SVA Announcement: A Virtual Talk at the American Anthropological Association 2021 Annual Meeting - 「Visual Ethnography of Drinking Establishments in Japan」

Announcement: A Virtual Talk at the American Anthropological Association 2021 Annual Meeting - 「Visual Ethnography of Drinking Establishments in Japan」

It's time for the AAA! If you are registered, you can see my presentation (on-demand) and so much more...

Abstract

This research project is a visual ethnography based upon over two years of fieldwork at a local drinking establishment in Japan examining photography in public, privacy issues and image rights. The intended final product was a photo exhibition with prints illustrating the atmosphere of the shop along with portraits of the owner, employees and regular customers. But rather than a final product I found the exhibition and interactions with the gallery audience to be a source of important data about the photographs, the subjects and spectators. Viewers were doing more than merely looking at my photographs, they were analyzing, scrutinizing, reacting and providing various interpretations and valuable feedback, shedding light in terms of heuristic processes, meaning-creation, evocation and multivocality. In this presentation I will discuss the "post-fieldwork encounters" of the photo exhibition as a research method and a collaborative media event along the lines of the relatively new multimodal perspective in visual anthropology.

I should say, I went old school with a talking head presentation. It might seem odd that a talk about a visual ethnography has no photos. But to be honest, the accessibility requirements made it virtually impossible to do a visual presentation like I would usually do. I am not criticizing accessibility in general, but the AAA, in my opinion, has become too politically correct and turned barrier free into accessibility for some at the expense of others. Barrier free should be barrier free for all... Still, a lot of good stuff at the AAA. Check it out.

2021 AAA Annual Meeting Website
https://annualmeeting.americananthro.org/

"Acquisition of Sign Languages" in Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 7, 2021

Abstract (in case it is too small to read in the image above): Natural sign languages of deaf communities are acquired on the same time scale as that of spoken languages if children have access to fluent signers providing input from birth. Infants are sensitive to linguistic information provided visually, and early milestones show many parallels. The modality may affect various areas of language acquisition; such effects include the form of signs (sign phonology), the potential advantage presented by visual iconicity, and the use of spatial locations to represent referents, locations, and movement events. Unfortunately, the vast majority of deaf children do not receive accessible linguistic input in infancy, and these children experience language deprivation. Negative effects on language are observed when first-language acquisition is delayed. For those who eventually begin to learn a sign language, earlier input is associated with better language and academic outcomes. Further research is especially needed with a broader diversity of participants.

While I am glad to see this article, it is sad that these facts aren't common knowledge among linguists, anthropologists and the general public.

URL: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-043020-092357

Alternative Media for Visual Anthropology - check out the Graphic Ethnography in Anthropology News (especially Signs in ‘Toons)

URL: https://www.anthropology-news.org/issue/graphic-ethnography/

Image borrowed from Erich Fox Tree's "Signs in ‘Toons." URL and citation below.

Signs in 'Toons

For one anthropologist comic-style graphics provide a means to document, study, and strengthen Indigenous Mesoamerican sign languages. Linguistic ethnography within (non-tactile) sign language communities is almost inherently visual. Without images, how would one capture and convey how signers communicate?

Photography and video are not always acceptable for disseminating visual data and findings, let alone conducting fieldwork itself. Photos add expense to printing, and photocopied photos become undecipherable blurs. More problematically, cameras may be forbidden in ritual contexts, or participants and researchers may negatively associate them with witchcraft, exploitation, distraction, wealth, or past trauma. In rural Guatemala, where I work, many find electricity, phones, and Internet access costly and unreliable.

My solution for preserving data is to draw cartoon-style caricatures. For research on Mesoamerican sign languages, cartoon graphics are not just a means of documenting signed linguistic discourses; they can reiterate and embody some of the ancient techniques that Indigenous artisans used to represent ancestral signs or gestures.

Read the entire article:

Fox Tree, Erich. 2021. “Signs in ‘Toons.” Anthropology News website, October 15, 2021.
URL: https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/signs-in-toons/

Pumpkins don't last as long as they used to...

"It's the Great Pumpkin..." in Japan

More from the park...

Old playground equipment out, new equipment (almost) in... the new slide and monkey bars are much smaller and lower than the old ones much to the chagrin of my daughter (but actually she seems more interested in the Nintendo Switch these days than playing in the park...)

Announcement: Nov. 6, 2021 - ICC Lecture Series with Professor Eric C. Rath - "Sushi Before Sushi, Umami Before Umami" - The Hidden (Fermented) History of Japanese Food

Announcement from Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture.

Register here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=p-YOaaVN3E-jFrtZnYKl0pSDtnsMuJVAtzRnSitkskJUN1FGTUc5OFdGRkRERTJLWjNBN1RNNDdWNy4u

After at least a year, I went to Osaka today (only a half hour train ride away): First stop - Umeda and the Hanshin Department Store to buy some Tigers paraphernalia, but most of what I wanted was sold out - STRIKE ONE; second stop - Tsuruhashi to buy some Korean ginseng candies that have helped me wake up for morning Zoom classes, but that too, was sold out - STRIKE TWO; last stop - a delicious and comfortable yakiniku restaurant - HOMERUN! (Please note I am not one to often post pictures of my meals...)