A LONG TERM VISUAL ETHNOGRAPHY IN A BOSNIAN VILLAGE: TRACKING EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

Abstract

The ethnographic film titled Lukomir, my home (2018) is a visualethnography of the daily life of an elderly couple from Lukomir, the highestmountain village in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It depictstranshumant sheepherders’ yearly migration cycle, during which they travelevery winter with their flock of sheep from the Bjelašnica mountain ridge to thevillages 30 km away, in the vicinity of Sarajevo. The film tracks the differentspatial and material dimensions of their migration as well as their relationship toa life-style that is slowly disappearing. We see and sense the couple’s connectionto the land, animals, and the overall changes to their social world. The film asa visual ethnography serves as a basis for the discussion of the anthropologicalunderstandings one can attain through audiovisual material in comparison towritten research. Every research topic makes us expand upon our methodologiesin various ways in order to explore how we need to look at a certain issue. Themutually constitutive exploration of one’s research topic and the employment ofvarious visual media can reveal connections, sensorial dimensions and worldviewsthat otherwise perhaps would not be apparent. Through a reflexiveanalysis of the filming process as well as our field research, we can consider theseimportant epistemological as well as methodological questions in the productionof anthropological knowledge.