Photography, anthropology, and history : expanding the frame

311 Pages·2009·8.88 MB·English

by  Christopher A Morton

Photography, Anthropology
and History
Expanding the Frame

Edited by
Christopher Morton and Elizabeth Edwards
PhotograPhy, anthroPology and history
This page has been left blank intentionally
Photography, anthropology
and history
Expanding the Frame
Edited by
ChristoPhEr Morton
University of Oxford
ElizabEth Edwards
University of the Arts London
© Christopher Morton and Elizabeth Edwards 2009
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Christopher Morton and Elizabeth Edwards have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing Company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Photography, anthropology and history : expanding the
frame.
1. Photography in anthropology. 2. Photography in
anthropology--Case studies. 3. Visual anthropology.
4. Visual anthropology--Case studies.
i. Morton, Christopher. ii. Edwards, Elizabeth.
301'.0208-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Photography, anthropology, and history : expanding the frame / edited by Christopher
Morton and Elizabeth Edwards.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7546-7909-7 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-0-7546-9800-5 (ebook)
1. Photography in anthropology. 2. Photography in ethnology. 3. Photography in
historiography. 4. anthropology--technique. 5. archaeology--technique. i. Morton,
Christopher a. ii. Edwards, Elizabeth, 1952-
gn34.3.P45P49 2009
306.4--dc22
2009025447
ISBN 9780754679097 (hbk)
ISBN 9780754698005 (ebk.I)
Contents
List of Figures vii
Notes on Contributors xvii
Acknowledgements xix
introduction 1
Elizabeth Edwards and Christopher Morton
PArt I HIstorICIzIng VIsuAL AntHroPoLogy
1 ‘distempered daubs’ and Encyclopaedic world Maps: the
Ethnographic Significance of Panoramas and Mappaemundi 27
Alison Griffiths
2 anthropology and the Cinematic imagination 55
David MacDougall
PArt II InstItutIonAL struCturEs
3 salvaging our Past: Photography and survival 67
Elizabeth Edwards

4 Frozen Poses: hamat’sa dioramas, recursive representation,
and the Making of a Kwakwaka’wakw Icon 89
Aaron Glass
PArt III FIELDwork
5 The Initiation of Kamanga: Visuality and Textuality in
Evans-Pritchard’s zande Ethnography 119
Christopher Morton
6 ‘For Scientific Purposes a Stand Camera is Essential’: Salvaging
Photographic histories in Papua 143
Joshua A. Bell
vi Photography, Anthropology and History
7 Visual Methods in Early Japanese anthropology: torii ryuzo
in taiwan 171
Ka F. Wong
8 Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Visual Anthropology in Early
twentieth-Century german anthropology 193
Paul Hempel
PArt IV InDIgEnous HIstorIEs
9 Faletau’s Photocopy, or the Mutability of Visual history
in roviana 223
Christopher Wright
10 John Layard long Malakula 1914–1915: The Potency of
Field Photography 241
Anita Herle
11 ‘Just by bringing these Photographs…’: on the other
Meanings of anthropological images 265
Laura Peers and Alison K. Brown
Selected Reading 281
Index 287
list of Figures
Cover Charles Obewa (left), with his son, holding a framed copy of Evans-
Pritchard’s photographic portrait of his father Ezekiel Onyango (taken
in 1936), presented to them by Gilbert Oteyo on behalf of the Pitt Rivers
Museum, University of oxford, in February 2007. Framed copies of a
number of luo photographs from the PrM collections were produced as part
of a project that emerged from a series of local exhibitions in western Kenya,
organized by Christopher Morton and luo archaeologist gilbert oteyo, in
collaboration with National Museums of Kenya and Luo community groups.
Photograph by gilbert oteyo, 2007. Courtesy of Pitt rivers Museum,
University of Oxford (PRM2008.5.1).
Figure i.1 samoan leader Mauga Manuma and his supporters on the
Quarterdeck of H.M.S. Miranda, 18 november 1883. Photograph by w.a.d.
acland, scanned from glass full plate negative. Courtesy of Pitt rivers
Museum, University of Oxford (PRM1998.322.32).
Figure i.2 ‘Photography’s Las Meninas’: Pinney’s formulation of Evans-
Pritchard’s 1935 photograph taken from under the awning of his tent in a
Nuer homestead. Published as Plate XIV ‘August shower (Lou)’ in The Nuer
(1940). Scanned from print. Courtesy of Pitt Rivers Museum, University of
Oxford (PRM1998.355.22.2).
Figure 1.1 Cross-section of Robert Barker’s rotunda in Leicester Square
showing The Grand Fleet at Spithead panorama in the lower level, 1793.
Aquatint from Robert Mitchell (1801) Plans and Views in Perspective of
Buildings Erected in England and Scotland.
Figure 1.2 Punch cartoon ‘The Monster Panorama Manias’ parodying the lack
of talent and speed of the panorama artist, July 1849.
Figure 1.3 interior view of the Panorama of London shortly before its
completion in 1829. the view at the top replicated that which one might
experience from the roof of st Paul’s Cathedral. Courtesy of City of london:
london Metropolitan archives.
Figure 1.4 schematic drawing for the moving panorama illustrating winding
mechanism (at “B”) for moving the canvas along the rollers, 1880s.
viii Photography, Anthropology and History
Figure 1.5 richard of holdingham, the Mappa Mundi, c. 1280s. Courtesy and
copyright the dean and Chapter of hereford Cathedral.
Figure 1.6 The monstrous human races of Africa – a detail of the Hereford
Mappa Mundi, showing one-legged sciopodes, himantopodes, and headless
Blemmyes (1280s). Courtesy and copyright the Dean and Chapter of
hereford Cathedral.
Figure 1.7 anamorphotic orientation guide of the 1799 panorama The Battle of
the Nile (the View of Margate was displayed in the upper circle), blending
text and icon in similar ways to the hereford Map. Courtesy of City of
london: london Metropolitan archives.
Figure 1.8 detail from orientation map for robert burford’s panorama View of
the City of Cabul, Capital of Afghanistan, 1842.
Figure 1.9 Poster showing a scene from Poole and young’s Overland Route to
India, c. 1875. Courtesy of the collection of william barnes.
Figure 3.1 the tomb of sir hugh Courtenay, Exeter Cathedral: ‘the original
work much spoiled by modern scraping and cleaning’. Photographed by
arthur tremlett, about 1911. Exeter Pictorial record society. Copyright
Westcountry Studies Library, Devon Library Service (EPRS 438).
Figure 3.2 Ethnographic detail: inside a bee skep. Photographed by E.
Bush, about 1895. Photographic Survey of Nottinghamshire. The skep is
resting on another camera. Copyright nottinghamshire County archives
(DD1955/1/640).
Figure 3.3 Half-timbere d house at Otham, Kent. Photograph by W. Stirling
1911. Photographic Survey of Kent. Copyright Maidstone Museum and
bentlif art gallery.
Figure 3.4 ‘Market at the corner of Swan Street and Rochdale Road’,
Manchester. Photographed by samuel Coulthurst, about 1894. Photographic
survey of Manchester and salford. Copyright Manchester archives and
local studies.
Figure 3.5 Corby Pole Festival. Photographed by sir benjamin stone, 1902.
a print was deposited with the nPra. Copyright birmingham library and
archive services.
List of Figures ix
Figure 4.1 The man known as Chicago Jim (centre) performing as a Hamat’sa,
world’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. Photo by John grabill.
Copyright American Museum of Natural History (Neg. #338326).
Figure 4.2 initial version of the hamat’sa life group, prepared by Franz boas
at the U.S. National Museum, 1895 (SPC 09070600: “Kwakiutl Indian
Ceremony of expelling cannibals”, national Museum of natural history/
National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution).
Figure 4.3 Franz Boas posing for the Hamat’sa life group figures, U.S. National
Museum, 1895 (Negs. #MNH 8293–830, National Museum of Natural
History/National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution).
Figure 4.4 boas’s hamat’sa life group, displayed at the atlanta world’s Fair,
1895 (sPC 09070500: “winter Ceremonial of the Fort rupert indians”,
national Museum of natural history/national anthropological archives,
Smithsonian Institution).
Figure 4.5 Image of the Hamat’sa life group from Franz Boas (1897) Social
Organization and Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl. U.s. national Museum
Annual Report for 1895. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Plate 29.
Figure 4.6 hamat’sa life group, prepared by george dorsey at Chicago’s Field
Museum of Natural History, 1904 (Neg. #CSA16242, © The Field Museum).
Figure 4.7 Two other reiterated Hamat’sa images, based on photographs taken
by John grabill at the Chicago world’s Fair in 1893 (top left: neg. #338325,
American Museum of Natural History) and by O.C. Hastings in Ft. Rupert
in 1894 (bottom left: N eg. #336132, American Museum of Natural History).
these formed the basis for images published in boas’s 1897 publication (top
middle: fig. 62; bottom middle: plate 31), which in turn inspired new displays
at the Field Museum around 1910 (top right: neg. #Csa8149, © the Field
Museum; bottom right: Neg. #CSA98844, © The Field Museum).
Figure 4.8 Miniature hamat’sa diorama, installed in 1927 by samuel barrett at
the Milwaukee Public Museum. Photograph by Aaron Glass 2002.
Figure 5.1 Frames 1 and 2 of the Kamanga initiation sequence. Looking across
the courtyard from outside E-P’s meeting shelter, with zande abinza in their
respective dance areas marked by horns thrust into the ground, the drummers
kept deliberately in frame to left. Courtesy of Pitt Rivers Museum, University
of Oxford (PRM1998.341.112.1/PRM1998.341.116.1).