2008 AAA Photo Contest Winners and Finalists

March 2009 • Anthropology News

21

K N O W L E D G E E X C H A N G E

K n o w l e d g e e x c h a n g e

2008 AAA Photo Contest Winners

We are pleased to congratulate the winners of the 2008 AAA Photo Contest. The submis-sions were impressive and selecting a winner was extremely challenging. The contest committee scored each photograph in terms of technical quality, composition and rela-tion to anthropology, selecting 54 photos as semifinalists out of 294 entries. From that group, 20 finalists were chosen, including four top winners. Congratulations to Peter Biella, Siobhán Mattison, Rubén Mendoza and Glenn Shepard, who submitted the winning photographs, featured here. AAA would like to sincerely thank all members who submitted entries.

Mama Toreto

Ilparakuyo Maasai, Tanzania, September 2007. Mama Toreto helps with the transcription of a song Biella recorded, 27 years before, in which she commemorated the birth of her granddaughter. She is overwhelmed by the memories that her singing evokes. “I had no idea what you were doing then,” she told Biella after hearing the song. her co-wife sits behind. Photo courtesy Peter Biella (San Francisco State U)

Peter Biella, past-president of the Society for Visual Anthropology, directs the Visual Anthropology Program at San Francisco State University, where his students create applied, collaborative anthropological films. Biella’s Textiles in Ayacucho, recipient of the SVA/AAA’s 2007 Best Short Film award, follows that goal. He has completed several multimedia projects, including a CD version of Visual Anthropology Review (2004). His recent chapter “Visual Anthropology in a Time of War” (2009) analyzes how anthropological media can fight militarism and racism. Biella is also director of the Maasai Migrants Film Project (http://online.sfsu.edu/~maasai), and his 1980 fieldwork among Tanzania Maasai is foundational to his forthcoming transhistorical DVDs, Words from the Heart and Maasai Interactive. He can be contacted through http://online.sfsu.edu/~biella.

Special note: An excerpt of the recording Mama Toreto was listening to in this photo is available on a special AAA podcast. See www.aaanet.org for details. AN would like to thank Peter Biella for making this available.

here the photographer’s husband, Peter Mattison, reaffirms the perception that for “patriotic” americans, diplomacy is better negotiated in the ring. his “guns” were unfortunately no match for his Mosuo opponent’s. he was, however, the first foreigner to engage in, rather than simply behold, the festivities. Photo courtesy Siobhán M Mattison

Siobhán M Mattison is a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Washington. She works in Southwest China among the ethnic Mosuo, where she studies kinship and family change. She can be contacted at [email protected].

Undignified Foreign Dignitary

First Place

Second Place

Anthropology News • March 2009

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The Last Supper

Jovita and Mariluz

British edge decorated Pearlware plate, table setting and food remains—including shell, faunal remains and peach pit endocarps—recovered from archae-ological deposits at el Presidio de Santa Barbara, california. Since 1961 the Santa Barbara Trust for historic Preservation has spearheaded the recovery and reconstruction of the fourth and final Spanish military installation founded in california on april 12, 1782. Photo courtesy Rubén G Mendoza

Rubén G Mendoza completed his undergraduate degree at Cal State U-Bakersfield, and his MA and PhD in archaeology at the University of Arizona-Tucson. A self-taught photographer and print technician, field archaeologist and professor at Cal State U-Monterey Bay, Mendoza has traveled the length and breadth of Mexico, Central America, the US Southwest and Europe in an effort to photo document and study what he terms the “Mexican Diaspora.” Mendoza continues to photo document his many studies and, as such, his photography is an integral part of his publishing record. His many publications range from the study of California Missions to Aztec and Mesoamerican warfare and ritual violence and, via graduate and post-graduate studies, Mexican American and Chicano Lowriders and street gang art and culture.

Third Place

Jovita Kaparo Solisonkewa and Mariluz Pacheco ontamae are ethnically mixed Matsigenka-huachipaeri children from the community of huacaria in the Peruvian amazon. Their radiant smiles are testimony to an ongoing program of community-based sanitation, hygiene, health education and dental care being implemented by the non-profit organization house of the children. Taking advan-tage of his 20 years of ethnographic experience in the region, fluency in the Matsigenka language and medical anthropology training, Shepard has consulted for the huacaria project since 2003. Photo courtesy Glenn H Shepard Jr

Glenn H Shepard Jr has carried out research in medical anthropology, ethnobotany and cultural ecology with diverse indigenous peoples in Latin America, southeast Asia and the Middle East. He has made prize-winning films including Zapatistas: Voices on the Edge of Revolution (SVA/AAA Best Student Film, 1995) and Spirits of the Rainforest (Emmy Award, 1993). An avid photographer since childhood, Shepard’s ethnographic photos won him second place in the Dorothea Lange Competition at UC Berkeley (1995). He is currently a visiting scholar at the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, and can be contacted at [email protected].

Fourth Place

The following pages include photographs selected as finalists, which will also appear in the AAA office gallery. Congratulations to the photographers: Peter Biella, Jenny Chio, Mark Dingemanse, Kimberly Hart, Barry Kass, David Kideckel, Diane E King, Ryan Klataske, Rubén Mendoza, Tiffany Rinne, Glenn Shepard, Silvia Patricia Solis and Glen Davis Stone.

To see these photos in color and to view our semifinalists, visit www.flickr.com/photos/anthropologynews.

Want to participate in the 2009 photo contest? See the call for submissions in next month’s issue of AN.


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2008 AAA Photo Contest Finalists

Kããã

Kyeei Yao, an age group leader, oversees a festival in Akpafu-Mempeasem, Volta Region, Ghana. The expensive draped cloth, Ashanti-inspired wreath, strings of beads that are handed down through the generations, and digital wristwatch work together to remind us that culture is a moving target, always renewing and reshaping itself. Kããã is a Siwu ideophone for “looking attentively.” Photo courtesy Mark Dingemanse (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics)

Tore

to’s C

ou

rtyard

Members of Toreto’s extended family pour over two books of photographs that Richard Cross and Peter Biella took of many of them, in the same courtyard, 27 years before. A boom box plays family birth songs and cattle byre audioscapes that Biella recorded at the same time. Because grass is plentiful this season, the cattle need not go out early in the morning, so they rest with the family, sometimes replying in kind to Biella’s recordings of their great-grand-parents’ bellows and moos! Photo courtesy Peter Biella (San Francisco State U)

The M

ah

en

o W

reck

This photo was taken on Fraser Island in Australia. Fraser Island is a world heri-tage site and the largest sand island in the world. The subject of the photo is the Maheno Wreck. Maheno is the Maori word for “island.” An unseasonal cyclone hit the Maheno and caused it to be washed ashore on Fraser Island. The legend surrounding the ship says that the Japanese crew of the wrecked Maheno was unwilling to come ashore as they were fearful of the supposedly cannibalistic local Aborigines. Photo courtesy Tiffany Rinne (U Georgia)

An

cien

t So

ng

s

Upper Jidao established a group for older villagers to perform “Ancient Songs” (guge), which teach lessons about personhood and moral behavior. Although typical ethnic shows feature younger performers, in this village it is unfeasible—the majority of able-bodied men and women have migrated to other regions in China. Photo courtesy Jenny Chio (UC Berkeley)

Ro

ll Call

Residents of Upper Jidao (China) assign tasks and take roll prior to the arrival of a tour group. Efforts to organize and promote ethnic tourism activities in the rural village rely on those who do not migrate and who are willing to work, often for relatively little financial remuneration. Photo courtesy Jenny Chio (UC Berkeley)

Anthropology News • March 2009

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Yase

min

’s Mo

ther

During July 2008, anthropologist Kimberly Hart often visited Yasemin, who is entering her late twenties and remains unmarried. Yasemin’s mother, depicted in this photo, takes care of the animals while her daughter weaves at home. The loom is supporting the radio and cassette player on the right of the frame. Photo courtesy Kimberly Hart (Buffalo State C)

Marcos Saldaña Peña carries a hefty white-lipped peccary killed with bow-and-arrow near the Matsigenka community of Maizal on the upper Manu River. From 2004 to 2007, Glenn Shepard participated in an interdisciplinary study of diet, demography and health in the Matsigenka communities of Manu National Park, Peru, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Contrary to the alarm cry raised by some conservation biologists—who claim that indigenous activities threaten biodiver-sity in Manu Park—the methodologically rigorous study found that Matsigenka bow hunting is sustainable and should remain so for several decades into the future, even considering rapid demographic recovery. Photo courtesy Glenn H Shepard Jr (U São Paulo)

Hired, low caste performers pause during an hours-long parade at a temple festival in Kerala, India. Held throughout the Malayali month of Medam (March–April), festi-vals are highlighted by ludic processions of drummers, floats portraying Hindu epics, caparisoned elephants with sacred icons, and animal dancers, like the horse-man in the foreground. Photo courtesy David Kideckel (Central Connecticut State U)

Ailaya was a landless laborer in Kalleda village, Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh, India. He died of alcohol-related ailments in summer 2008. His daughter bade him goodbye just before his cremation. She was photographed by Glenn Stone who was conducting research on biotechnology and agriculture in Warangal District, and directing his Village India Program for Washington University undergraduates. Photo courtesy Glen Davis Stone (Washington U St Louis)

This photo of a young Himba cattle herder was taken in the Kunene region of northwestern Namibia in 2008. During this exchange trip and grazing workshop sponsored by a Namibian NGO, community leaders from northeastern Namibia visited Himba communities to observe their grazing and range management strat-egies. Photo courtesy Ryan Klataske (Michigan State U)

Tem

ple

Festiv

al P

erfo

rmers

Him

ba C

attle

Herd

er

Su

stain

ab

le G

am

e

Fare

well to

Aila

ya

Hatice

an

d La

nd

scap

e

In July 2008, Hatice and anthropologist Kimberly Hart attended a prayer service on a mountaintop in western Turkey. As the prayer entered its second hour, they completed the climb to the top of the mountain. Hart took this photo of Hatice looking over the village where her mother was born. Photo courtesy Kimberly Hart (Buffalo State C)


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Gu

ate

mala

: Refle

ction

of a

Ch

ild

During my fieldwork in Guatemala in 2008, one of my participants requested family portraits. When I returned with the portraits, her youngest daughter went directly for the pictures in my hand, climbed on her chair and stared into them, reflecting. Photo courtesy Silvia Patricia Solis (U Texas-Pan American)

Eighteenth and early nineteenth century Maiolica and Galera earthenware shards recovered by the author during the course of archaeological investigations at the San Carlos Cathedral of El Presidio Real de Monterey, California. The Royal Presidio Chapel Conservation Project recently completed archaeological investigations, seismic retro-fitting, conservation and restoration of the Presidio Chapel constructed from 1791 through 1794. Photo courtesy Rubén G Mendoza (Cal State U-Monterey Bay)

Reig

n o

f Sh

ard

s

Nazira

an

d H

ala

t Rem

em

ber th

e D

ead

Nazira Mehsin Shamdeen and Halat Naamat Shamdeen visit their family burial plot in Zakho, Kurdistan Region, Iraq on Thursday, May 29, 2008. Most of the emotion work of visiting graves falls to women, and most visits occur on Thursdays. Women say prayers, recite Quranic verses, pause for reflection, and may linger awhile speaking with others who have come for the same purpose. Photo courtesy Diane E King (U Kentucky)

Maqula Mirza works on her knitting in the courtyard of her village house in Qadiye, a village in the Dohuk Governorate, Kurdistan Region, Iraq, June 18, 2008. The boy is her neighbor, who was playing nearby. When he saw Maqula being photographed, he ran over to take part in the picture. Photo courtesy Diane E King (U Kentucky)

Maq

ula

Wo

rks o

n H

er K

nittin

gStre

et S

cen

e in

Asw

an

, Eg

yp

t

A man in Aswan, Egypt, relaxes with a hookah, or water pipe, near his shop selling canopic jars and other replicas from ancient Egypt to passersby. Hookahs are widely smoked by men throughout Egypt and the rest of the Middle East. Strong Turkish tobacco is sometimes mixed with potent hashish to form intoxicating fumes. The Egyptian men are wearing traditional long, loose garment common to men in their country, the gallibaya. Photo courtesy Barry Kass (imagesofanthropology.com)

Documents

2008 AAA Photo Contest Winners and Finalists