation and response / Felicia Hughes-Freeland -- Computer software as a medium : textuality, orality and sociality in an artificial intelligence research culture / Georgina Born -- To see or not to see : looking as an object of exchange in the New Guinea highlands / Gillian Gillison -- A body painting in translation / Fran�oise Dussart -- Displacing the visual : of Trobriand axe-blades and ambiguity in cultural practice / Debbora Battaglia -- Representing the bodies of the Jains / Marcus Banks -- Pine, ponds and pebbles : gardens and visual culture / Joy Hendry -- Collectivity and nationality in the anthropology of art / Nicholas Thomas --The visual in anthropology / David MacDougall.

For many years the field of visual anthropology has been dominated by a focus on the production and study of ethnographic film, leading many anthropologists to dismiss it as being of little importance to their work. This book shows that the scope of visual anthropology is far broader, encompassing the analysis of still photography, television, electronic representation, art, ritual and material culture. Since anthropology involves the representation of one culture or segment of society to another, the authors argue, an understanding of the nature of representational processes across cultures is essential. This book brings together essays by leading anthropologists that cover the entire range of visual representation, from Balinese television to computer software manuals. Contributors discuss the anthropology of art, the study of landscape, the anthropology of ritual, the anthropology of media and communication, the history of anthropology, and art practice and production. Also included are a wide-ranging introduction and a concluding overview. The book will be of interest to all anthropologists - even those who have never picked up a camera - and also to those concerned with cross-cultural visual representation in the fields of cultural studies, media studies and communication theory.