In the 20th century the way the west went about collecting data from other cultures was problematic due to its ties with Colonisation. Enthnography was used by the french empire to go into Africa and record music from rural groups to be listened back to by the french public. The way this was approached and delivered was problematic as we are unsure how they went about collecting the data, why they chose these groups and whether the groups were compensated for their work and correctly credited.
“Nowadays, these attempts to document and share traditional music might be seen as a form of ‘soft power’. By conducting what was intended as a public service, it might have the effect of entrenching and formalizing colonial relations.” – From slides
generally I feel there was a difference in the way that they approached ethnography in the past compared to currently as or in the specific cases shown to us in the slide show for example in the photograph labelled, ”
David Toop recording the Yanomami people’ theres a complete seperation between the photographer and the subjects who are nude in the picture not engaged with the photograph and sit in a line with a large distance between them and the photographer. The photographer is dressed from head to toe and hides behind the camera not engaging with the people just observing them. Obviously i have only deduced this from a photograph so i cant be sure but this is the slightly uneasy feeling i get from the photograph. Something is not quite ethically right about it. Does Toop have their permission ? Were they informed that a photograph was being taken and published and used and did they benefit from this in any way in the same way that the photographer does? Why do we censor nude images when the subjects are western people but not of people in a culture that is not ? I’m not sure if this is wrong but It feels intrusive and exploitative.
Maybe with a polite separtion Toop is not disturbing the people he is observing and studying but this feels voyeristic however i’m unaware whether he had their permission so I cannot come to a conclusion.
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