The Gradual Gaze: Drawing as a Practice of Ethnographic Description

Author(s)

Jasamin Kashanipour

Abstract

Nourished by my research’s theoretical and ethnographic resources,
this article explores the act of ethnographic drawing and its potential. I introduce a
concept of gaze that I call “the gradual gaze.” I suggest that drawing, which can transform
the gaze into the gradual gaze, is a creative and heuristic way of attentive thinking
and a process involving both unlearning and learning. The mimetic quality of drawing
strengthens the fieldworker’s eye and entails a search for connectedness with the environment
and people. The fieldworker’s domain of experience offers insight for understanding
the mimetic practice in drawing. However, this mimetic practice goes beyond
duality, imitation, and representation. This article explores the triangular relationship
between the fieldworker, the subject drawn, and the drawing.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Journal

Anthropology and Humanism

Volume

46

Pages

81-94

No. of pages

14

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/anhu.12325

Publication date

2021

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504008 Ethnography, 504009 Ethnology

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Anthropology, Philosophy, Literature and Literary Theory

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/the-gradual-gaze-drawing-as-a-practice-of-ethnographic-description(a891eb59-2a18-4235-844f-b738fa30e154).html