The Visible Evidence of Cultural Producers

This review discusses anthropological research that analyzes the practices through which individuals and groups produce music, video, film, visual arts, and theater, and the ideological and institutional frameworks within which these processes occur. Viewing these media and popular culture forms as arenas in which social actors struggle over social meanings and as visible evidence of social processes and social relations, this research addresses the social, political, and aesthetic dimensions of these productions. The review considers the ways these studies treat the material and discursive practices of cultural producers as complex, often contradictory, sites of social reproduction and as potential sites of social transformation. It also considers the ways this research responds to the challenges associated with conducting fieldwork and producing ethnography in and about a global economy and “media-saturated” world.