Review
A significant contribution to knowledge about methods of recording and presenting visual culture of non-Western peoples in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Choice With fascinating examples and illustrations culled from a number of international archives, Wondrous Difference is an invaluable resource for cinema historians, anthropologists, archivists, and museum professionals... Griffiths is working within a new tradition of scholars approaching visuality with a historically integrated and culturally critical perspective... The masterful way in which Griffiths navigates and reveals the complexity of these relationships sets a standard for others to follow. -- Amy J. Staples Film Quarterly Wondrous Difference will make an excellent... textbook for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in both visual anthropology and the history of anthropology. -- Deborah Poole Current Anthropology 6/1/05
Book Description
The ethical and ideological implications of cross-cultural image-making continue to stir debate among anthropologists, film scholars, and museum professionals. This innovative book focuses on the contested origins of ethnographic film from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s, vividly depicting the dynamic visual culture of the period as it collided with the emerging discipline of anthropology and the new technology of motion pictures. Featuring more than 100 illustrations, the book examines museums of natural history, world´s fairs, scientific and popular photography, and the early filmmaking efforts of anthropologists and commercial producers to investigate how cinema came to assume the role of mediator of cultural difference at the beginning of the twentieth century.
