Anthropological view of Avatar

Blockbuster movie: James Cameron’s Avatar What themes can you pick up on in this film that we have discussed in past readings ( Horace Miner’s Nacirema article, Talal Asad’s “The Colonial Encounter”, Bronislaw Malinowski’s “Subject, Method, Scope of this Inquiry)? In many ways, this movie functions as a metaphor for anthropology itself. The Scientist (funded by a sector of corporatized military) goes into the Jungle to learn the language and culture of a exotic, tribal “race of people” in order to extract resources from their land. There are many rich and compelling angles you can take on while viewing and writing critically about this movie: for example, the role of the military, the role of the researcher? Or is all anthropological knowledge inherently power-based and exploitative; what kinds of research dilemmas does the group of scientists face that mimic or mirror Malinowski’s own initial troubles in the field? How would you do a “thick description” or analysis of this movie vis-à-vis Clifford Geertz? • Link to viewing movie for free online. https://123movies.is/film/avatar-4318/watching.html