AAA congratulates the 2011 Photo Contest Winners Brian Brazeal, Flordeliz Bugarin, Jeffery Deal, Brian Donahoe, Michael Eilenberg, Xianghong Feng, Harjant Gill, Reighan Gillam, Andrea M Heckman, Doranne Jacobson, Alissa Jordan, Wendy Leicht, Damon Lynch, Maryse Morin, Noel B Salazar, Aleksandra Wierucka and Ariela Zycherman. AAA members voted on their favorites photos and Anthropology News is pleased to present them below. The photos were also on display at the AAA Annual Meeting in Montreal in November 2011.
A total of 93 eligible photos were included in the vote and photographers entered each photo into one of four categories. AAA members voted for their top 8 out of 40 People photos, top 6 out of 28 Practice photos, top 4 out of 17 Place photos, and top 2 out of 8 Process photos.
We’d like to thank everybody who participated in the photo contest, either by entering photos or by voting. We hope you participate again next time!
To see a photo in its entirety, just click on the photo you wish to view.
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- PRACTICE (Top selection): Dinka in Chains by Jeffery Deal. Caption: Dinka Agaar systems of justice still utilizes routine flogging, confinement, and confiscation of property. These men were chained together during a political conflict and photographed while we administered vaccines. Title: Dinka in Chains. Photo courtesy Jeffery Deal
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- PROCESS (Top selection): Hay un Comprador by Ariela Zycherman. Caption: Tsimane’ men construct and load rafts, bi-monthly, to transport and sell plantains. Demand for plantains in the Beni region has impacted the growth of Tsimane’ suppliers, as traders now regularly target Tsimane’ agriculturalists by sending weekly messages over the radio, traveling up and down the river, and bringing large trucks to the central river port. Tsimane’ now spend more time and area cultivating plantains for sale and household consumption. The development of the plantain industry has created a steadier cash flow for Tsimane’, who are becoming increasingly more reliant on marketplace commodities as forest resources are depleted and interactions with outsiders are more frequent. Title: “Hay Un Comprador” (Beni, Bolivia 11/2010). Photo courtesy Ariela Zycherman
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- PROCESS: Changing Times by Aleksandra Wierucka. Caption: The Indian woman talks on her cellular phone on the steps of the Sri Vadapathira Kaliamman Temple in Singapore. Anthropologist stays anthropologist in everyday situations. The picture was taken during the break from international scientific conference in Singapore, during the walk in Little India, the Indian part of the city. Used to the practice of not disturbing sacred places, I took the picture through the opening in the fence as I was taken by the colors, the grace of the Indian woman, the highly traditional surroundings and the very modern technology in use. The picture shows how all of this can coexist and complete each other. Title: Changing times. Photo courtesy Aleksandra Wierucka
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- PRACTICE: Sun Shines through the Drums of Buryat Shamans Taking Part in a Tajlagan Ritual by Aleksandra Wierucka. Caption: During research conducted in Buryatia, on the Olkhon Island on the Lake Bajkal (Russia), we had a chance to observe the work of Buryat shamans, mostly the ones belonging to a Tengeri group, as the ones on the picture, but also the ones that practice their art in tiny villages and do not want to talk to strangers. Our research was made possible by the fact that our country’s history is similar to the history of Buryatia and people, including shamans, wanted to talk to us as they would not talk to researchers from other parts of the world. We were tracing the recent changes in shamanistic practices in Buryatia. Title: The sun shines through the drums of Buryat shamans taking part in a Tajlagan ritual. Photo courtesy Aleksandra Wierucka
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- PRACTICE: Place Jemaa el Fna—Arret sur Image by Maryse Morin. Caption: This photography seems to beg to ask: In what space and time is this taking place? Is this a Rembrandt? A Delacroix? Or is it photography? While the bird’s eye view participate in questioning the form, for the acute eye, this “arret sur image” reveals objects and actions conjugated at the present tense superposing past and actual practices where transit locals, nomads and tourists. Time is being stopped in a multi-layered storytelling of immaterial quality. The place is “Jemaa el Fna,” declared by UNESCO Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. In my visual anthropology practice, I am particularly interested in drawing from interstice places where emerge and overlay more than one reality. Title: Place Jemaa el Fna—Arret sur image. Photo courtesy Maryse Morin
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- PRACTICE: Behind the Masks, Qoyllur Rit’i Pilgrimage by Andrea M Heckman. Caption: Dancers spend a year preparing by sewing sequins and adornment on their costumes to catch the sun’s light, and are judged by the quality, weight, and cost of their costumes as well as the symbolic significance of the designs. As these unmasked supporters walk side by side with the dancers, it is clear how the masked dancers take on another persona, an identity linked to myth and tradition. The stories are lived anew each year by the dancers and for that period of ritual time and space, they become the mythical beings by staying in costume and masked for the duration of the pilgrimage. Many dancers learn to dance when children and participate for long periods of their lives. Title: Behind the Masks, Qoyllur Rit’i pilgrimage, Southern Peru. Photo courtesy Andrea Heckman
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- PRACTICE: Capac Qolla Dancer, Qoyllur Rit’i Pilgrimage by Andrea M Heckman. Caption: The annual pilgrimage of Qoyllur Rit’i is sacred for people living around 20,800′ Ausangate peak in Southern Peru. Groups of supporters, called a comparsa, hike 3,000′ with the dancers carrying huge candles, costumes, food, musical instruments, and large crosses among other ritual objects. The dancers perform for up to one week in frigid alpine temperatures where they become the mythical characters they portray. Capac Qolla means “rich merchants” and these dancers have ornate costumes they prepare for one year. Ukukus, or the mythical bear characters stand all night on the glacier to have the honor to bring down a large chunk of ice to melt and drink with their dance groups. Title: Capac Qolla Dancer, Qoyllur Rit’i pilgrimage near Ausangate, Peru. Photo courtesy Andrea Heckman
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- PRACTICE: Shaman Show by Brian Donahoe. Caption: A row of shamans chants in unison at the opening of a tailgan, a public sacrifice and festival performed annually or seasonally at a sacred site to renew solidarity between a community and its local spirits. This tailgan, organized at Bukha-Noyon, a sacred site in Tunkinskii District, Buriatiia (Russia) as part of the symposium and festival “Psychophysiology and Social Adaptation of (Neo)Shamans in the Past and Present,” attracted artists, shamans, scholars, and tourists from around the world and offered participants the possibility of ‘addressing shamans channeling the spirits of the ancestors with your questions and problems.’ (August 2010) Title: Shaman Show (Buriatiia, Russia, August 2010). Photo courtesy Brian Donahoe
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- PLACE: Multi-faith Souvenir Stall by Noel B Salazar. Caption: Suharyono doesn’t have religious preferences. Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and folk religion trinkets have a place at his modest souvenir stall next to Prambanan Temple, a ninth century Hindu compound in Central Java, Indonesia. He sells miniatures of Prambanan’s main temples and some of the statues inside, and similar mementos for Borobudur, the neighboring eighth century Buddhist monument. After Prambanan was damaged during an earthquake in 2006, the world heritage site has had a hard time reaching the visitor numbers it used to attract. Having lost a sizeable percentage of their income, shop owners like Suharyono are desperate to sell something, anything. “Cheap price my priend!” Title: Multi-faith souvenir stall (Prambanan, Central Java, Indonesia; 30 July 2011). Photo courtesy Noel B. Salazar
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- PLACE: Vaitahu Rainbow and Volleyball by Wendy Leicht. Caption: This photo captures residents of Vaitahu, on the island of Tahuata, resuming their volleyball game after a mid-afternoon shower. The community engages in sports, like volleyball and soccer, in an effort to both have fun and stay fit. While an overwhelming number of post-colonial island communities in the Pacific suffer from major weight problems, the community of Vaitahu promotes physical activity, like volleyball, in an effort to prevent the emergence of serious health issues, especially among the youth population. Aside from the game, the major focal point in the photograph is the Catholic Church, an institution built by the French and attended by most locals on Sunday mornings. Title: Vaitahu Rainbow and Volleyball, Tahuata. Photo courtesy Wendy Leicht
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- PLACE: Urban Saci Graffiti in São Paulo, Brazil by Reighan Gillam. Caption: Saci is an Afro-Brazilian folkloric character commonly depicted standing on one leg, smoking a pipe, and wearing a red cap. He is nationally renowned as a trickster and the protagonist of minor pranks. Appearing on the outside of a commercial building in the centro district in Sao Paulo, this graffiti art reinterprets Saci within the context of urban life and critiques Brazilian racism. It visually illuminates the contradiction between Saci as an endearing figure of national sentiment and a potential threat should he physically appear in the street, where police would probably subject him to the scrutiny, harassment, and violence meted out to many Afro-Brazilians on a daily basis. Title: Urban Saci Graffiti in Sao Paulo, Brazil (July 2010). Photo courtesy Reighan Gillam
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- PLACE (Top selection): Agrarian Frontiers by Michael Eilenberg. Caption: Iban day labours, planting seedlings for a rapidly expanding oil palm plantation industry in Indonesian Borneo. In this forested corner of Indonesia the Iban has traditionally practiced swidden cultivation. Recently however these frontier areas of ‘unexploited’ lands and immense forest resources have been gazetted for large-scale state sponsored plantation schemes triggered by global demands for agricultural intensification. Within this developing plantation economy, the cash poor Iban embrace the immediate benefits of local employment. However, fears of exclusion from the long-term benefits of agriculture schemes and increased localized resource conflicts are immense. Title: Agrarian Frontiers. West Kalimantan, Indonesia. March 2011. Photo courtesy Michael Eilenberg
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- PEOPLE: Luli (Roma) Girl by 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
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- PEOPLE: No Fate by Alissa Jordan. 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
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- PEOPLE (Top selection): Shaping an Earthen Pot by 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
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- PEOPLE: Roots of Love by Harjant Gill. 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
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- PEOPLE: A Miao Singer at the liu yue liu Festival by 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
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- PEOPLE: The Fighting Cock by Michael Eilenberg. 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
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- PEOPLE: Mothers of a Naming Ceremony in the Gambia by 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). Photo courtesy Bugarin Flordeliz
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- PEOPLE: Mortification by 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