The Dweller’s Gaze
The Voice of the Other in Ethnographic Discourse

Through portraits showing the Dweller’s gaze offered to or solicited by the professional visitor, filmed rituals in which people actively or unknowingly participate in the mise en scene of themselves, drawings made by an Omuhimba assistant showing key moments of cultural practices, I will attempt to show how the Dweller’s narrative becomes an intricate part of the ethnographic rhetoric of the observation of difference and similarity. As a subject of observation, the individual, wilfully and inadvertently, participates in the image conveyed to the observer. He becomes, for a time, the bearer of knowledge and culture, of the past and of the here and now. I will now show you a number of film extracts in which the Dweller either participated in more or less subtle ways in the mise en scène I am realising or at times even take control of that mise en scene and constructs his or her own.

Multiple media Présentation

Une anthropologie partagée : Le partage de Jean Rouch

Rina Sherman trace l'anthropologie que Jean Rouch a partagé avec elle à travers ses études et sa collaboration avec lui, ainsi qu'à travers l'influence qu'il a eu sur ses films et ses propres travaux de recherche sur le terrain en Afrique Australe. Elle parle notamment de son enseignement de "ciné-gym" et la rencontre décisive pour elle avec son idée du point de vue suscité par la présence de la caméra comme entrée en matière du réel.

LE PROJET JEAN ROUCH ? :
VERS UNE CONNAISSANCE HORS TEXTE, CROISER LES REGARDS, PARTAGER LES INTERROGATIONS.
14 – 20 novembre 2009

Évènement organisé par le Comité du film ethnographique en collaboration avec la Bibliothèque nationale de France, le Centre national du cinéma - Archives françaises du film et le Centre national de la recherche scientifique

Mardi 17 novembre : Une anthropologie partagée

Migration in Museums: Narratives of Diversity in Europe

"Recognition, Empowerment and Participation: Inclusive History - Inclusive Museums"

How to represent and/or exhibit the cultural diversity of the Ovahimba to European and/or urban audiences?
A first response to this question was provided with « The Ovahimba Years: Work in Progress », a multimedia exhibition held at the Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre (FNCC) in Windhoek in 2002, halfway through my tenure in the field.
Designed around a promenade of soundscapes composed of everyday sounds of Ovahimba life, the main feature of the manifestation and key to its success was the participation of a group of young Ovahimba people who acted as spokespersons for their culture and held performances at the FNCC as well as at schools and universities in and around the city.
The soundscapes opened volumes of space in which exhibitions of photographs, drawings and objects were displayed, and in adjacent halls, specialist conferences were held, films were screened and unedited rushes were displayed continuously on video monitors.
Since my return to Europe, I have been processing the body of data collected in the field, still with the preoccupation of how to make the materials accessible, how to further explore and develop the first exhibition held in Windhoek.
What people want most when confronted with a foreign culture, be it a culture from elsewhere or the presence of an immigrant culture on their home soil, are elements that make that culture accessible to them . Conveying the most human of qualities, emotion , is I think the most effective way to allow people to gain understanding of each other's cultures and identities. To share in emotion, the visitor needs to have the impression that he participates in a common experience, that contact of common human reality is established.

The Ovahimba Years - Work in Progress | Les années Ovahimba - Travaux en cours
A Multimedia Exhibition | Une exposition multimédia

Text, image and sound. Narrative in all its forms : new technologies, new questions

"Emotion in Multimedia Ethnographic Fieldwork"

In this paper, I will explore the development of the relationship between members of the community and the self as an extension of the camera (video and photographic), the influence of this experience of intense and eventually intimate long-term sharing on our respective lives and the multimedia body of data I collected. The focus of this documentation includes initiation, funeral and possession rites as well as the rapport that developed over time between members of the community and the unexpected visitor on an extended stay I turned out to be.
The paper will trace the evolution of this long-term relationship, from the early beginnings and the difficulties of my first encounters with the Ovahimba community of Etanga to the middle years of acquiring the status of an integrated family member to my involvement with community development during the latter years and the problems that arose when it was time to leave the field and start analyzing the materials. Having gradually become an adopted member of the family and more or less integrated depending on the time and the occasion, eventually identified as the record maker of their daily lives, I ended up sharing in intimate family moments that extend beyond the framework of any anthropological undertaking. This situation developed mainly due to the extensive length of my stay; there simply came a time when the relationship between members of the family and myself took on a dimension of close kinship. Having grown into the role of the image recorder, I continued to work and was often solicited to record events I would not naturally have paid attention to. This lead to me being witness and recording both intimate family scenes, presenting information limited to the sphere of family secrets, and important meetings and customary court cases held within the community.
At varying times, the emotional bond between us played a different role. At times, it prevented me from recording a certain event, such as the intimacy of a funeral, at other times it provided access to information I would not have been able to acquire in any other manner, and at yet other times, and indeed time allowed certain members of the family I lived with to develop a special relationship with the eye of the lens, subtle catching of the eye to indicate details worth filming, pausing performance during cassette changes and enhancing performance on some occasions are but a few examples in case. During the processing of the data, a particular area of concern is to distinguish between what I may justifiably divulge and what should remain within the realm of family intimacy. One viable solution would be to treat the intimate aspect of my knowledge in the form of fictional writing. In the case of the image, still and moving, discretion will be a determining factor in the decision what to show and what not to show.

Associations for Anthropology in Southern Africa, Annual Conference

"A Coke for Your Face: The Ovahimba and Their Image"

The Ovahimba group has existed landlocked in the Kunene-North Region (formerly known as the Kaokoveld) for most of this century. They have been in contact with foreigners for the past 150 years: missionaries, hunters, traders, speculators, soldiers, and an increasing number of tourists. The Ovahimba with their spectacular material culture, are being marketed by the tourist industry as one of the last traditional African peoples. Television crews and tourists flock to the region, hoping to capture images of what is a transforming culture.
The Ovahimba have an exchange economy; for many years their images have been bartered for anything from a tin of Coke to a few dollars. Increasing contact with tourists and the cash economy have made them aware of the potential price of their image.