Tim Asch
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Tim Asch (July 16, 1932 - October 3, 1994, Los Angeles, California), was a noted anthropologist, photographer, and ethnographic filmmaker. Along with John Marshall and Robert Gardner, Asch played an important role in the development of visual anthropology. He is particularly known for his film, The Ax Fight.
Asch was born in Southampton, New York and attended The Putney School before joining Columbia University where he received his B.S. in anthropology in 1959. While at Columbia, he served as a teaching assistant for Margaret Mead who encouraged his work in visual anthropology. From 1950-1951, he served apprenticeships with Minor White, Edward Weston and Ansel Adams through the San Francisco Art Institute (formerly known as the California School of Fine Arts). He received his M.A. in African Studies from Boston University (with an anthropology concentration at Harvard University) in 1964.
Collaboration was a central theme for Tim Asch beginning with anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon and later with Patsy Asch, James Fox, E.Douglas Lewis and Linda Connor. He also worked with John Marshall in the late 1960's editing Marshall's !Kung San Bushmen films shot in the 1950's.
He taught at New York University, Brandeis University, and Harvard University, prior to joining the University of Southern California in 1982. He was the Director of the Center for Visual Anthropology from 1983 until he fell ill in 1994.
For those who never knew Timothy Asch in life, the film Morning With Asch may point the way to explore the invaluable legacy of his films.
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[edit] Filmography
- The Yanomamo Series, in collaboration with Napoleon Chagnon, includes 22 separate films on the Yanomamo Culture, such as The Ax Fight (1975), Children's Magical Death (1974), Magical Death (1988), A Man Called Bee: A Study of the Yanomamo (1974], Yanomamo Of the Orinoco (1987).
- Releasing the Spirits: A Village Cremation in Bali (1979)
- A Balinese Trance Seance (1981)
- The Medium is the Masseuse: A Balinese Massage (1982)
- Morning With Asch (1995)
[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography
By Asch:
About Asch:
[edit] References
- Finding Aid to the Papers of Timothy Asch, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
- Barbash, Ilisa and Lucien Taylor. Cross-cultural Filmmaking: A Handbook for Making Documentary and Ethnographic Films and Videos. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
- Ruby, Jay. "Out of Sync: The Cinema of Tim Asch." In Picturing Culture: Essays on Film and Anthropology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
- ---.Some Hurried Thoughts about Tim Asch and Patrick Tierney.
