Mead and Bateson 10.4.11

Mead and Bateson seem to have taken great effort and thoughtfullness as they embarked on their journeyto capture the ethnographies of the Balinese. They seem to have balanced each other in viewpoints and priorities on how to engage with the culture and people. They recognized the value in recording more than one village culture, and found collaborators who seem to be ideal for their efforts. The fact that these additions to their team were familiar with photography, film, the arts lended itself well to scale up the scope of their endeavor. Jacknis offering this info in her article made me pause to consider how much village life can be influenced by physical terrain and without that context what assumptions could be generalized to a nation. Village life in the plains, seaside or mountains certainly would have some influence in daily life, rituals and customs. Mead and Bateson were purposeful in extending their team, and I think this adds comparative value in the visual ethnographies presented.

Mead is quoted as having said "There is no such thing as an unbiased report upon any social situation...." yet she is committed to every effort to remove bias. As I have watched these films I have wondered about the bias the very presence of a camera injects in the recording. These anthropologists were very aware of the potential for that dynamic and I appreciated their intent provide interventions for that bias. The duo made efforts to minimize the effect of the camera. They claimed that due to the frequency/quantity of film shooting the subjects became desensitized over time, they never interrupted activity to ask permission for photos and they didn't recreate events to take pictures at a better time for lighting. They also began to document context as part of their field notes, so that there could be a record of scenario that created what we are viewing in a still photo or moving film. Yet, even with these efforts there was at least one example given of when Bateson made a "suggestion" that having more women in a ceremonial event would be more interesting to compare to the males dancing, the villagers did so and since then that dance has continued to include more women than it had historically. Would that change have occurred without Bateson's curiosity? Does the presence of an observer and their tools create adaptive behaviors that might not otherwise have taken place?