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Filming the Making of Wajangs [Shadow Puppets]. Mead and Bateson’s field trip to study the Balinese of Indonesia and the Iatmul of Papua New Guinea from 1936—1939 was a landmark in the history of visual anthropology. Filming the Making of Wajangs [Shadow Puppets].
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Filming the Making of Wajangs [Shadow Puppets] Mead and Bateson’s field trip to study the Balinese of Indonesia and the Iatmul of Papua New Guinea from 1936—1939 was a landmark in the history of visual anthropology.
Filming the Making of Wajangs [Shadow Puppets] They took approximately 35,000 photographs, hundreds of feet of motion picture film and copious field notes. In this sequence they recorded the work of an artist making wajangs or shadow puppets.
Filming the Making of Wajangs [Shadow Puppets] Along with the film shown here, Mead and Bateson recorded with photographs and notes the step by step work of the artist, I Wara of Negara, making the wajang.
Filming the Making of Wajangs [Shadow Puppets] Mead and Bateson worked out a precise system for recording field data in Bali. They synchronized their watches along with their Balinese secretary and recorded the time of each action minute by minute. They noted when photographs were taken with “LEICAS” or “L,” and when motion picture film was taken with “CINE.”
Filming the Making of Wajangs [Shadow Puppets] All of the photographs and a large selection of the field notes from this field trip have been digitized and are available online in the Manuscript Reading Room.