Visual anthropology is a subfield of social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media. More recently it has been used by historians of science and visual culture. Although sometimes wrongly conflated with ethnographic film, visual anthropology encompasses much more, including the anthropological study of all visual representations such as dance and other kinds of performance, museums and archiving, all visual arts, and the production and reception of mass media. Histories and analyses of representations from many cultures are part of visual anthropology: research topics include sandpaintings, tattoos, sculptures and reliefs, cave paintings, scrimshaw, jewelry, hieroglyphics, paintings and photographs. Also within the province of the subfield are studies of human vision, properties of media, the relationship of visual form and function, and applied, collaborative uses of visual representations.
Nggàm is a type of divination found among many groups in western Cameroon. Among the best documented is its practice by the Mambila people of Cameroon and Nigeria, in which the actions of spiders or crabs are interpreted by the diviner. The form used by the neighbouring Yamba people was described by Gebauer in 1964 based on experience in Mbem going back to before 1939, and more recently by Hermann Gufler. Good documentation of Nggam has been also published for the Bekpak (Bafia) people by Dugast and for Bamileke people by Pradeles de Latour. The crab form has been studied in north Cameroon by Walter van Beek.
Daniel Miller is an anthropologist who is closely associated with studies of human relationships to things, the consequences of consumption and digital anthropology. His theoretical work was first developed in Material Culture and Mass Consumption and is summarised more recently in his book Stuff. This work transcends the usual dualism between subject and object and studies how social relations are created through consumption as an activity.
The Tikar are a Central African ethnic group in Cameroon. They are known to be great artists, artisans and storytellers. Once a nomadic people, some oral traditions trace the origin of the Tikar people to the Nile River Valley in present-day Sudan. According to the Bamenda City Council the Tikari groups migrated from Northern Nigeria to settle in the highlands of western Cameroon. Such ethnic groups were referred to in the 1969 official statistics as "Semi-Bantus" and "Sudanese Negroes." They speak a Northern Bantoid language called Tikar. One of the few African ethnic groups to practice a monotheistic traditional religion, the Tikar refer to God the Creator by the name Nyuy. They also have an extensive spiritual system of ancestral reverence.
The Mambilla or Mambila people of Nigeria live on the Mambilla Plateau. A small fraction of Mambilla migrants left the Mambilla Plateau for the Ndòm Plain on the Cameroon side of the international border as well as in a couple of small villages, such as New Nàmba, on the Gashaka Plain in the north, and Jiini-Nyalang-Langa area close to the Kwanja. The Mambilla also occupy the Nyorrong-Lii-Ngùum area of Cameroon and are traceable in history to the Bang District of Mambilla Plateau. Today, the preferred ethnonym is spelt Mambila in Cameroon and Mambilla in Nigeria. "Norr" is also used.
Edwin Ardener (1927–1987) was a British social anthropologist and academic. He was also noted for his contributions to the study of history. Within anthropology, some of his most important contributions were to the study of gender, as in his 1975 work in which he described women as "muted" in social discourse.
The Mambilla Plateau is a plateau in the Taraba State of Nigeria. The Mambilla Plateau has an average elevation of about 1,600 metres (5,249 ft) above sea level, making it the highest plateau in Nigeria. Some of its villages are situated on hills that are at least 1,828 metres (5,997 ft) above sea level. Some mountains on the plateau and around it are over 2,000 metres (6,562 ft) high, like Gang or Chappal Waddi which has a height of 2,419 metres (7,936 ft) above sea level. It is the highest mountain in Nigeria and in West Africa. The Mambilla Plateau measures about 96 km (60 mi) along its curved length; it is 40 km (25 mi) wide and is bounded by an escarpment that is about 900 m (2,953 ft) high in some places. The plateau covers an area of over 9,389 square kilometres (3,625 sq mi).
Eugen Ritter von Zimmerer was an attorney, prosecutor and judge in Bavaria before he entered the colonial service in 1887 when he was in his 40s. He served in German colonies of Kamerun and Togo before being appointed as governor of Kamerun, serving between 1890 and 1893. Following that, Zimmerer was assigned to posts in Brazil, Chile and Haiti before retiring and returning to Germany.
Njerep (Njerup) is a Mambiloid language spoken in the Adamawa Region of Cameroon. Njerep is essentially extinct, with only 4 people who speak it at home. Though word lists and grammatical information have been collected from these people, the information remains fragmented.
Charles Kingsley Meek, or just C. K. Meek, was a British anthropologist. He wrote about the northern and southern tribes of Nigeria and studied the Jukun people. Meek took photographs during some of his field work.
Somié is a village in Bankim, Mayo-Banyo in the Adamawa Region of Cameroon. It is located near the Nigeria – Cameroon border at 6°28' N, 11° 27' E. It has an officially designated "second degree" chief, several schools, churches and mosques as well as a government health centre. There is a small solar power installation that has been providing electricity to the village since 2018. The Mambila people who live there are predominantly farmers.
African divination is divination practiced by cultures of Africa.
DikoMadeleine was the first wife of Chief Konaka of Somié and with him was one of the major actors negotiating the transition to Colonial rule and the introduction of Christianity among Mambila people in Cameroon.
Jacques Toussele was a Cameroonian photographer from Bamessingué near Mbouda in the Western Region of Cameroon.
Judith Melita Okely is a British anthropologist who is best known for her ethnographic work with the traveller gypsies of England. She is an Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Hull and Research Affiliate of the School of Anthropology, University of Oxford. Her research interests encompass fieldwork practice, gypsies, feminism, autobiography, visualism, landscape representations, and the aged, mainly within Europe. The UK Data Service lists her as a "Pioneer of Social Research".
Nicholas Justin Allen was an English physician and social anthropologist who specialized in Indo-European studies. Allen was Viceregent at Wolfson College, Oxford and Anthropology Editor of the Journal of Indo-European Studies.
Joseph Chila is a Cameroonian photographer from Mbouda in the West Region of Cameroon. For most of his working life he was based in Mayo-Darlé in Adamawa Region.
Samuel Finlak was a Cameroonian photographer originally from the Yamba village of Bongor, Ngwa, in Northwest Province of Cameroon. For most of his working life he was the resident photographer in Atta Village, Adamawa Region. He died on 8 January 2023.
Marcus John Banks (4 July 1960 – 23 October 2020 was an English visual anthropologist, who did fieldwork among the Jains in Leicester, England and Jamnagar, Gujarat, India. He was a prominent figure in the development of visual anthropology in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.
