- Summary
- Since its beginnings, photography has been a valuable resource for anthropologists in the recording of ethnographic data. This book, published in conjunction with the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) London, looks at the significance and relevance of still photography in British anthropology from about 1860 until 1920. It examines how photography provides evidence of the past and how this evidence is used in conjunction with more traditional forms of anthropological information. And it considers the reflexive and critical nature of the photographic way of seeing within anthropology. The book opens with five substantial essays on the nature of photography, visual perception, theoretical and historical approaches to anthropological photography, and the photograph as a document. These are followed by twenty shorter essays by leading anthropologists and historians with special interest in visual representation. The essays examine the content and historical contexts of a range of 157 remarkable photographs, drawn mainly from RAI collections, many reproduced for the first time. The book as a whole establishes the intellectual and anthropological frameworks for the analysis of specific photographs and articulates a body of ideas about photography and the way in which it was perceived in anthropology. The volume encompasses many ways of thinking from the theoretical to the ethnographic and from the historical to the 'post-modern'. This pluralist approach stresses the complex nature of the photographic message and its interpretation within anthropology in a way that is as relevant to modern material as it is to the historical.
- Other Title
- Anthropology & photography.
- Format
- Book
- Published
- New Haven : Yale University Press in association with the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1992
- Locale
- Great Britain
Grande-Bretagne
- Contents
-
Photography : theories of realism and convention / Terence Wright
The photographic document : photographs as primary data in anthropological enquiry / Joanna C. Scherer
Surveying the field of view : the making of the RAI photographic collection / Roslyn Poignant
The parallel histories of anthropology and photography / Christopher Pinney
Some notes on the attempt to apply photography to anthropometry during the second half of the nineteenth century / Frank Spencer
Science visualized : E.H. Man in the Andaman Islands / Elizabeth Edwards
British popular anthropology : exhibiting and photographing the other / Brian Street
Representing the other : the North American Indian / Brian W. Dippie
Of 'peculiar carvings and architectural devices' : photographic ethnohistory and the Haida Indians / Margaret B. Blackman.
George Hunt, Kwakiutl photographer / Ira Jacknis
The fading of appearances : anthropological observations on a nineteenth-century photograph / H.L. Seneviratne
Focal length as an analogue of cultural distance / Martha Macintyre and Maureen MacKenzie
Underneath the banyan tree : William Crooke and photographic depictions of caste / Christopher Pinney
Whose pose is it? : a photo-ethnographic conundrum from South India / Nicholas J. Bradford
The yellow bough : River's use of photography in The Todas / Paul Hockings
'Very loveable human beings' : the photography of Everard im Thurn / Donald Tayler
Photographs of the Sankuru and Kasai River basin expedition undertaken by Emil Torday (1876-1931) and M.W. Hilton Simpson (1881-1936) / Jan Vansina
Two portraits of Auresian women / Naziha Hamouda.
Photography, power and the Southern Nuba / James C. Faris
The battle for control of the camera in late-nineteenth century Western Zambia / Gwyn Prins
Te Tokanga-nui-a-noho meeting house / Anne Salmond
The representation of Trucanini / Vivienne Rae-Ellis
The political image : the impact of the camera in an ancient independent African state / Richard Pankhurst
Two Māori portraits : adoption of the medium / Judith Binney
Historical images
changing audiences / Iskander Mydin
A political primer on anthropology/photography / James C. Faris
Appendix : Photographic techniques : an outline.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Edwards, Elizabeth, 1952-
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
- Notes
-
Spine title: Anthropology & photography.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Photography : theories of realism and convention / Terence Wright -- The photographic document : photographs as primary data in anthropological enquiry / Joanna C. Scherer -- Surveying the field of view : the making of the RAI photographic collection / Roslyn Poignant -- The parallel histories of anthropology and photography / Christopher Pinney -- Some notes on the attempt to apply photography to anthropometry during the second half of the nineteenth century / Frank Spencer -- Science visualized : E.H. Man in the Andaman Islands / Elizabeth Edwards -- British popular anthropology : exhibiting and photographing the other / Brian Street -- Representing the other : the North American Indian / Brian W. Dippie -- Of 'peculiar carvings and architectural devices' : photographic ethnohistory and the Haida Indians / Margaret B. Blackman.
George Hunt, Kwakiutl photographer / Ira Jacknis -- The fading of appearances : anthropological observations on a nineteenth-century photograph / H.L. Seneviratne -- Focal length as an analogue of cultural distance / Martha Macintyre and Maureen MacKenzie -- Underneath the banyan tree : William Crooke and photographic depictions of caste / Christopher Pinney -- Whose pose is it? : a photo-ethnographic conundrum from South India / Nicholas J. Bradford -- The yellow bough : River's use of photography in The Todas / Paul Hockings -- 'Very loveable human beings' : the photography of Everard im Thurn / Donald Tayler -- Photographs of the Sankuru and Kasai River basin expedition undertaken by Emil Torday (1876-1931) and M.W. Hilton Simpson (1881-1936) / Jan Vansina -- Two portraits of Auresian women / Naziha Hamouda.
Photography, power and the Southern Nuba / James C. Faris -- The battle for control of the camera in late-nineteenth century Western Zambia / Gwyn Prins -- Te Tokanga-nui-a-noho meeting house / Anne Salmond -- The representation of Trucanini / Vivienne Rae-Ellis -- The political image : the impact of the camera in an ancient independent African state / Richard Pankhurst -- Two Māori portraits : adoption of the medium / Judith Binney -- Historical images--changing audiences / Iskander Mydin -- A political primer on anthropology/photography / James C. Faris -- Appendix : Photographic techniques : an outline.
