AAA is pleased to share the following entries for the “People” category in the 2011 AAA Photo Contest. Voting by AAA members begins October 6 and will be open through October 14. Directions for voting (along with login information) will be emailed to current AAA members. Voters will see thumbnails of the photos in the ballot and will vote for their top choices in each category.
To get a better look at the People photos, please peruse this gallery. To see a photo in its entirety, just click on the photo you wish to view. Be sure to also check out the Place, Process and Practice entrants too.
-
- Caption: Maria, the matriarch of a Tsimane’ four household cluster, along the Maniqui River in the Bolivian Amazon, dishes out breakfast to her immediate kin group of sixteen people. Breakfast is a stew of approximately 2 kilos of rice and .25 kilos of charkey, dried beef, purchased in town. Over the last 30 years, wild animals have become more difficult to hunt and charkey has become a steady source of animal protein for the Tsimane’ as local biodiversity has been threatened by the encroachment of loggers and ranchers and more permanent settlements. However, the high cash price of charkey can be stressful for Tsimane’ families and the meat is stretched to feed many people for many days. Title: “Breakfast!” (Beni, Bolivia 10/2010). Photo courtesy Ariela Zycherman
-
- Caption: Michael entertains his hyper nephew as 40 members of Lax Gibuu (wolf clan) pile into the living room to watch hockey and eat Easter dinner. Urban Nisga’a First Nations living in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, the family maintains connections to their origins four hours north along the Nass River. Tonight, they will enjoy turkey, stuffing, smoked Oolichans and jarred salmon they preserved the year before on their territory. Before dinner a prayer will be shared in Nisga’a. With language extinction on the horizon, most of the room will not understand the words, but will pass on the values of their culture by prioritizing the sacred love of family and the importance of acting with respect. Title: Easter with the Wolf Pack April 26. 2011 Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Photo courtesy Jennifer Wolowic
-
- Caption: A Kayapo family from the village of Turedjam in southern Pará pose in the Goeldi Museum’s Zoobotanical Park in downtown Belem alongside a full-size photograph of a Kayapo who visited the museum in 1905. The Kayapo in the 1905 photograph belonged to the Ira-Amraire sub-group of the Araguia region, once feared and respected warriors who are now extinct. The Goeldi maintains a large collection of Ira-Amiraire objects collected by Frei Gil de Vilanova. As part of a project in “Ethnomuseology” being funded by the Brazilian National Research Council, Kayapo consultants have visited the Goeldi Museum to study the Frei Gil collections, take part in museum exhibits and receive training in digital video in order to document their rich cultural traditions, still strong a hundred years after the Ira-Amraire vanished. Title: Enduring Presence: The Kayapo and the Goeldi Museum, 1905-2011. Photo courtesy Glenn Shepard
-
- Caption: At Fort Hood, I attended a “Youth Mock Deployment” at which soldiers’ children undergo simulated pre-deployment preparations similar to what their parents experience. The kids go through medical exam stations (eye, dental, and vaccinations), equipment and gear checks, camouflage face painting, and cultural sensitivity training. The mock deployment concludes with a road march. After the event, children are photographed next to their favorite armored vehicle. This young girl chose to pose in front of a M1A2 Abrams tank in which, ironically, females are not allowed. Sporting the digital camo and face paint, she holds onto an anti-personnel cartridge and is prompted to “look tough.” Title: “Army Strong.” Fort Hood, Texas. October 17, 2009. Photo courtesy Margie Serrato
-
- Caption: Shinto weddings are now much less frequent in occurrence than they used to be but can still be found at shrines. The Meiji Shrine in Tokyo is a very popular traditional Shinto shrine, as it is dedicated to Emperor Meiji (and his wife Empress Shoken), who gave official state recognition to Shinto practices. This photograph was taken after the wedding ceremony while the bride waited patiently for almost an hour for the attendants to perfect her attire for the wedding photographer. She kept a very traditional, serious pose the entire time and broke this briefly to smile when the attendants proclaimed her ready but then rushed back over for one more final adjustment. Title: A Bride Smiles during Wedding Preparations at Meiji Shrine (Tokyo, Japan – September 2010). Photo courtesy Corinne Seals
-
- Caption: We can only guess what Bambang is thinking while decorating one of his school’s waste containers. The school of Sewon was targeted by an international tour operator for a waste management awareness program after repeated complaints by foreign tourists that the village is dirty. Located at the outskirts of Yogyakarta, the cultural capital of Java, Sewon is frequently visited by tourists on a ‘village tour’. From a young age, Indonesian children like Bambang are made aware of the importance of tourism for the sustainable development of their community. More significantly, the ecological awareness program teaches them to safeguard one of the area’s most valuable resources: the rural landscape. Title: Crafting a sustainable future (Sewon, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; 26 July 2011). Photo courtesy Noel B. Salazar
-
- Caption: A young Georgian boy walks past one of many art action pieces during a rare closing of Rustaveli Avenue, the main artery of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. The event — “The Route From Treaty to Occupation” — was organized to commemorate the first anniversary of the Russian-Georgian war (August 7, 2009). Title: From Russia with No Love. Photo courtesy Hulya Sakarya
-
- Caption: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo organized their first protest against the disappearance of their children by Argentina’s dictatorial regime in April 1977. They have continued to protest the disappearances at the central square in Buenos Aires ever since, and persistently demanded the prosecution of the perpetrators. Their tenacity has paid off because more than one thousand persons have been indicted since 2006 and nearly 200 are serving long prison sentences. The Madres have also protested against other forms of social injustice, as on 11 March 2010, when they carried a large banner saying “We fight against the wealth of the landholding oligarchy.” Title: Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo protest march, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 11 March 2010. Photo courtesy Antonius Robben
-
- Caption: A paid children’s troupe is joined impromptu by local youth in a performance for guests at a chieftaincy installation ceremony. The event was attended by hundreds of guests, seated in numerous tents in a large local playground. Our hosts for the afternoon were the children and grandchildren of the gentleman being granted chieftaincy. We never saw the chief as he is aged and spent the hot afternoon inside his home with friends. Title: Children’s Troupe. Photo courtesy U. Ejiro O. Onomake.
-
- Caption: Insecurity has been a major theme in our work with mobile pastoralists in the Far North Region of Cameroon, who have suffered deadly cattle raids for decades. However, recently they have suffered from kidnappings by heavily armed gangs who hold children for ransom in exchange for millions of FCFA (thousands of dollars). This has extorted a great toll on pastoralists and their families, including this father and his three children. Title: Father with children (Far North Region, Cameroon, March 2011). Photo courtesy Mark Moritz
-
- Caption: The valley of Yazgulom in the Pamir mountains in Tajikistan has about 5,000 residents. Due to its isolation, its language is distinct from other Pamiri languages. Farming practices remain basic. In the 1992-98 Tajik civil war, Yazgulom was a center of resistance to government and Russian military forces. Approximately 500 Yazgulomis were killed. Among those old enough to remember, the war seems like yesterday. Contrasting their culture to other Tajiks, Yazgulomis describe their womenfolk as free. Many Yazgulomi women and girls requested I take their photos. This photo, taken at dusk, is of a young woman and a girl. Tragically, two days later the woman’s child was still-born. Title: Two Yazgulomis – Yazgulom, Tajikistan, July 19 2011. Photo courtesy Damon Lynch
-
- Caption: For many Tajiks, Romas are probably the most disliked of all social groups. Although they constitute a tiny percentage of Tajikistan’s population, they are highly visible because they beg. Tajiks often wondered why I bothered to photograph them, let alone befriend them. This Roma girl was with two other Roma girls. One of them I had photographed the year before. When her companion and I realized we’d met before, she excitedly told the other two girls about the set of prints I had previously given her. At this point their head scarfs were immediately removed and a new set of photos requested. I was more than happy to obey. Title: Luli (Roma) girl – Dushanbe, Tajikistan, June 23 2011. Photo courtesy Damon Lynch
-
- Caption: Ifugao tribal people have inhabited the mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines for many centuries. They are rice paddy farmers who still retain many aspects of their traditional culture, such as their native dress. The photo of a mother and daughter from Manila visiting their more traditional relatives in Banaue, Ifugao province makes it clear, though, that the forces of modernization are inescapable and inexorable. Title: Ifugao people of northern Luzon, traditional and modern. Photo courtesy Barry Kass
-
- Caption: I took this monk’s photo early on a Sunday morning while visiting the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar State, India. I like to visit the temple on Sunday mornings as one of the local Tibetan temples frequently have their young monks lined up and chanting on the steps leading down to the Bodhi Tree. The young monk in this photo appeared to be by himself. It was a cold morning and he walked with me as I circled the temple. I took his photo and then showed it to him, which made him smile. Neither of us spoke the other’s language, but I believe that we were able to communicate, at least a little bit, through the photo. Title: Very Young Buddhist Monk, Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, 2010. Photo courtesy Margaret Karnyski
-
- Caption: I took this photo Halloween night in Bodh Gaya, Bihar State, India, where I was teaching anthropology for Antioch University’s Education Abroad program. That evening, students and faculty were off to a Halloween party, an American tradition not practiced in Bodh Gaya. The Hindu festival celebrating the goddess Durga had recently taken place. One student, Maria, took her costume inspiration from that festival and dressed up as the goddess Durga. When we left the Buddhist monastery where we were living, Maria created quite a stir. Local community members appeared stunned at the sight of her! At first I did not recognize her, what with her being colored green. Title: American-Style Halloween in Bodh Gaya, Bihar State, India 2010. Photo courtesy Margaret Karnyski
-
- Caption: A female patient considers her future as the first songs ring out for a seven-day magical treatment in rural Haiti. The Oungan prepares remedies for the patient’s present misfortunes just as he helps direct her future using magical bundles. “How much of the future can I change? All of it. Spirits can be convinced to do anything God won’t. So I pray to him, I give food to the Lwa, and sometimes I tell people to go to the hospital.” Delle, a local Mambo, reflects on securing multiple paths to a proper course of treatment. The future, just like any other roadblock to life, can be overcome with the artistry and expertise of the peristil. Title: No Fate. Photo courtesy Aliss Jordan
-
- Caption: At their small settlement, Maasai men demonstrate their technique for obtaining fresh cattle blood, a key component of their diet. Helping to direct the temporary blood flow from the animal’s jugular vein is the tip of a plastic hypodermic syringe inserted into a small cut made by an arrow shot at close range. Looking on were fifteen Americans, the first foreign tourists to visit the compound. The hours-long intercultural exchange included a private gathering of women inside a house, where the Maasai women queried the visitors about American sexual and domestic practices. Title: “Maasai Men Harvesting Cattle Blood” by Doranne Jacobson. Northern Tanzania, June, 2010. Photo courtesy Doranne Jacobson
-
- Caption: A village potter creates a water storage vessel, continuing a subcontinental tradition of more than 4,000 years. His young son looks on, starting to learn skills passed from father to son for untold generations. India’s potter castes proudly bear the title Prajapati, or Lord of Creatures, reflecting their ability to transform ordinary clay into essential household and ritual vessels as well as sacred images. Today, however, increasing use of plastic and tin containers is putting many potters out of business. This potter’s brother works as a van driver, and his son may not be able to earn a living practicing their ancestral occupation. Title: “Shaping an Earthen Pot” by Doranne Jacobson. Nimkhera, Madhya Pradesh, India, March, 2010. Photo courtesy Doranne Jacobson
-
- Caption: The youth of Mistissini, a Cree community in northeastern Quebec, is caught between the modern reality in which they live and the cultural heritage with which they often have little contact. A cultural camp runs three times a year and provides the Mistissini youth with an opportunity to learn about their culture and heritage from elders and other knowledgeable men and women. Ronnie Loon (on this picture) teaches the near forgotten art of weaving fishnets and also serves as a spiritual guide on the camp. As Ronnie weaves his nets his teachings become resources for the Cree youth to face their modern lives. Title: Weaving Culture. Photo courtesy Francois Guindon
-
- Caption: At Christmas time in the mountains of Ayacucho, Peru, people organize “chocolatadas” or hot chocolate parties, for the children. Each child comes with a mug and a piece of firewood to contribute to brewing the hot chocolate. In this photo, a seven-year-old boy holds his younger brother on one knee and his empty mug of hot chocolate on the other as they watch other children dance late into the night. Photo courtesy Kate Grim-Feinberg. Title: Chocolatada (December 15, 2010, southern Ayacucho, Peru). Photo courtesy Kate Grim-Feinberg
-
- Caption: An elderly Sikh man reflect of his past by through pictures of his family that line the shelves of his living room. Title: Roots of Love, Chandigarh India 2010. Photo courtesy Harjant Gill
-
- Caption: These men are watching a competitive chess match in a park on a weekday morning in Sofia when most other Bulgarians are at work. Whereas the communist government once guaranteed full employment to all, the transition to capitalism has meant that many men are unable to find jobs. Unemployment often deprives them of the opportunity to publicly perform their masculinity through productive labor. On top of the financial hardships, these men long for the structure and sociality that stable work provides. The ongoing chess matches and the regular community of almost exclusively male spectators is a public space where the unemployed can congregate and enjoy the camaraderie of other men. Title: “Checkmate Masculinity.” Sofia, Bulgaria, June 2011. Photo courtesy Kristen Ghodsee
-
- Caption: This photo of an elderly woman who was begging outside of a church in the center of Sofia shows her taking a short break to read a message on her mobile phone. She sat in the park behind the church for hours performing the role of a helpless grandmother, someone irrevocably damaged by the transition from communism to capitalism and in need of generosity from her fellow citizens. Yet at the insistent buzzing of her phone, she put on a pair of thick reading glasses to read and instantly respond to a text message. The deft movement of her fingers on the keypad was a sharp contradiction to the Bulgarian “baba” stereotype she was mobilizing to gain sympathy among passers-by. Title: “Dear Citizens, please help me.” Sofia, Bulgaria, July 2011. Photo courtesy Kristen Ghodsee
-
- Caption: An old Miao woman selling flower-wreaths was napping at the side of a street in Tuo River Town on a hot summer day. Business for her was poor that day despite the steady influx of tourists. Since 2002, an outside tourism company leased the major natural and cultural resources in Fenghuang County of China for fifty years to develop tourism. Outside investors along with a few local elites monopolized the profit in this “prosperous” tourism business, only leaving a slim margin for local rural villagers to make a little money. Involving dominantly school-aged children and woman at all ages, selling flower-wreaths to tourists was one of the few tourism-related business left to the local poor. Title: A Miao Flower Lady, June 19, 2011. Photo courtesy Xianghong Feng
-
- Caption: A Miao woman was enjoying singing at their liu yue liu Festival. The festival is held annually in Gouliang Village in western Hunan, China, sponsored by the local government. It features Miao singing competition among other Miao traditional performances. It attracts many Miao song masters and singers from western Hunan and eastern Guizhou. With a rich culture of oral traditions, singing used to be an important skill for them to communicate in their daily life, an art that is slowly disappearing due to the gradual penetrating of the market economy to their remote communities. The festival provides them a rare opportunity to put on their festival attire and show off their singing once a year. Title: A Miao singer at the liu yue liu (the sixth of June in lunar calendar) Festival, July 6, 2011. Photo courtesy Xianghong Feng
-
- Caption: The local Shinto shrine in my neighborhood held its annual fall festival in October, 2010. A major part of the festival is the parading of the deity enshrined in the shrine throughout the neighborhood on a danjiri cart. It is a great challenge to manage the cart through the narrow streets and under the many power lines. The cart stops at residences and shops who have given a donation to perform a blessing ritual. The festival is lively and brings together people of all ages and walks of life in the community. This photo captures a rare quiet, pensive moment by a young participant in the midst of all the excitement and ritual. Title: “Young Boy Strikes a Pensive Pose,” Ubusuna Jinja Fall Festival, Kadoma City, Japan, October 17, 2010. Photo courtesy Steven Fedorowicz
-
- Caption: 76-year-old Ringgit gently handles his prime fighting cock after dressing its wounds from a recent cockfight. For several months Ringgit’s clan had been in conflict with a neighbouring clan over ownership to a piece of forest. It was decided that the dispute should be solved through a cockfight with the winning party gaining control of the forest. Besides, from being important arenas for networking and making deals cockfights are often used by the Iban in West Kalimantan, Indonesia to settle internal disagreement and disputes. In this remote part of Indonesia where state institutions are weak, customary law still plays a crucial role in conflict settlement. Title: The Fighting Cock. West Kalimantan, Indonesia. April 2011. Photo courtesy Michael Eilenberg
-
- Caption: While working in Darfur, I spent a great deal of time at well sites. This child appeared abandoned. Title: Child of Darfur. Photo courtesy Jeffery Deal
-
- Caption: Elaine Lameman comes from Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Alberta, Canada. Her family is spearheading a legal case against the Tar Sands oil operations in the Canadian North. Elaine took me on an excursion to the Oil Sands Discovery Centre in Fort McMurray–a museum of sorts. In the Centre, Elaine asked for two tickets “for the Tar Sands exhibit.” “The *Oil* Sands” pointedly rephrased the ticket-seller, using “neutral” language of the pro-Sands discourse. “Did you hear that?” Elaine asked me, as we walked away “Make sure you write that down!” In the photograph Elaine is outside the Centre, in front of a metal post onto which all visitors glue their visitor stickers after their excursions. Title: Outside the Oil Discovery Centre (July 2010, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada). Photo courtesy Veronica Davidov
-
- Caption: Jeanne Noah is a Bagyeli activist from the Bipindi region of Cameroon. The Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline runs through her village. Pipeline construction damaged the local ecosystem, affecting the Bagyeli traditional hunter-gatherer practices. As their forest is exploited and taken away from them, the Bagyeli are reluctantly moving towards a sedentary, agricultural lifestyle, associated with poverty and discrimination from local Bantu farmers. Jeanne travels around the world to raise awareness about injustices experienced by the Bagyeli as a result of the pipeline; on the wall of her mud hut she keeps photographs of all the places where she has been in her capacity as a Bagyeli spokesperson. Title: Where She Has Been (August 2010, Bipindi, South Region of Cameroon). Photo courtesy Veronica Davidov
-
- Caption: This Kankurang performed for the Jabang family and their community during a Naming Ceremony for children. This is a Mandinka tradition performed in The Gambia. Title: The Kankurang Dances During a Naming Ceremony in The Gambia. Photo courtesy Flordeliz Bugarin
-
- Caption: To celebrate their children, the Jabang family hosted a Naming Ceremony. This Mandinka Naming Ceremony involved dancing throughout the night, music, and a visit from the Kankurang (a masked dancer who is covered in leaves). Title: Mothers of a Naming Ceremony in The Gambia. Photo courtesy Bugarin Flordeliz
-
- Caption: Preparing to break the Ramadan fast with his extended family, a man prepares small Nile perch caught in the fetid river running through the center of the city for frying. Six years ago, most of them were evicted from a well-established squatter’s settlement a kilometer downstream; the previous location housed over 200 families and had its own prayer room and study center. This family was one of the pioneers there, and charged rent to many of the other squatters. Now they make do with an isolated tent only a fraction of the size of their previous dwelling, but if they can keep from being evicted again, they have hopes of pioneering another settlement around them. Title: Small fry–Surabaya, Indonesia: August 2011. Photo courtesy S Chris Brown
-
- Caption: Jains control the majority of the trade in emeralds, but Muslim workers do the vast bulk of the manual labor. Tons of rough stones are sorted, cut, faceted and polished in the workshops of the Pahar Ganj, the Muslim quarter of Jaipur’s Pink City. Jains respect Islamic artisans for their skill, but there is an air of mistrust in their relationship. This is augmented by the fact that emeralds are notoriously difficult to appraise before they are cut. A non-descript green rock may reveal a magnificent jewel. A promising rough stone, bought for thousands of dollars, may disintegrate into powder on the lapidary’s wheel. Pilferage and chicanery abound. Jaipur’s Muslims succeed nonetheless. Title: Emerald Cutters. Photo courtesy Brian Brazeal
-
- Caption: This man is an educated, successful and established gemstone trader. The last time I saw him he was singing, sweating and bleeding as a large gentleman pulled out his beard and mustache, grabbing large hanks of hair, yanking them free from his face and rubbing ash on the affected roots. Why? A religious reputation is crucial to success because the emerald business is conducted in cash. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are committed among traders without even a handshake. You can only get this kind of credit if you are recognized as devout. Self-mortification is vivid proof of piety. People are happy to entrust thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of gems and debts to this man’s care. Title: Mortification. Photo courtesy Brian Brazeal
-
- Caption: Michele decided to pose with some beautiful “black” grapes for this photo. A farmer from the outskirts of Turin, Michele had an incredible number of different grapes for sale this particular day in September at the Porta Palazzo farmers market. Seeing and tasting all of the different grapes is an excellent reminder of the rich cultural and biodiversity that exists in the Piedmontese countryside and the importance of the farmers’ market in safeguarding this diversity. Title: Uva Nera, Porta Palazzo Market, Turin, Italy, September 2009. Photo courtesy Rachel Black
-
- Caption: During my fieldwork at the Porta Palazzo Market in Turin, I was fascinated by the presences of many illegal Moroccan mint vendors. They play a cat-and-mouse game with the market police but always seemed to be present in the spaces in between the various market activities. The presence of formal economy always means the presence of informal economic activities. Title: Moroccan Mint Vendor, Porta Palazzo Market, Turin, Italy, September 2009. Photo courtesy Rachel Black
-
- Caption: This photo is introducing Kunjali from the Cheraman people. She has been the shaman for her community’s worship of Kali for fifty eight years. I was told that most temples are regulated by some board yet for this temple, Kunjali was the sole authority. The temple was no more than a fourth of a football field away from her house. Her granddaughter, and young apprentice, was assisting her to cleanse the idol and make the preparations for pooja. That led me to the conclusion that spiritual practices in this group are matriarchal. Photo courtesy Sarah Arth. Title: Wayanad, Kerala, India (July 3, 2011). Photo courtesy Sarah Arth
-
- Caption: Man butchers a marlin. Title: Marlin butcher, San Sauveur, Dominica, Summer 2009. Photo courtesy Alvard Michael
-
- Caption: Fishers from San Sauveur, Dominica prepare ‘attraction’ for a fish aggregating device. Title: FAD attraction, San Sauveur, Dominica, Summer 2009. Photo courtesy Alvard Michael
2 Trackbacks
[...] News « “People” Photo Entries “Practice” Photo Entries » 2011 AAA Photo Contest“Place” Photo [...]
[...] [...]