Indiginous Ethnography

The ethnographic eye of the insider greatly varies from that of the traditional role of the ethnographer as outsider. We witnessed this first hand with the film Itam Hakim Hopi by filmmaker Victor Masayesva, an insider, or indigenous cosmology of the history of their people as told by a sagely elderly man. Ross Macaya (pictured) regals children with their rich oral history which Masayesva augments with rich natural imagery and dramatic reenactments of historical events. He is indirectly continuing the traditions of oral history though this modern video medium by granting the old man the privilege of talking in his own voice and sharing the rich history of his people.

Themes we saw in this film were addressed in Faye Ginsburg's Parallax Effect. Here she writes about the changing roles of ethnographers and the many hats they can wear in their creation of the process. Parallax itself means: "The apparent displacement of difference in apparent direction of an object as seen from two different points." (64) Her article is an exercise in the politics of representation, especially of groups that have, for so long, been - pardon the pun - at the bottom of the totem pole. She wants to put the camera in the hands of the people who have been, for so long, on the other side of it. This stance is a progressive step in a more well rounded form of ethnography/social science.

Sands & Lewis also address this issue in their article Seeing With a Native Eye. The first version of Itam Hakim Hopi we saw was unsubtitled and undubbed. They address this here: "The language of the film is Hopi; the language of the images are Hopi. This is a Hopi film, made for a Hopi audience- No subtitles, no explanation, no interpretation. The audience of the film is expected to make the connections, interpret the images, understand the structure, much as the audience for a Hopi story is expected to provide context for the narrative. The audience, thus, actively participates." (388)

The origin myth of the Hopi still came through to me even watching the first version without any English in it. It was very engaging, surprisingly, to be on the outside trying to put all the pieces together in a coherent fashion. This was a great final film to see how far ethnography has come as a genre of film and understanding of culture. It had humble colonialist beginnings, but the doors have now been opened for self representation and active participation in understanding humanity as a whole.