[Anthropgrad] Research School of Humanities - Work-in-Progress Seminar - C Pennacini

[Sharon Komidar]

Dear All, would you please circulate the following on your email lists.
Apologies for cross posting. Many Thanks, Sharon.

 

The Research School of Humanities presents,
A WORK-IN-PROGRESS SEMINAR

1- 2.30 pm, Friday 11th July 2008, Theatrette, Old Canberra House

Body, Mimesis and Vision: Filming African Spirit Possession

 

Dr Cecilia Pennacini

Cultural Anthropology, University of Turin

 

Spirit possession, the "elementary form" of most African traditional
religions, is essentially a sensual experience based on corporeal
language. It is a technique of the senses (seeing "visions", hearing
"voices", feeling kinesthetic sensations) that enable people to
communicate one to each other overcoming the limits of the individual
body and even of different languages and cultures. Because of its
fundamental non-verbal dimension, it is developed and transmitted
mimetically. Due to these characteristics, possession has been a
classical topic for many ethnological films. Using ethnographic film
samples, this paper will analyse some of the results of the encounter
between cinema as a way of observing anthropological realities and the
visionary language of possession. Since spirit possession, body
languages and mimesis normally overcome cultural boundaries, this topic
is one part of the research I will carry out during my visiting
programme in Canberra, in the context of a broader reflection on the
place of vision and images in intercultural communication. 

 

Cecilia Pennacini studied cinematographic direction in Milan and
Cultural Anthropology at the University of Turin, were she achieved her
Ph.D. in 1996 with a Dissertation on the Spirit Possession Cult of the
Great Lakes' Region of Africa. Having worked for several years for RAI,
Radio Televisione Italiana, as Assistant Director and Director, she then
became Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Turin,
Department of Anthropological, Archaeological and Historical-territorial
Sciences. She teaches Ethnology and Visual Anthropology at the
University of Turin and at the University Suor Orsola Benincasa in
Naples. 

 

Convenors: Ken Taylor and Stephen Foster
For general enquiries please contact: 
Phone: 6125 2434
Email: administration.rsh at anu.edu.au 
Web: http://rsh.anu.edu.au/
All Welcome