Visual anthropology is a subfield of
social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of
ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s,
new media. More recently it has been used by historians of science and visual culture. Although sometimes wrongly conflated with
ethnographic film, Visual Anthropology encompasses much more, including the anthropological study of all visual representations such as dance and other kinds of performance, museums and archiving, all visual arts, and the production and
reception of
mass media. Histories and analyses of representations from many cultures are part of Visual Anthropology: research topics include sandpaintings, tattoos, sculptures and reliefs, cave paintings, scrimshaw, jewelry, hieroglyphics, paintings and photographs. Also within the province of the subfield are studies of human vision, properties of media, the relationship of visual form and function, and applied, collaborative uses of visual representations.