Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I use the ethnographic study I conducted among the Bororo people in Central Brazil as a means to examine the theoretical impact of the use of film-making and film-elicitation methods in anthropological research.

Paper long abstract:

This paper departs from Angela Torresan's (2011:119) call for a proper investigation of the "conceptual capacity" of ethnographic film. It draws on the ethnographic study I conducted among the Bororo people in Central Brazil and examines the impact of filmmaking and film-elicitation methods in guiding my theoretical proposition of the notion of Boe Gendered Person. The "Boe", as the Bororo call themselves, are those who properly observe the moral prescriptions inscribed on the topography of the village plan.

The Bororo village plan lays out on the ground the moral principles of social organization. The village plan played a key role in the history of anthropology for it served as a recurrent example in Lévi-Strauss's development of structuralism. The Bororo village is indeed a remarkable empirical case with which to analyse the dualisms that continue to preoccupy anthropologists: nature/culture; sex/gender; profane/sacred, etc. Drawing on my ethnography, I explore these dualisms in relation to the impact of visual methods for the development of anthropological theory. The case I will be discussing shows how the use of filmmaking and film-elicitation methods generated unexpected emotional responses in research subjects that re-directed my inquiry entirely. My argument is that the use of film played a leading role in guiding my ethnography towards the conceptual development of the notion of Boe Gendered Person.