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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:In Pursuit of a Chameleon: Early Ethnographic Photography from Angola in Context
Author:Heintze, BeatrixISNI
Year:1990
Periodical:History in Africa
Volume:17
Pages:131-156
Language:English
Geographic term:Angola
Subjects:anthropology
photography
history
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171810
Abstract:In recent years early photographs from Africa have increasingly attracted the attention of historians and ethnologists. One of the countries to which least attention has been paid in this field is Angola. The present paper surveys the ethnographic photography from Angola of the period 1875-1940, using 'ethnography' in the sense in which it was understood during that period - as a description of 'uncivilized', 'native' African peoples and cultures. The ethnographic photography of the late 19th century depended on contemporary interests and theories, and it was necessarily characterized above all by anthropometric pictures of human beings and so-called type-photos. The type of ethnography that was characteristic for the decades following the military 'pacification' of Angola and the effective establishment of colonial rule was initiated essentially by the colonial administration, which it was designed to serve. Administrative officials and other officers of the colonial power, including military officers and missionaries, recorded the African inhabitants' 'usages and customs'. The 1930s were marked by several pieces of in-depth fieldwork, the results of which were presented in professional monographs. Ethnographic photography too was affected by this development; yet the reason for the dramatic change in the importance attached to it was that the ethnologists who worked in Angola happened to be from museums. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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