Anthropology & the ICI

Anthropology is a pretty versatile area of study.  When I decided to major in Anthropology, I wasn’t thinking about any specific career goals.  I knew that it was a subject that made sense with my world view and that I enjoyed the classes.  It seemed like something that could lead to any variety of things.  And now here I am at the ICI working with filmstrips.  Luckily, my studies have given me the intellectual insight to be able to understand the filmstrips within a greater cultural context.  My most recent studies in anthropological theory have certainly influenced that way that I view the filmstrips, especially those that deal with foreign countries and the “discovery” of America.  In the 60s and 70s, when many of these filmstrips were made, it was widely believed that the countries of the world were in various stages of modernization.  Traces of this worldview are apparent in the images and text of some of the filmstrips, and I have included these filmstrips in my collection.