Ethnofiction

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Subfield of ethnography

title: "Ethnofiction" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ethnography", "visual-anthropology", "anthropology-documentary-films", "film-genres", "cinematic-techniques", "drama-genres", "documentary-film-genres", "ethnofiction-films", "fiction-by-genre", "fiction-forms", "television-genres"] description: "Subfield of ethnography" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnofiction" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Subfield of ethnography ::

Ethnofiction is a subfield of ethnography which produces works that introduce art, in the form of storytelling, "thick descriptions and conversational narratives", and even first-person autobiographical accounts, into academic works.

In addition to written texts, the term has also been used in the context of filmmaking, where it refers to ethnographic docufiction, a blend of documentary and fictional film. It is a film type in which, by means of fictional narrative or creative imagination, often improvised, the portrayed characters (natives) play their own roles as members of an ethnic or social group.

History

Ethnologist Jean Rouch is considered to be the father of ethnofiction, with Robert Flaherty as an ancestor. Rouch discovered that a filmmaker interferes with the event he registers: the behavior of the portrayed individuals, the natives, will be affected by the camera's presence. Contrary to the principles of Marcel Griaule, his mentor, Rouch considers it impossible for a non-participating camera to record "pure" events in ethnographic research.

An ethnographer cameraman, in this view, will be accepted as a natural partner by the actors who play their roles. The cameraman will be one of them, and may even be possessed by the rhythm of dancers during a ritual celebration and induced in a state of cine-trance. Rouch thus introduced the actor as a tool in research.

Ethnofiction has also been developed in Portuguese cinema. Ethnic films have been common in Portugal since the 1930s, particularly from the 1960s to the 1980s and in the early 21st century. The remote Trás-os-Montes region in Portugal and the former Portuguese colonies of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde islands are common subjects of such films. These films depict local realities along with legends and surreal imagery, producing works of ethnofiction.

Chronology

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Footnotes

References

  1. VanSlyke-Briggs, Kjersti. (2009-09-01). "Consider ethnofiction". Ethnography and Education.
  2. McNamara, Patricia. (2009-06-01). "Feminist Ethnography: Storytelling that Makes a Difference". Qualitative Social Work.
  3. Bochner, Arthur P.. (2012-01-01). "On first-person narrative scholarship: Autoethnography as acts of meaning". Narrative Inquiry.
  4. [https://www.maitres-fous.net/glossary.html Glossary] at MAITRES_FOUS.NET
  5. (2010). "The Adventure of the Real: Jean Rouch and the Craft of Ethnographic Cinema". University of Chicago Press.
  6. link. (2012-04-02 – Article by Sybil Amber)
  7. [http://elnil.org/Pictorializing.htm From Pictorializing to Visual Anthropology1] {{Webarchive. link. (2015-06-26 – Chapter from "Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology")
  8. (July 2006). "From Representation to Evocation: Tracing a Progression in Jean Rouch's ''Les magiciens de Wanzerbé'', ''Les maîtres fous'', and ''Jaguar''". Visual Anthropology.
  9. (2002). "L'ethnofiction à l'œuvre. Prisme et images de l'entité dogon". Ethnologies Comparées.
  10. [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3504425.stm Father of 'cinema verite' dies] – BBC news
  11. [http://www.indiana.edu/~wanthro/theory_pages/Rouch.htm BIOGRAPHIES: Jean Rouch] – Article by Ben Michaels at [http://www.indiana.edu/ Indiana University]
  12. [http://www.rouge.com.au/3/rouch_tribute.html A Tribute to Jean Rouch] by Paul Stoller at [http://www.rouge.com.au/ Rouge]
  13. [[Ethnographic film#Origins. Ethnographic Film]] (origines)
  14. [http://www.maitres-fous.net/Cooper.html Knowing Images: Jean Rouch's Ethnography] <- Chapter from Sarah Cooper's monograph "Selfless Cinema?: Ethics and French Documentary" (Oxford: Legenda, 2006) at [http://www.maitres-fous.net/home.html MAITRES-FOUS.net]
  15. "Cine-trance".
  16. [http://der.org/jean-rouch/pdf/American_Anthropologist_Tribute.pdf Cine-trance: a Tribute to Jean Rouch](Visual Anthropology, American Anthropologist)
  17. [https://ukvisualanthropology.com/2010/11/09/ethnofiction-and-the-work-of-jean-rouch/ Ethnofiction and the Work of Jean Rouch], article by [https://ukvisualanthropology.com/2010/10/27/reuben-ross/ Reuben Ross], UK Visual Anthropology, November 9, 2010
  18. [https://vimeo.com/tag:ethnofiction Videos about ethnofiction on Vimeo]
  19. (2 February 2019). "Blurred Boundaries: Ethnofiction and Its Impact on Postwar Japanese Cinema". Arts.
  20. [https://cinea.be/coming-of-age-as-other-indigenous-people-in-the-ethnofiction-film-the-dead-and-the-others/ Coming of Age as Other: Indigenous People in the Ethnofiction Film 'The Dead and The Others'] – article at [https://cinea.be/ CINEA], 14 december 2018
  21. {{usurped
  22. [http://www.david-golias.com/cinema/documentarios/terra-longe/ Terra Longe], [http://www.david-golias.com/ David & Golias]

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ethnographyvisual-anthropologyanthropology-documentary-filmsfilm-genrescinematic-techniquesdrama-genresdocumentary-film-genresethnofiction-filmsfiction-by-genrefiction-formstelevision-genres