Oct 11-Loizos, Garland and Tomaselli Response

The Loizos reading, "Innovation in Ethnographic Film" he discusses the different ways in which one can create a sort of documentary/realism in portraying a specific culture. The idea of "cinematic truth" is brought up, as well as non-actors, in a way, acting in front of the camera. It is clear that there is a thin line between visually presenting a documentation of a given culture, and creating a work of fiction through film. As noted by Brian Winston, this occurs by "editing and selection. Both, wittingly and unwittingly, embody a viewpoint" (Loizos 6). Ethnographic films are distinguished from documentaries for criteria described by Jay Ruby, including "using an anthropological lexicon". The innovations of filmmaking techniques and technology allow for more ethical ethnographic films to be developed, and using realism.

Garland & Gordon's "Authentic (In) Authentic: Bushman Anthro-Tourism" regards margeting schemes to attract tourists to visit the area of Namibia. The tourism creates a loss of real culture as its reproduction results in the loss of authenticity. It is unfortunate that the tribe of people known as the 'bushmen' has been replicated in the form of logos and other uses for tourism and other companies. The business made out of exploitation of the so-called 'bushmen' is unethical and morally wrong, all for the name of creating money out of racism. It is noted in this reading that the Bushmen are considered to be the most famous example of the "Others," which of course means that their culture is made up of highly "marginalized and disempowered people" (Garland 270). This culture has also been objectified to the point where the people themselves have been tourist attractions, and the individuals have been made into characters in books, newspapers, postcards, and other media.

In the article, "Psychospiritual ecoscience: Ju/'hoansi & Cultural Tourism," Keyan Tomaselli discusses similar themes of tourism and preservation of a culture's authenticity as the Garland reading. As mentioned in the Garland reading in which tourists could not see the Bushmen wearing Pepsi shirts, instead insisted on presenting them wearing grass skirts to look more authentic, Tomaselli discusses the anthro tourism/ public's need to 'conserve' the culture of the Bushmen, despite the fact that their culture had modernized and was adapting to the new societies of the world. The manipulation and objectication/false realism of the Bushmen can be described as "commodification of the the "ethnographic" takes place within the context of the "mobilized gaze" that is part and pacel of the transnational media flows' (Friedberg 1995) (Tomaselli 189). In order for the tourists (as well as the Bushmen) to be properly manipulated, the Bushmen have to look as if they are poor. The look which labels them as the 'Other' will feed the appetite of the tourist, who come searching for what they think is the truth of this culture. The sense of what is authentic in regards to this culture from the viewpoing of the Westerners/tourists is strictly based on stereotypical mindsets set in racism. It is only successful tourism when the culture is manipulated into becoming the "Other" and being portrayed negatively, destroying the authenticity of the Bushmen.