Syllabus
 When you click the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book (or other media) from Amazon.com, MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of this purchase and any other purchases you make during that visit. This will not increase the cost of your purchase. Links provided are to the US Amazon site, but you can also support OCW through Amazon sites in other regions. Learn more. |
Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
Overview
Photographs in anthropology serve many purposes: as primary data, illustrations of words in a book, documentation for disappearing cultures, evidence of fieldwork, material objects for museum exhibitions, and even works of art. Topics include: the relationships between subject and treatment of image, between art and photography and ethnographic documentation, the role of a museum photograph and its caption, the social practice of "taking pictures" and a case study of photographing women in the Middle East and North Africa.
Required Texts
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977. ISBN: 9780374226268.
———. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. ISBN: 9780374248581.
Alloula, Malek. The Colonial Harem. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780816613847.
Berger, John, and Jean Mohr. Ways of Seeing. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1990. ISBN: 9780140135152.
Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present. Bulfinch; 5 edition, 1982. ISBN: 9780870703812.
Course Requirements
- All required readings and films: You must complete the assigned readings before the class and come to class prepared to discuss.
- Required attendance at class meetings.
- One exam, midterm - open book, 2 parts - essay and definitions.
- Assignments: 4 short response papers, one final paper/photography project.
