An Extraordinary Wedding

Abstract

Anthropologists and other scholars have long reflected upon the various authorial strategies employed in the construction of written ethnographic texts (Clifford and Marcus 1986; Geertz 1988). Similar questions of authorship and voice have been raised in relation to the making of ethnographic and documentary films (e.g. Ruby 1992; MacDougall 1998). Filmmakers frequently face intractable dilemmas of both ethics and aesthetics, when deciding what to include and what to sacrifice from hours of footage of complex socio-cultural practices and performances. We too have grappled with these dilemmas in the making of An Extraordinary Wedding, a film about brideprice transactions in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. In this paper we reflect upon the authorial strategies we have employed in this work-inprogress. We consider issues of authorship and authority and discuss our attempts to work with some of the 'characters' in the film to create an audiovisual narrative that can be understood and appreciated by a broader audience without diminishing the integrity of the lifeworld represented. An invitation In December 2012, one of the authors of this paper, Rosita Henry, was invited to Papua New Guinea to attend the brideprice exchange of the daughter of an old school friend from the Western Highlands. It was a poignant visit for her, as her friend, Magdaline (Maggie) Wilson, had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly three years earlier. Customarily, Maggie would have played a significant part in organizing the event, but her English husband Keith Wilson, and their children Bernadine, Olivia, Maki, and Nadia now had to shoulder the responsibility for working with their Highlands kin to arrange this complex ceremonial gift exchange between intermarrying clans and their allies.

Brideprice and Prejudice: An Audio‐Visual Ethnography on Marriage and Modernity in Mt Hagen, Papua New Guinea

“…The brideprice was originally filmed as a private ‘wedding video’ for the bride and groom. However, during the process of filming, Rosita's anthropological lens came to the fore and, even more strongly, after she began to edit the film footage with Daniela Vávrová (Henry and Vávrová 2016). Thus, this paper is an audio‐visual ethnography in the sense that it emerged out of the very process of recording the events and editing the footage.…”

“…Thus, An Extraordinary Wedding portrays a marriage that was out of the ordinary to many of the participants in many different ways (Henry and Vávrová 2016). The important leadership role that the bride's sister, Bernadine, played in the transactions was one of these ways.…”

“…We entitled the film An Extraordinary Wedding in recognition of the fact that several of the participants referred to it as such. In our recent account of the film making process (Henry and Vávrová 2016) we noted that it was considered extraordinary for a number of reasons. It was extraordinary to many of the participants not only because of the ‘elite’ identity of the bride and groom, who are the tertiary educated offspring of ‘mixed marriages’ 2 between high profile families, but also because of innovations in the way the brideprice was conducted and distributed.…”

Долгорочна Визуелна Етнографија Во Едно Босанско Село: Следење На Епистемолошките И Методолошките Прашања

“…Сепак, некои автори тврдат дека дебатата што трае со децении околу рефлексивноста, субјективноста и автентичноста во визуелната антропологија нема значајно влијание врз дисциплината воопшто (Crawford 1992: 72;Pink 2008: 590;Ruby 2000: 164) 5 . И покрај повиците за нови, мултивокални и рефлексивни етнографии, теориите не ги разгледаа или дури не ги препознаа важните визуелни антрополози како што е Жан Руш (Jean Rouch), кој почна да ја преиспитува етнографската пракса и да ги открива методолошките мистерии на етнографијата во своите дела со користење на методите на снимање со активно учество и давање глас на неговите протагонисти уште во 1960-тите години (MacDougall 1992;Weinberger 1994;Banks 1998;Ruby 2000;Ruby 2005;Banks, Ruby 2011;Henry, Vávrová 2016;Lunaček Brumen 2018) 6 .…”

“…Питер Ијан Крафорд укажува дека одредена филмска стратегија или естетика се вклопува во одредена култура, засновувајќи го неговиот аргумент врз поврзаноста помеѓу филмската наративност, претставата за културата и публиката (Crawford 1992a;в. исто така Postma 2006;Henry, Vávrová 2016). Во нашиот случај, видеоматеријалот ги следи различните просторни и материјални димензии на сезонската миграција воопшто и на сточарството посебно (како и односот кон животниот стил, животните и пејзажот).…”