This thesis explores the potential of video as a research
tool for anthropologists in the recording of a single
ritual. The study examines interactions between
ethnographers, informants and viewers. The thesis
reveals the capacity of video to make possible close,
detailed readings of performance in terms not originally
anticipated by the researcher. Archival storage of the
video recording allows for critique and assessment of the
research.
The case study chosen in which to test the potential of
\ dcso as a research tool was a woman's 'initiation'
r^L'ial (called inton jane) in Shixini in the Eastern Gape
(in what was, until recently, the independent homeland of
Transkei). Historically, the ritual was supposedly held
at the time of a girl's first menstruation, this being
the physical symbol of her transformation into adulthood.
Ritual seclusion served to effect an accompanying social
transformation in preparation for marriage.
Paradoxically, in the late 1980's, it was older women and
mothers, already married and well past the age of first
menstruation, who were undergoing the ritual seclusion
and symbolic marriage. The study explores this paradox
with the goal of understanding the purpose of the ritual
in contemporary times. By recording large segments of
the ritual on video, and subjecting the footage to a
close analysis of verbal and non-verbal aspects of
performance, both the ritual and the merits of video as
a research tool could be examined.
Video was utilised, in an interactive research process,
as an information elicitation tool. The analysis of the
recorded text of the ritual brings to the fore elements
which make what is apparently a paradox understandable.
The elements which explicate the paradox were not
anticipated when the research commenced, and in all
likelihood would have eluded a researcher who did not
have the benefit of the incidental capture on video. The
thesis reveals the enormous Contribution video can make
to research and suggests that video has an important
contribution to make to the discipline of anthropology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/16935 |
| Date | 09 February 2015 |
| Creators | Cloete, Laura |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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