CRITICAL ARTS
for Media Studies
A Journal

X Special Issue: Visual Anthropology

~

March 1981 Vol 1 No 4

CRITICAL ARTS

CRITICAL ARTS is the only journal in South Africa devoted entirely
to the study of the relations between the media (in the widest
sense) and society at large.
Areas of interest include Television,
Film, Radio, the Performing Arts, Theatre, Music, the Press, and
informal media channels.
CRITICAL ARTS has a radical perspective and concerns itself with
media and communication in a Third World context.
The journal is
polemic.
It seeks to establish relevant critical frameworks for
the study of the media in an apartheid society and offers inter-
pretations from the point of view of popular culture.
CRITICAL ARTS aims to challenge the existing social structures and
social relations which govern the status quo orientation of South
Africa's media institutions.

SOUTH AFRICAN CINEMA (Available)
CENSORSHIP IN SOUTH AFRICA (Available)
DRAMA AND THEATRE IN SOUTH AFRICA (Available)
VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY (Available)

No 1
No 2
No 3
No 4
S~BSCRI~TIONS are R3.00 (local) and $6.00 (overseas) for 4 Issues.
SIngle Issues are available at RO,80c each.

Grahamstown6140, SouthAfrica

A Journal for Media Studies
RhodesUniversity,POBox 94:
WRITE TO:
CRITICAL ARTS

c/o Deptof Journalismand media Studies,

;.:,

CONTENTS

Vol.

1 No.

4

February 1981

MAJOR ARTICLES
1.

2.

3.

4.

-

Pictures:

"Seei ng Through
Jay Ruby
'''Can You Imagine Anything
Breaker Morant"
"At the Heart of Darkness.
Victor Nell
"Steyn Commi ssion 1:
Lester Switzer
REPORT
"Ethnographic

CONFERENCE
5.
FILM REVIEWS
6.

The Anthropology of Photog~aphy"

-

More Australian?'

Bruce Beresford's

Susan Gardner

Eichmann and Apocalypse Now"

-

.

The Press and Total Strategy"

-

Film Festival"

-

John van Zyl

3

17

28

41

46

49

51
55

"Review of Three Ethnographic
Oral Narrative bv Venancio Mbande and A"udrev Bronson" -
John van Zyl

The Chop; Timbila Dance,

Films:

BOOK REVIEW
7.

Realism and the Cinema edited by Christopher Williams
Reviewed

by Keyan Tomaselli

-

RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

is a doctoral

of Queensland,

is professor

Film making at Sante Fe and an editor

of Visual Anthropology at Temple University, Philadelphia.

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Jay.Ruby
He 1S also the Director
of Ethnographic
of the Journal of Visual Communications
Susan Gardner
U~iversity
Victor Nell lectures
lester Switzer is Professor of Journalism and Media studies, Rhodes University.
John van Zyl is Senior Lecturer
the Witwatersrand.
Keyan Tomaselli
the Witwatersrand.

is Senior Tutor in the School of Dramatic Art, University of

in the Dept. of Psychology, University of South Africa

student and was formally with the Dept. of English,

in the School of Dramatic Art, University of

Australia

EDITORIAL

Future issues will deal with Pcrformanse in Southern

This fourth issue marks the culmination of the first year of Critical Arts:
A Journal for Media Studies.
The Editors believe that the prime objective
of establishing a journal I.thichpa'vesthe <l3.Ytowards a the0retica~ ground-
ing for the study of communications media in South Africa has been estab-
lished within this initial volume.
The perspN,tive which h.1semerged is a
contextual one, studying the media and the arts in terms of history, popular
culture and social structures.
Special issu£:shave sought to derive relevant
problematics for specific areas of study which include South Mrican
Cine,na,
Censorship, South African OJ'amaand Theatre, Advertising, ~w:l in this edition,
Visual Anthtopo!ogy.
Africa and Broadcasting in Africa.
Our paradigm reposes within a radical context and for this reason we intend
extending our interests into Third ~Jorld issues in gen8ral.
are furthermore of the opinion that the study of media should be seen against
the background of a critical assessment of development, social history and
the political economy.
We therefore invite submissions from scholars involved
in the study of media within this framework.
With this expansion of interests
in mind, we have appointed Robert Starn,who is an associate professor i~
Cinema Studies at New York State University, to the ~ditorial Board.
special interest is Tnird World media, particulu3rly,
Brazilian cinema.
The unifying theme of this issue is that of visual anthropology.
This discipline
has attracted a great deal of interest ever the last decade and has been largely
such dS Margret Mead, Frances MacGregor,
informed by eminent anthropologists
In the first article Jay Ruby sets out a
Gregory Bateson and Sol Worth.
to construct an anthro~ology of visua, communication of
research design
a particular middle American community.
This paper has relevance to South
Africa where similar studies are lacking.
Susan Gardner's article points
to the conclusion that even though Breaker Morant 'isabout an event which
occurred during the Anglo-Boer War, its inherent ideology tells the viewer
as much about Australian social relationships as it does about the event it-
self.
ideology which has circumscribed lived relationships within the film's text.
The article which follows by Victor Nell on Apocalypse Now examines the con-
cept of evil in terms of neo-colonial relations of exploitation.
how both fiction and cinema are forms which can be used to explore relations
between dominant and dominated.
fhe article by lester Switzer on Steyn Commission 1 is included in this issue
Co provide the background for understanding the objectives of the second
Steyn Commission into the Mass Media.
Finally, we should like to thank all those who assisted the Editorial Board
in refereeing articles s~bmitted for publication during the past year:
Sue,
8a99, Ampie Coetzee, Heinrich Dahms, Clem Oruker, Drene Nupen, Tony Parr,
Paul Roumanoff

Jay Ruby and Ruth Tomasell i.

Here, the ar'thropology of visual communication

is informed by Australian

The Editors

Bob's

He shows

Cover design by Paul Rour.~noff

2