Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
MA,
AND
THNO<!APHI
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS Durham and London 1996 THE THIRD EYE
1996 Duke University Press. All rights rescrved. Printed in the United
States of America on acid-frec paper . Typesct in Trump Mediaeval by
Keystonc Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data appcar on the last printed page of this book.
CONTENTS
\.i^\ Illustrations ix
A( knowledgments xi
I n l loduction. The ThirdEye 3
I. INSCRIPTION
i Sreing Anthropology:
I c l i x Louis Regnault, the Narrative of Race, and
i lie I Vrformers at the Ethnographic Exposition 21
/ I 'he Writing of Race in Film:
I V l i x - l . o u i s Regnault and the Ideology of
i lu- li hnographic Film Archive 45
II. TAXIDERMY
i (rstures of Self-Protection:
I lu- l'icturesque and the Travelogue 77
I I .ixidermy and Romantic Ethnography:
Uohcrt Flaherty's Nanook ofthe North 99
III. TERATOLOCY
S t i l l from KingKongiig?,?,}. 2
I )a y a k f amily group, Smithsonian Institution. 11
( Miarles Comte and Flix-Louis Regnault, "Negress walking
with a light weight on her head" (1895). 22
l'rinted illustration in Flix-Louis Regnault's "De la
lonction prhensile du pied." 31
l'rintcd illustration in Flix-Louis Regnault's "Les
dcformations crniennes dans l'art antique." 34
l'rinted illustration in Flix-Louis Regnault's "Exposition
Ethnographique de l'Afrique Occidentale au Champs-de-
Mars a Paris: Sngal et Soudan Francais." 37
Charles Comte and Flix-Louis Regnault, "Jump by three
Ncgroes" (1895). 50
K. Charles Comte and Flix-Louis Regnault, "Walk" (1895). 50
Charles Comte and Flix-Louis Regnault, "Run" (1895). 51
Charles Comte and Flix-Louis Regnault, "Run" (1895). 52
C "liarles Comte and Flix-Louis Regnault, "Three clothed
nien walk" 1895). 53
Charles Comte and Flix-Louis Regnault, "Negress walks"
55
i i l'liotographic reproduction, "Malagasy carrying a palanqun
on their shoulders" (1895). 56
i .| l'rinted illustration of Colonel Gillon carried in a palanqun
by four Malagasy men. s7
i s l'rinted illustration of Commandant de Raoul walking en
lcxion. 6o
i (. l'rinted illustration of diagrams depicting Commandant de
Raoul walking and running en flexin. 6o
i / . "Doctor Regnault walks," Institu de physiologie. 6o
i,H. l.oi n.i Siinpson, l;,<ixy for Who lo Stiy (1989).
i y. Len Busy, "Village performcrs Ha-noi Tonkin" (1916). 81
20. Still from Burton Holmes's Sights of Suva (1918). 86
21. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Still from Gastn Mlis's Captured by Aborigines (1913). 87
22,. Osa Johnson and unidentificd actors on location in Osa and
Martin Johnson 's Carimbis ofthe South Seas (1917).
23. Still from Osa and Martin Johnson's Simba (1928).
89
24. Edward Sheriff Curts, "Bridal group" (1914).
96
25. Edward Sheriff Curts, "Masked dancers in canoes" (1914).
97
26. Still from Nanook ofthe North (1922). 103
27. Elisha Kent Kane, Joe, and Hanna, Smithsonian Institution
life group (1873). 106 M.iny pcoplc have contributed to the completion of this book. My earliest
28. Still hom Nanook ofthe North (1922). 112 <lrht s are to Angela Dalle Vacche and David Rodowick for their crucial
29. Original drawing on paper, most likely by Wetalltok, from
rni miiagement and assistance at all stages of this project. I would also
the Belcher Islands, 1916, of Flaherty and Inuit camera crew. 119 h k r lo t h a n k Esther da Costa Meyer and Mary Miller who provided much
(o.. S t i l l from (Jtifwii/The Gathering Place (1989). 125 iin-iled f ritical advice.
l i . S t i l l Ironi (,'fY/\.s ( I 9 i s ) .
( |, S u l l I rom ('litiiig ( 1927).
134 I would like to thank the following people and institutions in North
U S t i l l I rom Moiiiin ( i y ).(>).
136 A m n ica for their kind assistance in facilitating my research: Marta Braun,
l . | . S t i l l l i o i n '/'/ir Sili'iil lini'iny ( 1930).
139 I - m i l ir de Brigard, Samba Diop, and Faye Ginsburg; Hazel V. Carby, Anne
142 i ( i l l i n I lanson, Brigitte Peucker, and Sara Suleri at Yale University; Elaine
i s .Snll I m m Whili' Sluilow^ in tlie South Seas (1929).
l<. l'liotogiaph Irom Margaret Mead's book Balinese Character
145 i h.n nov, Joel D. Sweimler, and David Wells at the American Museum of
N.u mal History; Paul Spehr, Arlene Balkansky, Cooper Graham, Patrick
(1942).
( / . S t i l l from (loona Goona (1932).
147 Loughney, Madeline Matz, and David Parker at the Library of Congress;
149 Wciuly Shay, fake Homiak, and Pam Wintle at the Human Studies Film
;,x. S t i l l from Tab (1931).
150 A n h i v e s ; Mary Corliss, Terry Geesken, and Charles Silver at the Museum
39. Still from Tab (1931).
152 ni Modcrn Art; the National Archives; Christraud Geary at the National
40. Photograph of Ota Benga (1904).
41. Still from Island ofLost Souls (1933).
158 Mnseum of African Art; Paula Fleming at the National Museum of Natural
168 1 1 1 -,i i y ; Robert Fleegal at the National Geographic Society; Sterling Memo-
42. Still from Trader Horn (1931).
173 i i.il Library; Audrey Kupferberg, Sharon Della Camera, and Michael Kerbel
43. Still from Blonde Venus (1932).
174 .ii t h e Yale Film Studies Center; Barbara Adams, Mary Carrano, Susan
44. Still from King Kong (1933).
183 I inc son, Rose Gibbons, and Marie Kuntz at the History of Art department
45.
185 .u Yale; Joanasie Kanawuk at the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation; and
46 . Still from King Kong (1933).
187 i h . n l i e Adams of Taqramiut Nipingat, Incorporated, Inukjuak, Nunavut.
47. Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gmez-Pea in "The Couple in
I n Trance I received generous aid and advice from Jean Rouch. I would also
theCage" (1992). 190 h k r lo thank Nolle Giret, Vincent Pinel, Alain Marchand, and the late
48. Still from Zou Zou (1932).
2OI ( i h v i e r Meston of the Cinmathque frangaise; Eric Vivi for graciously
49. Still from Zora Neale Hurston's films of 1928-29.
205 .illowing me to view his collection of films from the Marey Institute at the
50. Still from Itam Hakim, Hopiit (1985).
214 A i f h i ves du film,- Michelle Aubert, Andrei Dyja, and Eric Le Roy at the Ar-
i l n v f s du film,- Frangoise Foucault, Jean famin, Michelle Fontan, P. Pitoeff,
.nul Christiane Rageau at the Muse de l'homme; Jean-Dominique Lajoux
at CNKS; Ji-anne Mcausolcil, N a l h a l i c Bonnet, and Mane ( ' < i i i u - l i > i i | i .it : A l u v N a h a l a m h a aml Mu.uli Mnkengc; Donna Iones,
the Collection Alhcrt Kalni; Christine Delangle at the Collgc de 1 ranee; I i hd r.noi-x, and Imogeiic Moncnd; Joas Admassu, Casclinc Kunene, Ter-
Aieha Khcrroubi at the Muse d'Orsay,- Jean-Michel Bouhours o the Centre I C I H T Kose, and Hridget Tcboh; and Maxine I larris at Bunche Hall. I would
Georges Pompidoii; and Emmanuelle Toulet at the Bibliothque de l'ars- ilso l i k e to t h a n k Don Nakanishi, Enrique dla Cruz, Catherine Castor,
nale. I would also like to thank Claude Blanckaert, Amy and Robert Fienga, M.n u ). Ventura, and Christine Wang of the UCLA Asian American Studies
Richard Leacock, Valrie Lalonde, Philippe Lourdou, Marc Piault, Chantal i V n t e r lor their support.
Riss, and Vittorio Tos. Research was also conducted at the Bibliothque Veiy speeial thanks go to Csar Jos Alvarez, Lisa Cartwright, Alian de-
nationale in Paris. Smi.-i, Jodi Hauptman, Kellie Jones, Ming Yuen-S. Ma, Yong Soon Min,
Those in the United Kingdom, I would like to thank include Penny Bate- i 'aml Ockman, Dawn Suggs, William Valerio, and Clyde Woods for their
man and Ben Burt at the Museum of Man, and Elaine Burrows and Jackie Intellectual enthusiasm and extraordinary concern. I am also grateful to
Morris at the National Film Archive of the British Film Institute. I am K i - i i Wissoker at Duke University Press for his careful guidance and atten-
grateful to Hoos Blotkamp, Rogier Schmeele, and Maryke von Kester at the t i o n at eachstep. I would like to express my gratitude to Joseph H. Saunders
Nederlands Filmmuseum in Holland. In Germany, Dr. Dolezel and Dr. who edited several full drafts, provided invaluable comments, and contrib-
Franz Simn at the Institut fr den Wissenschaftlichen Film, Dr. Markus u ed countless hours of his time. To hirn I give my deepest thanks for his
Schindlbeck at the Museum fr Vlkerkunde in Berlin, the Museum fr ( i u ical engagement in this project.
Vlkerkunde in Hamburg, and the Staatliches Museum fr Vlkerkunde in I .ast, I can never thank my parents Mr. Abdul Kohar Rony and Mrs. Minar
Munich all guided me to important research materials. I ohing Rony enough for their unconditional support and intellectual suste-
Research for the book was made possible by grants from the Council for n.mee. I give thanks to the beloved dead as well as the living: the late Mrs.
European Studies, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Yale Center for I I I . . Tobing, the late Mr. R. A. P. L. Tobing, Mr. Ismail Rony, Mrs. Chadid-
International rea Studies, the History of Art department at Yale, and the i.ili Rony, Dorothy Fujita Rony who sustained me with her brilliant sisterly
American Association of University Women. I would like to thank M. Eric w i t , and Elice Loembantobing who kept on insisting that this book be fin-
Vivi, the Archives du film du centre national de la cinmatographie, and ished dengan kepuasan hati, and the rest of my family who are scattered
the Cinmathque francaise for permission to reproduce images. .icross several continents and archipelagos all over the globe. Horas!
I would also like to extend my thanks to those who invited me to give My views may diverge from those who have helped me; I take full respon-
talks on various sections of my book, thus providing me with the invaluable s i h i l i t y for all errors. Note also that all translations are mine unless stated
feedback needed to conduct revisions: John Hanhardt at the Whitney Mu- Otherwise.
seum of American Art; Karen Newman and Elizabeth Weed at the Pem-
broke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University;
Youssef El-Ftouh and the Institut du monde rabe in Paris,- Edward Bra-
nigan, Constance Penley, and Charles Wolfe at the University of California,
Santa Barbara; Vicente Rafael at the University of California, San Diego;
Susan Douglas, Jacqueline Hayden, and Sherry Milner at Hampshire Col-
lege; and Margaret Daniels, David Eng, Peter Feng, Marina Heung, Trang
Kim-T. Tranh, Sandra Liu, and Michelle Materre.
I am indebted to the University of California President's Postdoctoral
Fellowship program for providing me the support needed to complete the
book. I especially want to thank Valrie Smith and Raymond Paredes, and
the UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center, in particular its direc-
tor Edmond J. Keller. Teshome Gabriel and Billy Woodberry provided inval-
uable advice and insightful comments. I also thank the professional staff at
l'iin-fl luniks ii-ll i/,s ilmi ihi' tliinx la iln is mirad the attention of the
iiiiiin i n i i l v hy /ring u shol. Clnudc Lvi-Strauss, Tristes Trapiques
JI955)
/'i a i-vcrv nal iva of every place is a potential touiist, and every tourist
r, </ niiiivc al somewhere. . . . But some nativesmost nativesin the
\\nilil < iinnot go anywhere. They are too poor. They are too poor to go
iiuvwlicrc. They are toopoor to escape the reality o/ their lives and
iln-y uic i DO poor to Uve properly in theplace where they Uve, which is
11 u' \'i'iv place you, the tourist, want togoso when the natives see
vini. ilic lourist, theyenvyyou, they envy your ability to leave your
n\vn linniility and boredom, they envy your ability to turn their own
l'iiiiiilny tmd boredom into a source of peosme for yomself.
|.minien Kincnid, A Small Place (1988)
Hu vtni cannot possibly know what I have done or why I have done it
I MU iliink of me as a savage. Jnmes Bnldwin, A Rap on Race(i97i)
INTRODUCTION
According to the doctor, a Batak from North Sumatra would be able to speak experience when he writes, "I cannot go to a film without seeing myself. I
to a Wolof, an Inuit, an Igorot, through the language of gesture. w.ni lor me. In the interval, just before the film starts, I wait for me. The
The doctor, Flix-Louis Regnault, went on to make what have been con- people in the theater are watching me, examining me, waiting for me. A
sidered the first ethnographic "films."3 Regnault believed not only that film Negro groom is going to appear. My heart makes my head swim."6 Born in
could furnish documents for the study of race, but also that by capturing the M.n t ique of African descent, Fann writes eloquently of the humiliation
physical form in motion, film could serve as an unimpeachable scientific o I i ng forced to identify with images of blacks on the screen as servile and
ndex of race. Under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, that supreme symbol of u l t e r i o r : in Black Skin, White Masks he explodes at his objectification,
progress, Regnault filmed West African performers at an 1895 Ethnographic l i x e t l as if by a dye under the gaze of commercial cinema and the white
Exposition in Paris. As in other "native village" displays at world's fairs, ludicnce.
these West African performers who danced, and conducted animal sacri- Hu i hcre is yet another form of identification which Fann describes. A
fices and other rituals for coin-throwing French spectators, were inscribed lil.irk schoolboy, he writes, deluged by Tarzan stories and other such adven-
in film in order to study the language of gesture, the language of race. I M I C na ira ti ves, "identifies himself with theexplorer, the bringer of civiliza-
Thinking back on it now, I believe that the doctor may have been correct. i , 11 u- white man who carries truth to savagesan all-white truth."7 How
Perhaps we Savages, plunged in darkness, do understand each other. What i .in u he (itherwise ? How can any viewer identify with the "savage," a being
we sharc is the ability tosee with the "thirdeye."Inconventional terms, the u piesenied as having scarcely a shred of subjectivity? Indeed, in the Tar-
i l i i n l cye relers to the cxperiencc one has when, during an argument with ,in liierature, jungle animis at times receive more sympathetic treatment
IIMC'S lovri, lor examplc, one has the feeling that a third eye has floated out i l i . m i h e African "native." If the "Negro groom" is a straitjacketing image
ni one's I x x l y .ind is observing the altercation with the dispassionate air of i','111111)', I rom white racism, the "native" is even more Otherrepresented as
.1 . ( x i l ( i i ; i N i e . x a n i m i i i g .1 specimcn. "I am watching myself and my lover n.ippcd in some deep frozen past, inarticulate, not yet evolved, seen as
. K i mil .1 ( ( i i i v c i i i i o n . i l lovcr's quarrel." Or, "I've heard those words before, l'i n u i l i ve, and yes, Savage.
i h r v ' i r inv mol hei '." Mosi cveryhody has had this experience of the third I 111.-, hook has two primary objectives. First, I offer a sustained critique of
eye. un lu .1 pe son o i olorgrowing up in the United States, the experience i l n pe v.isive form of objectification of indigenous peoples which I somc-
o v i e w i n g onesell as an objcci is profoundly formative. Reflecting on an u l u lendentiously, though with clear purpose, will label Ethnographic. I
mdelible chlldhood mcmory, W. E. B. Dubois describes the double con- u i h io subjcct representations of the "Native" to the kind of critical anal-
sciousncss that a young person of color is forced to develop. Dubois explains \. i l i . i t l'.dward Saidhas applied to representations of the "Oriental."
that one day, a young white girl gave him a glance, and in that glance he Ai piesent, i silence surrounds the stereotype of non-white indigenous
recognized that he was marked as an Other. As Dubois describes it, the in- PI nple-, Lindscaped as part of the jungle mise-en-scne, or viewed as the
ternalization of this recognition gives one the "sense of always looking at i ni M u Man Friday to a white Robinson Crusoe, orperhapsromnticizedas
one's self through the eyes of others,"4 or of seeing "darkly as through a i l n Nohle Savage struggling to survive in the wild, the individual "native"
veil."5 The experience of the third eye suggests that Dubois's insight can be i . i . l i e n noi even "seen" by the viewer but is taken for real: as when the
taken one step furtherthe racially charged glance can also induce one to t i : i i l < r i ouisidc the fair tent calis potential spectators to come in and "see
see the very process which creates the internal splitting, to witness the con- u il Imli.ms," or the excitement over Kevin Costner's recent Dances with
ditions which give rise to the double consciousness described by Dubois. u , ' / ( , , ( i . j i j i ) as a film cmploying "real Lakota Indians." It is as if the
The veil allows for clarity of visin even as it marks the site of socially i l i ' i t . i i u e heiween the signifier and the referent in the construction of native
mcdiated self-alienation. pi npl". i oll.ipses. In Tristes Trapiques (1955), Claude Lvi-Strauss muses
The movie screen is another veil. We turn to the movies to find images of i l i . i i i sploieis, anthropologists, and tourists voyage to foreign places in
ourselves and find ourselves reflected in the eyes of others. The intended .1 in 11 ni i lie novel, the nndiscovered. What they find, he tellsus, apartfrom
audience for dominant Hollywood cinema was, of course, the "American," I | M u own n.isli t h r o w n back in their faces, is what they already knew they
white and middle-class. Not Hopi, Sumatran, or Dahomeyan, or evcn Afri- u i m l i l M i i d , muges predigested by certain "platitudesandcommonplaces." 8
can American, but "American."ThusFrantz Fann is describinga third eye h i i l u - , iinpossihle to view the "native" with fresh eyes. Lvi-Strauss
hiinsclt cxplains that part of thc motivation for his voyagc lo mec ilie Tupi lile oylo, oconomics, huid lonurc, social organization of the village
of thc Hrazilian Amazon was toreenact thc 1560 mecting bctween the Tupi notables as opposed to thc various classos. In the appendix you would
and Montaigne.9 Similarly, when the average museum goer views a life l > u i .1 soolion on folk tales. For the most part, there would be no inves-
group of Hopi dancis handling snakes, or a display of Wolof pottery, or an iij',.iiion o individual livcs. . . . The traditional model would be to
ethnographic film about trance and dance in Bali, he or she does not see the onoodo tho account so that it is implicit that you have been there,
images for the first time. The exotic is always already known. w i i l i o u i actually statingit.10
My first objective is thus to begin to uncover the conditions of possibility
I he cncyclopedic coverage of the written ethnography occurs also in cin-
of this conventional framing of ethnographic visualization and to analyze
i in.i In tho popular imagination an "ethnographic film" is akin to a Na-
the forms it took in cinema prior to World War II.
i i i ni.11 (,'cographic special which purports to portray whole cultures within
The second objective of the book, which intersects with but ultimately
i l n '.juoc of an hour or two. The viewer is presented with an array of sub-
moves away from the ideological critique of representations of the Ethno-
ir.irnoo aotivities, kinship, religin, myth, ceremonial ritual, music and
graphic, is to use the experience of the third eye to address the dilemma so
i L i i n o, .ind in what may be takenas thegenre's defining tropesome form
eloquently outlined by Fann: although the non-white child nourished on
ni nimal sacrifico. Like a classic ethnography which encapsulates a culture
stories of Tarzan cannot grow up f orever identifying with the white explorer,
ni one volnmo, an "ethnographic film" becomes a metonym for an entire
what does one become when one sees that one is not fully recognized as Self
I lili I I I C
by the wider society but cannot fully identify as Other? I believe that under-
A', h i s t o r i a n of anthropology George W. Stocking Jr. explains, anthropol-
standing how the "native" is represented infilmhowethnographic cinema
II);v'-. histrica] unity lies in its subject matter: dark-skinned people known
forces us to "see" anthropologyis crucial to people of color currently en-
.i'i '..iv.iy.cs" or "primitives."11 Visual anthropologist Jay Ruby also points
gaged in developing ncw modcs of self-representation. I am speaking not
i.ii olbnographic film is most often defined by subjoct matter. He
only of artists and filmmakers in major metropolitan cities of the West,
,, "Ta- vast majority of films describedas ethnographic aro concerned
bul also of thosc who are creating national cinemas in formerly colonized
unli i'\oi 10, non-Western people."12 The boundaries of anthropology havo
0011 nt ros, as well as o minority groups who are producingindependent film
l u i i l - c n ilown reccntly, perhaps in response to the fact that descendants o
.un i n,-u ni,lin i ni', ndigo noiis broadcastingcorporations. Themodes of repre-
MU i .illoil l'nmitives are doing ethnography, and the fact that the European
seiii.ii ion o oihnogiaphic oinonia, of coursc, need not be and often are not
m \i o l i i s t contact can no longer be sustained in a postcolonial world.
.ilw.iv. ic|cetcd in (lien o n i i i e t y : ideas from anthropology and modes of
I oiiiuled in i lio late nineteenth century, the discipline of anthropology has
K ( M I -soni.n ion i.ikon (rom olbnographic cinema can be appropriated by peo-
i i i u l i t);i n - .1 series of transformations and is now more self-reflexive about
|)|o o i oloi MI man y dillercnt ways, both conservativo and oppositional. It is
iln < ilin'..111(1 politicsof itsown"customsandmanners."
onlv l>v undentflndlng what othnographic cinema is, and how it works, that
f li vei i holcss, the category of "ethnographic film," at least in the popular
11 u- p o w o r f u l polontial of thc third eye can be more fully realized.
un ir i u.u ion, is still by and large racially defined. The people depictedinan
. i l u . i);i.ipliie film" are meant to be seen as exotic, as people who until only
"lilliiioxraphic ('nema"Defined i i e n t l y wore categorized by science as Savage and Primitive, of an
i n l i i i evolulionary stagein theoverallhistory of hurnankind: people with-
"l'.ihnography" is, in the first place, aninvention of anthropology, its defn-
n i i i l i r . i o i y , without writing, without civilization, without technology,
ing practice. In cultural anthropology, ethnography refers both to the actual
i i i l m n i .n oh i vos. In other words, people considered "ethnographiable," in
process of fieldwork and to the final product, the written ethnography. An-
i l n l i i j n > l . i i sohoma articulated by Claude Lvi-Strauss, as opposed to people
thropologist Susan Slyomovics explains:
i 11 . . i l i n l ,is "lustorifiable," the posited audience of the ethnographic film,
The classic ethnography by a social anthropologist trained va Mali- i In i H i ousideod to have written archives and thus a history proper. The
nowski, Lvi-Strauss, would be a work in which the life of a tribe would lii . L U . n i Miohclc Duchet has explained that Enlightenment thinkers Jo-
be encapsulated into a volume, divided very clearly into certain topics: .i i ' l i I I . I I K . O I S l.afitau, Comte Buffon, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau located
8 Introduction Introduction 9
the study of non-Western indigenous peoples as a subfield of natural his- i i s lorms. My particular interest, of course, is that cinema has been a pri-
tory, a discipline which, Duchet explains, was essentially descriptive. Phys- in.uy means through which race and gender are visualized as natural catego-
ical and cultural anthropology were born out of this eighteenth-century i es, cinema has been the site of intersection between anthropology, popular
refusal to regard indigenous peoples as "histoiifiable."13 c u l i u r c , and the constructions of nation and empire.
The term "ethnographic" literally comes from "timos," a people, and
"graphos," the describing or writing. The term, however, although at times
l:iiM-n>itingCannibalism: History, Cinema, and Race
used by anthropologists as a synonym for the objective description of a
people, instead is a category which describes a relationship between a spec- l ' l n l Rosen brilliantly delinales how, in the nineteenth century in Europe
tator posited as Western, white, and urbanized, and a subject people por- .un North America, history was enshrined as the "sovereign science of
trayed as being somewhere nearer to the beginning on the spectrum of 111.1111< 111 d " and an explicitly historical consciousness carne to pervade every-
human evolution. Although there is no English word which fully captures il.i v lili-." This was the century of Leopold von Ranke and Tules Michelet, of
the notion of the ethnographiable, even the seemingly innocent word "eth- i l u - f'.mwth of museums, of architectural and artistic revivis, and of the
nographic" has resonances of the ethnographiable/historifiable dichotomy. m v c i i i m n of archeology and anthropology. Our present century reverber-
I assume those resonances in my use of the word "ethnographic." i i i f . w i t l i the resultant discourses. If the nineteenth century is the century
Let me be clear that when I rcfer in this way to the "ethnographic" in ni lusiory, however, the twentieth century is the century of the image, of
cinema, I do not mean to implicate all of what others cali ethnographic film. i iiirm.i The twentieth century is characterized by the accessibility, circu-
Some may challenge my definition of the "ethnographic" as anachronis- liii ii iii, and popularization of mechanically reproduced imagcs. If the ninc
tic.14 U.S. visual anthropologist Paye Ginsburg defines ethnographic film as i r r u li century was obsessed with the past, the twentieth century is, in thc
a mdium "intended to communicate something about that social or collec- w n i i l - , o Walter Benjamin, characterized by "the desire . . . to bring things
tive identity we cali 'culture/ in order to mediate (one hopes) across gaps of i l i i M - r spatially and humanly . . . overcoming the uniquencss o evcry
space, time, knowledge, and prejudice."15 Ethnographic filmmakers like u , i h i v l>y .iccepting its reproduction."18
Jean Rouch and David and Judith Macdougall have made increasingly re- i nimia appears to bring the past and that which is culturally distant
flexive and collaborative cinema in an effort to get beyond scientific voyeur- i l i r . i - i , likewise, anthropology, which posits that indigenous peoples are
ism. Their use of handheld cameras, direct address, and elicitation of the i i.mis o earlier ages, has been largely concerned with the description
participation of the peoples filmed expresses a modernist sensibility toward (lu |>rrscrvation or reconstruction of the spatially and historically distant.
the precarious statuses of truth and realism. I am not concerned here with M i r . r n contends that classical Hollywood cinema is superior to photogra-
how best to envision an ideal of ethnographic cinema of the kind that Gins- j i h v .! .1 iiii-ans of controlling and managing time and the past. Using Ro-
burg, Rouch, and others are pursuing. Instead, I seek to explain what I see as l . i i n l li.n i IH-S'S notion of thepunctumthe potentially threatening and hal-
the pervasive "racialization" of indigenous peoples in both popular and tra- IIH I I I . M I P I V di-tail in the photographRosen explains that photography's
ditional scientific cinema.161 thus use the term "ethnographic cinema" to t i . n i r . lis document, its particular subjective nature, disrupts realism; but
describe the broad and variegated field of cinema which sitales indigenous i l n l i i . n l in cinema, subjugated to diegesis, more easily results in socially
peoples in a displaced temporal realm. I include within the category works l u i r i l incanings. 1 9 The shared experience of viewing a film allows for a
now elevated to the status of "art," scientific research films, educational l u l i Ji c.icc o ideological controlcinema is after all an industrywhereas
films used in schools, colonial propaganda films, and commercial entertain- 1111 r. i. 11 > 11 v c 11 e i t s a more solipsistic engagement between viewer and pho-
ment films. Ethnographic cinema so defined, I would contend, has pro ved i " i ' i . i p l i , .111 engagement which leaves open the possibility of unconven-
staunchly resilient. i i m i . i l n .nlni)',s Karly-twenticth-century cinema is thus a privileged locus
Finally let me emphasize that I couple "ethnographic" with the word lu i l u nivesiigaiion oi the coming together of the nineteenth-century ob-
"cinema" rather than with "footage" or "films" because I wish to stress thc "' H U w i i l i Mu- p;ist, and the twcntieth-century desire to make visibly
institutional matrix in which the images are embedded. Cinema s not only i niMpn lirnsililr ilic dillcrcnce of cultural "others."
a technology, it is a social practice with conven! ions i h.it profoundly shapc \ v V Mmliinbe explains, in anthropology's construction of the Savage,
io Introduction Introduction 11
I havc choscn Regnault's work and Flaherty's Nanook beCAUSC t h c y havc i lime, t h e i); loo was .1 sel, eii ' I he "cthnographic" is reconstructcd toappear
hccn dcscribcd by historians of visual anthropology as two momcnts of i e.11 lo i lie anticipated audiencc, and (he (iction sustained is that film does
origin of ethnographic film. Regnault's time motion studies or chronopho- m i l .ihei . i n y i h i n g . This ideology undcrgirds the use of cinema in the sal-
tographie of West African performers in the Paris Ethnographic Exposition v.if.c ethnography of "vanishing races." Later film theorists like Andr Ba-
of 1895 represents the supposed moment of origin of a particular type of i i i , Id);, u Morin, and Le de Heusch have exalted Flaherty as a poet who
ethnographic film: the scientific research film. Regnault believed that by IIK'.eiiicd m Nanook not the reality of science, but the reality of "a higher
filming the movementswalking, running, climbing, jumpingof West Af- ( m i l i , " dial of art. The strategies for encoding authenticity and the Primi-
ricans, and comparing them with films of the movements of Europeans, one i ive m N'inook inspired other kinds of documentary cinema, but Nanook's
could establish an evolutionary typology of the races. Human history could i n i r . i i n i n i e d i a t c legacy is the scripted films of the period including Fla-
be read in locomotion. The peoples filmed were perceived as raw data, and lin i v's Momni: A Romance ofthe GoldenAge (1926), andF. W. Murnau and
the films were meant to be studied both in themselves and to aid compara- I l.iheiiv's 'lahu: A Story of the South Seas (1931), as well as later ethno-
tive studies of the physiologies of different races, much the way the micro- i!i.iphie f i l m like Robert Gaidnei's Dead Birds (1962).
scope was used by other scientists. As people pictured as "ethnographic," A'i ll.mn points out, the taxidermic specimen, created when the bound-
the West African performers who Regnault filmed were literally written i i i i r - i < l i he real are transgressed by repainting the dead as lifelike, is closely
into film as racialized bodies, transformed into a kind of racially signifying u l.neil lo the monster, "the composite, incongruous beast which . . . simu-
bieroglyph. Regnault also wrote about the need to establish an archive or hiied ihe seamless integrity of organic life."30 The final part of my triptych
imisciim o (ilms and phonographic recordings of so-called vanishing peo- I I H h i t les.i study ofthe "racial films" made before I933,andculminateswith
ples. IU-i r ,n.mlt'.s p o s i t i v i s t lcgacy--his belief in film as a scientific instru- ii i In'.e .iiialysisof KingKong. I have chosen to analyze King Kong i or several
m en t, .111 i m p o ved cyc much l i k e that of a microscope, and his promotion u ,1'nins King Kong is the ironic moment in ethnographic cinema. On first
o! i he ethnographic l i l m archive lor anthropological researchwas inher- n i c, 111, 11 H' f i l m appears to be a pur fantasy. As I hope to establish, however,
iied Iw .mi hiopoliii'.isis suel as Maree I Criaule, Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, ihi'. f i l m isone more manifestation of fascinating cannibalism: it explicitly
< . i c i ' n i v B.iieson, .un cvcn Alan Lomax, in his choreometric dance project n i .ills ihe historicalpractice of exhibitinghumans at ethnographic exposi-
iinii',, .un partakes of many of the defining traits of the "racial film" genre
I use K o h e i i I l . i h e i i y ' s N/inook of the North as the paradigm of romantic, u hn h llourished in the wake of Nanook of the North. Unlike Regnault's
Ivne.il eihiiogiaphy, the film of art, which hnges upon a nostalgic recon- i hionophotography and Nanook, which are represented in the histories of
s i i i u 11 ni i o a more authentic humanity. In the second part of the triptych, I i ihiidf.i.iphic film as points of origin, King Kong is part of a long line of
begm hy describing travel films made before 1922, includingEdward Sheriff l l h i i ' . icpiescnting the person of African, Asian, or Pacific Islander descent
Curtis's /;; the Lana of the Headhunters (1914). I then offer an in-depth .1'i ,ni .1 pe monster. In its construction of the ethnographiable monster, King
study of Nanook of the North. In 1922, the anthropologist Sir James G. I-. inr da ws on discourses which equate the native with the pathological, as
Fraser observed that the ethnography of the younger Bronislaw Malinowski u . II ,i-, (in discoursesmainly nativiston the fear of the hybrid as mon-
sees the native "in the round and not in the flat," praising his The Argonauts iii i kuiy, Kong summons a notion of time that feeds into ideologies of
of the Western Pacific as "one of the completest and most scientific ac- M U v i v.11 o t he fittest, and of the indigenous body as the site of a colusin be-
counts ever given of a savage people."29 Fraser's comment applies equally to HVI i n p.isi and present, Ethnographic and Historical, Primitive and Mod-
Flaherty: if Regnault had portrayed natives in the flat, almost as ciphers, i ni t dope and Schoedsack had previously made films now considered
Flaherty portrayed natives in the round, in the mode of taxidermy. As Ste- . 11 r.i.iphic" like Grass (1925), Chang{i^2j], and Rango (1931), but King
phen Bann points out in his study of French and British historiography, the I mu: r. .1 pastiche film about the making of an ethnographic film and henee
taxidermist uses artfice and reconstruction in order to make the dead look nll. i'. .1 incta-commentary on "seeing anthropology," one which, I will ar-
alive. Similarly, Flaherty himself emphasized that Nanook was made more i in li'iesh.idows the fear of the postcolonial Other as monster.
authentic by the use of simulation: the Inuit actors were dressed in cos- l'i y.iuiili 's chronophotographie of 1895, Nanook ofthe North (1922), and
16 Introduction Introduction 17
King Kong (1933) may seem to reveal a developmentary sequence, espe- With another eye I see how I am pictured as a landscape, a museum display,
cially since Regnault's films are really "proto-cinema," meant to be seen ;m ethnographic spectacle, an exotic. Across geographies and across histo-
without projection, Nanook is a silent film, and King Kong is a sound film. ries, plunged in the darkness of watching King Kong, I wasn't the only one
Fierre Leprohon in his book L'exotisme et cinema and Andr Bazin in his witnessing the encounter between the white Explorer and the islander Sav-
essay "The Cinema of Exploration" have already suggcstcd that ethno- .ige. In a film clamoring with the din of roaring monsters, screaming fe-
graphic cinema emerged in 1922 with Nanook, only to be replaced in the males, and howling Sumatran Islanders, there is one person who remains
19305 by pastiche exotic films like King Kong. Although I will try to show (iliservantly silent. The Bride of Kong sits in her grass skirt staring mutely at
the development of each paradigm, I do not mean to suggest that they repre- 11 u- spectacle of the white filmmakers trying to talk to her people. I would
sent three modalities which evolved over time, one leading to the other. h k e to imagine that with another eye she scrutinized this encounter be-
Rather, each work has been chosen for cise analysis in order to shed light I ween the Island Chief/Medicine Man and the white Filmmaker/Ship Cap-
on three distinct themes of ethnographic cinema. Although the focus of this i .u n, and read how they had made her into a spectacle. If only she had looked
book will be the three bodies of work just described, a discussion of each siraight into the camera, and thus at me, a far-flung Sumatran. I wanted
film's relationship to other films, and its historical, political, cultural, and lo cover the Bride of Kong, to unravel the weaving of this narrative, this
anthropological context, will inform the analysis. I could have chosen one M icento pierce through the veil of the imagination of whiteness.
paradigm and provided a survey of a subgenre within ethnographic film, but lUit the problem lies in hearing what the Bride was saying, and what all
I wanted to show how "ethnographic film" moves across genres, how it is i lie other Brides, displayed for ethnographic spectacle, were saying: Saartje
defined by an incessant movement between science and art, reality and Ki.ittmann, the Khoi-San woman, known as the Hottentot Venus, whose
fantasy. Although Regnault's films are intrascientific, meant to be studied I n u l y in the i/oos was exhibited in London and Paris, only to end up dis-
by anthropologists, Regnault filmed people in popular ethnographic exhibi- )< icd by the scientist Georges Cuvier who was fascinated by her genitalia,-
tions which can accurately be described as human zoos; although faulted as cu i he countless unnamedperformers in nineteenth- and twentieth-century
a film which uses costumes and props, Nanook has been represented as an "II.K i ve villages" in world's fairs and zoos who later died from flu or other
authentic ethnographic film about Inuit culture and is used in classes of ilhii-ssesMinik Wallace, Ishi, OtaBenga.
cultural anthropology; and although King Kong is a film completely within I liiw stories are told and whether to tell them is related to how history is
the realm of popular culture, it was made by filmmakers whose previous I 1 ild Throughout the book I look at gaps and disturbances in the narrative
works are considered ethnographic. I will thus attempt to show how these "I cvolutionary imaging, particularly within the realm of performance, as
films explode the seemingly mutually exclusive boundaries of science, art, manifestad in such performance strategies as open resistance, recontextual-
and entertainment. i . i l i o n , parody, and even simple restraint. In addition, I draw upon the
Works of artists and writers like Lorna Simpson, Ousmane Sembne, Zacha-
M.!. K u i H i k , Elizabeth Alexander, Frantz Fann, and James Baldwin, who
The Thiid Eye i m p l i r i t I y and explicitly comment on and unveil the language of racializa-
Sealed into that crushing objecthood, I turnea beseechingly to otheis. i H U NI ethnographic cinema in complex ways. In my conclusin I return to
Theii attention was a liberation, running over my body suddenly i l n predicament described by Frantz Fann of the viewer who, recognizing
abraded into nonbeing, endovring me once more with an agility that I t h . u lu- ni she is racially aligned with the ethnographic Other yet unable to
had thought lost, and by taking me out of the world, restoring me to it. i > l i ni i l v l u l l y with the image, is left in uncomfortable suspensin. I discuss
But just aslreached the other side, I stumbled, and the movements, i ii I v ex.imples of ethnographic cinema that, although informed by or situ-
the altitudes, the glances of the other ftxed me there, in the sense in i t i 'I w i i l n n i he ethnographic context I have just described, incorprate ele-
which a chemical solution is ftxed by a dye. I was indignant; I de- M I I n i ' , o " i l i i n l eye" perception: the ethnographic spectacle of Josephine
manded an explanation. Nothing happened. I burst apart. Now the It i l ri 's l i l m e d performances, and the films and work of Zora Neale Hurs-
fragments have been put together again by another se//.-" i " i i I he boimdarics h l n r as i lise w i t h a third eye attempt to put together
Frantz Fann, Black Skin, White Maxks ( i i l l tnc dispcrsed fragments o identity into other never seamlessselves.
1 SEEIN6 ANTHROPOLO6Y
I 1 1 Vim ,nr i Wolof woman from Senegal. You have come to Pars in 1895
u i i h viiin hushand as a performer in the Exposition Ethnographique de
I A1111111( ()ccidcntale (Senegal and French Sudan) because of the promise of
MI H iiI |>.iv. You have been positioned in front of the camera, and you are
i l i n i l > me, .ihout how cold it is: you can't believe that you have to live here in
ilici icciinstruction of a West African village, crowded with these other
VVi 'ii A11 ic;in people, some of whom don't even speak Wolof. Every day the
t v l i i h propio come to stare at you as you make your pottery. You make fun
n i " i ni ilicm out loud in Wolof, which they don't understand. Youunder-
"i i MI I -.mi u- of their French; after all, you are from the port where therehave
I u i n I icnch traders for as long as you can remember. Two men with cam-
i i , i > i km- lu'cn filming you and others making pottery, grinding grain, and
t* i!! me, Kight now, you have been told to walk straight ahead carrying a
i ,il ih.r.li mi your head.
I O \<n\o the French physician Flix-Louis Regnault, and you are be-
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 r i , 111 u- ra. Both you and your colleague Charles Comte are using the
i ln<nit>itli<>i(>xr(iphe, the camera inventedby the physiologist Etienne-Jules
M-ni \ uiioiided forfast serial photography. Fascinated by pathological and
I 1 M I I I I I il .in.iiomy and the new field called anthropology, you are delighted
lu i l n . i'ihnographic exposition at the Champs de Mars. Finally you can
i t n , l \n inovements of African people in the fleshpeople you and other
Anthr
maker, and audience. In The Invention of frica, V. Y. Mudimbe describes confronted with images of people who are not meant to be seen as individ-
a fundamental paradigm of the type of knowledgehis term is gnosis uis, but as specimens of race and culture, specimens which provide the
determined and made possible by anthropological, colonial, and historical viewer with a visualization of the evolutionary past. Like much of what is
discourses on frica as one which opposes tradition and modernity, a binary now termed early "ethnographic" cinema, Regnault's films appear to have
opposition also manifested as savagery versus civilization, and pathology no narrative. I contend, however, that there is a narrative implicit in these
versus normality. Mudimbe shows that the categories used to classify "na- I i Ims, a narrative implicit, in fact, in all ethnographic film. The narrative is
tives" in the i6oos such as physical description, trade, arts, moris, cus- t l i a t of evolution. Although the Wolof woman and the Frenchman walk
toms, language, government, and religin continued to be used in the twen- w i i h i n the same space in the above example, they are made distant from
tieth century: what changed was not the sophistication of the tools of c.idi other both spatially and temporally by science and by popular culture.
knowledge but the system of vales concerning otherness.7 The fundamen-
tal paradigm opposing tradition and modernity remained. Thus explorers
llistory as Race: Anthropology/Medicine/Imperialism
and one should include in that category many anthropologistsdo not re-
veal otherness, they comment upon "anthropology." Who was Flix-Louis Regnault? Not a founding father of French anthropol-
The second reason for the chain of looks is to underline the point that the i >j;v 11 ke Paul Broca, or an inventing pioneer of cinema and physiology like
West Africans and Malagasy filmed were performers, and not just bodies. IIP. i eachcr Marey, or a flamboyant social hygienist like the Turin criminal
These performers were people who returned gazes and who spoke, people inthropologist Cesare Lombroso, Regnault would seem to deserve his ob-
who in many ways also were seeing anthropology. Of course, since we have ii n 111 y. Yet he is precisely the sort of historical figure about whom people
no written record of the thoughts of these particular individuis, and of l i l ' r lo say that if he had not existed, he would have been invented. For
many of the other indigenous peoples who were made the object of written N i n i . m l t was an astonishing figure: his films from 1895 and his huge output
and filmic forms of ethnography, I agree with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ni w n i i n g s revealmost of the nineteenth-century scientific obsessions that
that there is no simple way of recovering their subjectivity, of hearing them lu ir.nl un the body. Using medicine, anthropology, prehistory, sociology,
speak.8 Yet, at the same time an exclusive focus which critiques the white v, /oology, and psychology, Regnault wrote about the human body
anthropologist, writer, or artist all too often leaves in place the process by i .m evolutionary conception of history. Although there is little evi-
which indigenous people continu to be reified as specimens, metonyms for il< in i i l i . i t Regnault continued to make time motion studies after 1895, he
an entire culture, race, or monolithic condition known as "Primitiveness." ni.i.li l A i m s i v e use of museums, collections of skulls, photography, and
The problem is compounded by the renewed reproduction of images which ni . u n hr lohbied for the creation of museums of films of "ethnographic
feed "ascinating cannibalism."9 The chain of looks shows that more than lili, n - , l
one subjectivity surveyed the scene. II.u n m i Hd i, Regnault carne from a bourgeois family from the provinces
In order to show how the emergence of cinema is critically linked to the In M I I P . l . i i l i i - r was a professor of mathematics.11 As an adolescent, Re-
emergence of anthropology and its visualizing discourse of evolution, ail ( j u i n l i I M i;.m wli.it was to becomc a lifetime passion for prehistory: later in
equally importantly, to describe the historical conditions under which l i l i I n . n i ni > M to 1918, he was the president of the Socit prhistorique
indigenous peoples increasingly confronted the image-hungry West, this I I . H I I . - I I - . i I Ir l l m s h e d a medical degree in 1888, but up to the time of his
chapter f ocuses on the historical and intellectual context in which Regnau 11 ili - i i l i i n i ' i |.'<, he was helter known as avid amateur prehistorian, anthro-
worked. As I hope to show, the imbricated networks of science, spectacli-, jinlii|.i'ii i i ,11 l i n , a c t i v e medical journalist, and editor, than as physician.
and seeing in popular culture, early anthropology and film brought i n t o I I il " > n m e M - v r r a l hooks on such varied topics as hypnotism, religin,
viewby this examination underlie all of "ethnographic cinema." In chapn I I I M i u n i i. m , le c a i l n u e, aiul, o course, human locomotion. 12
2 I move from an analysis of the historical and intellectual context to a tl< A.. i - n l \. i.'i'M, R e g i i a u l t siudied w i t h Marcy a t t h e Station physiologi-
tailed visual analysis of Regnault's f i l m s thcmsclvcs. I examine Regnault '. i|iu n M . . i i l n r , i i i , I i . n i i r J 1 Thc work o Marey, who invented chronopho-
conccption of film as the ideal positivist icientiflc lool lor record i ng movr I i | i l i \ . t u i l i n l i he i no ve m e n t o h u m a ns and animis, together with
ment. In Rcgnaull's f i l m s , as m ethnogrtphic l i l m genenly, llie v i r w r i Ll ..i I I.|\ . n < l M u v l ' i uli'.c, who pmduccil i he l i i s t serial photography, is
).<* In
closer to the genuine and authentic in man. I In li ir, w l i i c h anthropology focused on colonial subjects was thus pro-
After Paul Broca died in 1880, the applied anthropology of the prehis IM l l \u ,il .md purported to be objective. The average member of the
torian Gabriel de Mortillet carne to dominate the Socit d'anthropologie Niii h i i .1 , m i l i t < > p < > l < ) i ; e de Paris after al] was, like Regnault, a physician.
de Paris. Some anthropologists, including Regnault, began to apply then l l i i I I I I M \, i h . i i ihosc sccking to cxplain the "normal" needed the patho-
methods on internal "others," such as women, criminis, and prchistom |M|(|I il I l i e n - w.is i l m s .ID i n t m a l e conneclion between the object of the
remains. Applied anthropology and racial politics were conjoined, as cvi |I|M-II MU ' n i i i n v i he pathological and the object of thc anthropolo-
denced most blatantly by thc c r i m i n a l anthropology o ('i-san.- l.ombrosn, '*' "
3O Inscription Seeing Anthropology 31
.iiirmpts were made in the i86os and iS/os to use photogTAphy anthropo-
nieiiically: henee the grids and rulers one often sees in thcse kinds of pho-
tographs.59 Regnault certainly consulted photographs for evidence of the
In u!v, Inii he found that there was one essential ingredient missing, and that
H'.IS movement. In one telling statement, Regnault wrote that a cadver
i oiild uoi showunconscious movement:
Sinely it is true that the artistic anatomy, the dissection of the ca-
il.i ver, is not a sufficient reproduction, since it is necessary to see again
i he lendons and the muscles, flaccid when studied under the scalpel,
llcxing and releasing through action; not through an action that is by
chance, or artificial, or studied, as in a model in a studio, but through an
unconscious action, done byhabit by a workerof aprofession.60
I lie Mirgical eye could dissect the corpse but could not understand how
i lie In xly liad moved through space. Regnault's interest in film derived from
lii-i .c.iich for a mdium which could capture movement. In searchingfor an
imli v lu racethe unfashioned clueRegnault privleged movement, be-
i ,nr,c u is "in between" culture and nature, acting and being,- movement is
I'ln-M .il and objective, yet variable.
I lie medical eye of Regnault was forever searching for and diagnosing
i \e ni an attempt toestablish the boundares between truth and fraud,
n iiln \ antasy.61 For Regnault every referent had a meaning, every
liuilv u.s diagnosis. Cario Ginzburg has explained that the disciplines in-
i n l \ il in (onjccturingabout historical developmentincluding anthropol-
tifiv w i i l i iis desire to conjure up a hstory of mankind by making the Primi-
ih i ilie pircursor to Civilized manwere intimately linked with a tight
c *y.;.; *Mh IMIWCI detennined to find identity in physical traits which could not
In niiiinpiilaii'd by saboteurs.62 Thus Ginzburg compares the invention of
!\VxV^v
1 !* *. , ^ ' T> " tln llui'.c ipi mi as a mcchanism for criminal identification, one superior to
ili.ii ni (lie wniien signature, to the technique developed by Morelli, the
n i II I. i n i w i i .ni eonnoisseur, of using the painted ear to distinguish the
.iMih< ni u work o/ the masters from works by their students or lesser art-
li i ' '.iiiiil.uly, anthropology grew as the science of reading the human
IIM.II vvli.ii disiingiiished anthropology from the other historical disci-
|iliiii -i linvveve, was ihat it includcd the study of people said to be without
-iiiiiir, u iilioiii signature. The anthropologist was the seated observer of
5. Printed illustraton in Flix-Louis Regnault's "Les dformations lii|>li \\-lin (KMichcd. The unfashioned clue, the ndex for measuring race,
crniennes dans l'art antique." (La natuie no. 1105, 4August 1894) M .1 Kei'.n.iiili's eycs, niovenieni and posture, the supreme and uncon-
l'liMi'i iinlii .Km o evohilionary develo/iment.
36 Inscription Seeing Anthropology 37
In his search for ways to capture movement it is not surprising that Re-
gnault, like other anthropologists, frequented popular entertainments such
as fairs, museums, and zoos where native peoples performed at the turn of
the century. These popular entertainments were not only sites of spectacle
but laboratories for anthropological investigation. In 1895 Regnault wrote
an ecstatic account of what he saw at the Exposition Ethnographique de
l'Afrique Occidentale located at the Champs de Mars, Pars:
I am aware that I could not observe everything. A thousand details, a
thousand particularities would require a volume. 6. Printed illustration in
Flix-Louis Regnault's
Yes, this is the truc ethnographic exposition. No one has adorned
"Exposition Ethno-
savages with ridiculous costumes, and no one has taught them a role in
graphique de l'Afrique
advance. These negros live as they do in their country, and their cus- Occidentale au Champs-
toms are faithfully respected, easy to see. de-Mars Paris: Senegal
May this exposition serve as a model for fu ture expositions!64 et Soudan francais." [La
"A thousand details/' Regnault exclaimed. And, indeed, the expositions nature 1159, 17 August
1895)
were full of details: at the 1895 exposition great lengths were made to re-
crate the imagined environment of Senegal and the Sudan. There were 350
African performers living on a set made to look like a Sudanese village with i l n n.u ural history museum, the caite de visite, the colonial postcard, and
thick walls, dirt walled houses, and straw huts. People worked as tanners, i v i i i i lu- zoothat exhibited humans, reaffirming the reality of the Savage,
weavers, potters, and pipemakers; others were musicians,- and families sit- i vi n .is u reassured the public that Western science had the Savage under
ting in front of their houses cooked in the open air.65 Events like religious i mi According to Paul Greenhalgh, the genre of the French "native
ritual performances, sheep sacrifices, and a human birth and a marriagc > 111 .!).(" was i n vented by the anthropological community in the 18705 at the
were advertised in the newspapers.66 I i i i l i n d'acclimation as a means of studying "ethnographic" bodies. The
A honor vacui was revealed at the exposition: every space was crammed I < | > i r , i i i i i n Universelle merely took the genre to a much larger scale.68 In
with costume, animis, vegetation, and architecture. At the same time that i l i . i t | i o s i i i v i s ( age, it was felt that bodies could teach the masses about
the exposition was a site of excess, it was also a place of spectacle where c i i i | n i r , ,( icnce, technology, and nation, as well as about family and racial
detail was ordered, classified, and rationalized. The ethnographic exposi- lu i in IHCS It was no coincidenee that the most popular of all the "native
tion framed the reading of race in what was above all a reconstruction: the l i l i l ." i n the i88osand 18908, the period of great imperial French expan-
different ethnic groups at the fair were architecturally divided in an en >ii n Scnegamhia, western Sudan, and the west coast of frica south from
cyclopedic fashion, and there was a tendency to group the "villagers" in '.i I M r..il to ( iahon, were the reeonstructed villages of the Dahomeyans and
nuclear family units, Noah's Ark-style/' 7 'n in (.ilrsc "" l'art h u m a n zoo, part performance circus, part laboratory for
The "native village" was one o t h e i i i . i n v v i s n . i l Uvhnologies i i i c l u d i n g |iln .u . i l .inthiopology, elhnographic expositions were meaning machines
w h i c h helped d e f i n e w h a l it mcant to be Prend ;is wi II .1-, w l i . n i t me.mt lo ed al the f a i r e n t a i l f d more I lian s a l i s l y i n g t h e seopic g r a t i f i c a ! ion of
be West Afriean in the late nincteenth century/" v i M i n i s t o t h e " n a t i v e v i l l a g e . " ' " A t l l i e world's l a n , people (rom a l l corners
The word "ethnography" was first used in the 1820* in conjunetion with ul l l i e world lived and perloi ined in l e c o n s t i n c t c d habitis. The "native vil-
geography and denoted the study of peoples and their relation to the en- l.i)',e," however, was i i n i j u e in t h a t llie locus was on the exolic and bizarre.
vironment, thus embodying the idea that one could map human groups just l i u l e e i l , the impresarios who managed the "villages" were even known as
as one maps mountains and rivers.71 Another early use of the word "eth- l i i i i n i i i i i x , a tem w h i c h reveis the circus-like exploitation which the per-
nographic" was made by Edm-Francois Jomard, the libraran of the Biblio- l i u i n e i s had to endure.
thque royale, who conceived the idea of an ethnographic museum. To In h i s review of the 1895 ethnographic exposition, Regnault begins by
Jomard, ethnography meant the collection of artifacts of "savage" peoples p . i m s t . i k i n g l y deseribing the different physical and cultural delails of the
which would explain the history of race.72 By the late nineteenth century, v . 1 1 1 ( i i is et hnic groups at the fair. At points he likens some of them to bronze
the word "ethnographic" had taken on the connotation of "exotic" and "pic- n i . u n e s , not surprising since he had previously analyzed race ihrough art.
turesque." In art, the "ethnographic" manifested itself in a genre called "la I n i n e d i a t e l y following this lengthy description of ethnic differences, how-
peinture ethnographique," which referred to painting which was so detailed r v e , Kegnault again invokes ihe idea of race: he calis all the performers
that it seemed cise to science in its observation of "exotic" customs. Jean- "nebes." Difference is articulated, only tobe erasedby use of the flattening
Lon Grme, with his use of photographic-like detailexemplified in his l i i l u - l " i legre." Just as he had claimed in an earlier review of an ethnographic
slave market and snake charmer sceneswas a master of this genre.73 That Lu i li.it eolonialism would be a benevolenl forc for the Dahomey because
Regnault should seize on the superabundan! detail of the ethnographic ex- ' l l i e I t r a i n of the Negro is a wax upon which nothingis written," Regnault
position as its most salient feature is thus no accident. In both science and i l . i u n e d i ha t the performers in the 1895 fair were akin to big children.77
art, the "ethnographic" evoked the image of an encyclopedic tablean vivant l l i e way in which Regnault distances himself from the performers when
depicting the life of indigenous peoples. In invokes the anthropological rhetoric of race indicates an extraordinary
Ethnographic detail coalesced in the popular spectacle of the exposition. l u ni o "LIS versus them" mentalily. This mentality was reinforced at the
Detail is meant here in three senses. The first is detail as document: Re- i Hpusition in the form of voyeurism, and sanctioned simultaneously by
gnault used the "detail" of the exposition as fodder for his scientific re- MI l e n i i l i c knowledge, by the evolutionary paradigm of history, and by the
search. The second sense is detail as ornament. A good example of this use M n p e i . i l i s t imperative to civilize. The visitor was in a sense invited to act
is evident in Adolf Loos's "Ornament as Crime": exotic, ornamental detail it-i ,i 'u lentist and colonist, to acquire knowledge by looking at the body and
was aligned with decadence, femininity, the criminal element, and the Sav- id h . i h i t a t . He was also invited to engage in sexual voyeurism: the exhibi-
age.74 The third sense is detail as ndex: the anatomical and physiological i ii n i w.is t h e site for what should ordinarily go unseen. Regnault, for exam-
details on which the visitor's eyes were trained were keyed to a classifica- |ili , deseribed the Dahomeyan women at the 1893 exposition as seductive:
tory ndex of race. In i l i e n youlh, ihey are somelimes seductive with their soft, timid, and
The "native village" or ethnographic exposition was popular in North l i H O ' l i i n g physiognomy."78 frica and other colonized lands were often por-
American and European cosmopolitan cities other than Paris, but the Pari- i i . i v e d as Woman in imperialist discourse, and, in his commenl, Regnault
sian expositions were especially praised for their emphasis on the display i n r i i II eonsciously betrays the links between eroticism, imperialism, and
of ethnic groups in their purported habitis. As Paul Greenhalgh has ex- iinilnnpology. 7 9
plained, the encyclopedic dimensions of the fair encompassed geography II i h e hoLindary between science and popular culture was permeable at
and ethnography. At the Exposition Universelle of 1878, the fair in which 11 n 1.111, so too was the boundary between the observer and the observed,
the Palais de Trocadro was built, there was a "ru des nations" along which v i ' H i i u .un exposition performer. On the one hand, a railing separated the
all participating nations built representative architectural structures. Therc IM 11 iers from the visitors, and this railing probably went around ihe
was an Algerian village and bazaar, a "ru de Caire," as well as an exhibit of > ill.i)'.es," allowing ihe crowds lo galher for special performances. How-
French ethnic history.75 The "ru de Caire," it should be noted, became an i \'i i , i h e exposilion layout also included a mosque (where all Muslims, but
infamous prostitution venue, revealing that the labor of women of color i ni I v Muslims, could enter) and abrasserie (where visilors could mixfreely
4O Inscription
SeeingAnthropology 41
with performers).80 At these locations, the boundaries were permeable and
interaction was allowed. The voyeurism of the exposition was thus imper- that resemble bronze objects, suck happily on sticks of barley sugar
fect: spectators could be made aware that the performers had eyes and that some ladies present to them. But what impression on their igno-
voices too, and performers were made aware of the spectacle of the visitors rant souls is produced of the curiosity of which they are the object?
ogling. Does the spectacle of ourselves that we offer them amuse them just as
In his review of the 1895 exhibition, Regnault reveis that there was we are amused by what they offer us? Perhaps they are delighted to be
another form of interaction at the fair: spectators threw money to the per- present for free at an exposition of Parisians.84
formers. This was a common practice at the "native villages," and perform- Visitors to the fair were meant to "see anthropology," but what they were
ers were known to demand such payment. Although some reports show seeing was not often comfortable: the gaze returned. Perhaps with a third
that the performers were paid before the show, one assumes that the wages eye, the performers at the fair were aware of being viewed as objects of
fell short of the performers' needs. But the very fact that the performers ci hnographic spectacle, and resisted this status by subverting the illusion of
demanded money would seem to destroy the illusion of distance.81 A reveal- i leiHific voyeurism. The demand for money, rather than being "a natural
ing tensin is revealed in Regnault's description of the "villagers": llimg," threatens to turn purportedly authentic daily activity into staged
In the village animation and gaiety reigns. Everywhere the Negro char- peilormance. The pointed mirroring back of a question at the brasserie
acter, the good child, is evident all over. He'll come shake your hand, ihrctcns to upset the schema in which assertions of racially determined
make friends with you, and ask for some change with a laughing tone as n.ii i vi- ignorance led naturally to justifications of French colonial power.
if it's a natural thing. Only the marabout conserves a fierce and rescrved The interactions available at the brasserie and the performers' practice of
disposition. One sees him surrounded by children whom he has recite 'mili i i m g money suggest what I believe is a more general theme: part of the
verses of the Qur'an printed on large boards.82 lint 11 i.ii ion that the public had for the fair was the play with boundaries that
n .(.u i l i t a t e d . First, even as the exposition strived to construct and address
Regnault predictably reads the laugh of the villager as evidence of the child- i Ir.u suhjectivities, and even as the "picturesque," the "ethnographic," and
like "Negro character." But is it not possible that the laugh marked out a iln "ileail" reigned in the arena of spectacle, there were marginal spaces at
space of ironic resistance? Performance at the fair was not a simply visual l l u I . M I whcre one could "straddle the fence": the viewed could also remark
objectification by a flattening male gaze. Performance also invites a com- i i j i i ni i hr l'rench body, there were places where the "specimens" could not
posing of self for spectacle, a frank gaze returned, a mocking laugh, or a I u viewed at all (the mosques), and the very act of voyeurism was under-
haughtiness such as in the case of the marabout who refused to return the i i i i i n il l>v t lie constant haranguing by the performers for "un sou."85Second,
visitors' curious looks. I I H r i mistriictions of the Ethnographic or Savage embodied all that was
A rare example of a recorded verbal interaction is found in a review of thi 1 i,iln n i i u Westcrn societynakedness, polygamy, fetishism, and cannibal-
1893 Dahomeyan Ethnographic Exposition in which Regnault recalled ask Imn w l n i r visitors could view at the fair all that was forbidden, flirting
ing a performer why there were different shades of skin color among the \i i l n Ixmndaries of the "historical" Self and the "ethnographic" Other
Dahomeyans. The answer he received was a question: "Why... are some o l u l i .u i lir saine time maintaining a distance. The fence at the fair pro-
you brunettes, others blond, still others redheads?"83 The answer Regnauli ( i i h .1 i'liv.u al reassurancc; the structuring of racial visualization ensured
received is like a relection in a mirror, revealing that the purported objccis I lili l i l i l lllSl.llK'C.
of studythe Dahomeyan performerswere also observers of the Prend I In u . n i . i i i ve o evolution which slots humans in a hierarchy of color-
Indeed, the idea that the French visitors might be a spectacle for the pe i i i i d .1 i . i i r j ; < u es and places the white race at the apex was scientiflcally
formers is commented on in an account which appeared in the j o u r n . i l l l l i i ' i i M i r c l i l i n i i i i ; ! ) i he live, dead, and skeletal bodies of indigenous non-
L'illustration: I i i i i ' | . i in . ilisplayed ai fairs ail miiseiims. History is obfuscated in these
Aphrase that practically all know, men, wonu-n, and childrcn, is " ( i i v i i l l l ' l n . i l i r i i . i l i v c is shown as being w i t h o u t history, and is describcd in
me some change!" Tin- l i t l l e oncs, so l i m n v w i i h t h e i r shaved hr.nl 1 . l i - i i n i l n i i n i v v r i l l i c i i n y.oology. Tlie h i s i o r y t i l ( h e circulation o f African
l<nili i . nr.l.ivcd pe i si >MS .un i he histories o llie en t w i nenien t of French
,| > InsiTipl ion
Orwell ends his essay by describing the many discussions centered arouml
the shooting of the elephant. Among the Europeans, "the younger men sanl
it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for k i l l i n g a coolie, because an
elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhec coolie." The narraloi
2 THE WRITINC OF RACE IN FILM
by the camera, Regnault believed that film's scientific nature also lay in its In Regnault's films, bodies are made abstract and mechanized. No detail,
ability to capture rapid movements which the eye cannot see, like the beat- ilc-clared Regnault, is overlooked by film.14 Yet detail mus be ordered and
ing of a bird's wing. The power of the anthropologist lies in his or her ability i.ilionalized, and the sense that one gets is of meticulous management of
to thwart death and time: he or she can record vanishing ways of life and iletail: performers enter the frame at right and exit at left, often with a
store them in his drawer until such time as he needs to study them. If chronometer in front and a white screcn in the back. The fact that Regnault
history is a race, and if race reveis history, trien the anthropologist can use 111 med movements from different perspectivesthe subject is seen from the
film to control time: i igl, then left, and then backreflects the codes of anthropometric photog-
i.iphy that were already well established in the late nineteenth century. For
Only cinema pro vides objective documents in abundance; thanks to
I l l i n s of walking and running, Regnault and his colleague Charles Comte
cinema, the anthropologist can, today, collect the life of all peoples; he
i il i en used a chronometer and a painted scale on the ground to measure the
will possess in his drawers all the special acts of different races. He will
ilmation of the subject's step. Diagrams translating the movements into
be able to thus have contact at the same time with a great number of
IIM illating curves were used to test the efficacy of the marche en flexin, a
peoples. He will study, when it picases him, the series of movements
(Vi 11 m which the subject ran or walked with knees sharply bent, the body
that man executes for squatting, climbing trees, seizing and handling
ItMiiing forward in "la marche primitive de l'humanit."15 The use of the
objects with his feet, etc. He will be present at fests, at battles, at
i liionometer, the painted scale at the bottom of the film, and the tightly
religious and civil ceremonies, at different ways of trading, eating,
i u i i i i o l l e d entrance and exit of each moving subject attests to Regnault's
relaxing.11 lie lid ihat chronophotography was a mathematical and scientific means of
To Regnault, film was better than the referent. n t i i t l y n g movement. The camera maintains a distance, and yet observes
Regnault was thus one of the first to envision an ever growing archive o I I I I I M . i l l ingles.
ethnographic images: cinema would provide unmediated records of as much In his review of the ethnographic exposition, Regnault had revealed a
of the world as possible for present and future scientific consumption. Re den n i . i l i o n for all movements which involve interactions with objects,
gnault's model for the archive, however, was not the all-encompassing, al- mu h .is j;rain-pounding, child-carrying, tree-climbing, and dancing; these
phabetically organized encyclopedia, but the topically organized museum.'' un i v T I i i c n t s allowed Regnault to draw conclusions about those he classified
Like the ethnographic exhibition which presented peoples in orderly recon itM "'..iv.iv.i'." Even within the frames of single film sequences Regnault's
structed village tableaus, Regnault conceived the ethnographic film archive 11111 11 . i m tlie comparative study of movement is often betrayed. For exam-
as a visualizing technology for the taxonomic ranking of peoples. |ih t i n - i i o different ethnic groups are shown squatting for a comparative
n i n i l s ' "Threc Negros squat: a Wolof, a Peul, a Diola." Similarly, how the
Mih|i 1 1 w.-ilked and moved in clothing clearly was of interest to the anthro-
Le langage par gestes: Regnault's Chronophotogiaphy |inliii',i'.i lU'gnault filmed Tijaan men dressed in grand boubou-style pray-
at the i#95 Exposition !ni< i l i r s.ilam"as well as walking.16
All savage peoples make receirse to gesture to express themselves; M i i ' M . i n l i wrote in detail about the West African technique for climbing
their language is so poor it does not suffice to make them understood. tu i n .1 lu ni o climbing which interestingly was foregrounded in many
Flix-Louis Regnault, "Le langage p ai gestes" (iSgS) 13 |.i(i i i i l i i n i j ; i . i | > h i c films. 1 7 Like squatting, this manner of climbing was seen
MU un mi rv h k c .mil deemed characteristic of those Regnault called Savage.
In 1895 Regnault, with his colleague Charles Comte, filmed West A f r i r . m
Iti .1 i|unuT, .1 man, described by Regnault as "a Negro of the country of
and Malagasy men, women, and children from ethnographic expositioir.
M h h u .," !, shown climbing from various points of view, without a chro-
usually alone and in profile, walking, running, jumping, pounding gi.im
IIMIIII . ( i c e n in ihe background. 18 Another film strip shows a white
cooking, carrying children on their backs, and climbing trees. The t a h K . m
Itfii i Imihm.r, .1 i iee as II a t t c m p t i n g to climb in the West African way: we
of the fair and Regnault's own lascination w i t h movcmcnt are i n s c n l n . 1
M I H I I I miii'.i'.mj; l o M h c camera as II to underline the ludicrous nature of a
into film, representing the k i m l s o srriu-s w h i c h w o u l t l breme :\r m ! n in 11 i n.ii i r l i m h i n j ' , as a West AI rica n docs. 1 "
later ethnographic l i l m
5 o Inscription
The Writing of Race in Film
JL., ,_J2.i3-
* !' i' '"/'I t l i . n l r s C.'omtc and Fclix-Louis Rcgnault, "Jump by three Negroes"
{ I K n . i i M m l i i n p i i i u I rom original glass pate chronophotographic negative, cat. no.
MI'11 i i M i i i r - . v ni i l u - i Ollcctionof theCinmathquefrancaise) 8. (bottom) Charles
I I H I I I I n i . I h l i \ ( m i s Kcgnault, "Wnlk" ( i 8 y s ) . (Modern print from original glass
A
.,M... ...Z\
f lli ' li |'lniior,i.i|i|]ir ni'galivi 1 , cat. u. Un, courtcsy of thc Collection of the
(lito i i l i . . | i i . 11.1 ni,, i I N C ] u. (dliovc] ("liarles Comtc and Fclix-Louis Regnault, "Run"
j l i t u i M i l i i n I M mi I n ni 1 1 ingina I glass pate chronophotographic ncgativc, cat. no.
|||l i i . \i 11 u ( nuc i u n o i lie ( incniathcciue I ranea i se)
5 2 Inscription
The Writing of Race in Film
53
nh .ni '.piilu- dirough the body in what he called le langage par gestes. The
to the fact that white flesh tones were a standard in cinema photochemis litMc.n.if.c i hat film could inscribe was therefore the language of the body:
try) it becomes a silhouette.25 On closer examination, however, one scrs .1
man in a suit, possibly Regnault or an assistant, behind the screen whu h li .ippe.ns, moreover, unusual to affirm that there exists a science of
serves as the backdrop. The Western reader of the film is thus provided w 111 > c.i '.11111- as interesting as that of language. However, all savage peoples
a mirror image: he or she is also in the position of the scientist.26 i n . J . < irrourse to gesture to express themselves; their language is so
In another example, Regnault himself waves at the camera as he is carril < I I I I M H u docs not sufficc tomake them understood: plunged in darkness,
in a palanquin by four Malagasy rnen. The image of the French colonizo i 11 i i i u u ..iv.i.i'.cs, as travelers who often witness this fact affirm, can com-
palanqun was a common one, especially in 1895 with the recent colon i | i m u ,nc i l u - i r thoughts, coarse and limited though they are.
tion of Madagascar by the French. Regnault the scientist tips his hat u > i l i W i i h pi i mi t i ve man, gesture precedes speech....
camera, and to the viewer: he tips his hat to his own power to record i In M I he ).!. i u es I hat savages make are in general the same everywhere,
movernents of recently colonized people on film, while the mcn w l m < i iic.i- i hese movements are natural reflexcs rather than conventions
I lll)',ll.I)',!'.''
movements are filmed do not look into the camera. The filmmaker is U - i l
colonizerand researcher. Loomingabove the sccne o the iair was the l i l i . p i i 1 1 des speei-h. 'I'lius h u m a n i t y was divided into not only those
Tower, the u l t m a t e sign o l ; ieneh technology, progress, and powei. !i u n i h n ' . i - w h n sqnat, h u t ihose who llave language and those who
Rev'jiaull believed lh.il ihose lu- e.illed S.w.i.r.e liad no language, a i n l n
r
5 8 Inscription The Writing of Race in Film 5 9
gesticulate. In many films, the subjects are rendered as mere silhouettes, ant streetvendor of the boulevards to the dandy in the foyer of the
pictographs of the langage par gestes. Their faces are unimportant: it is the opera-house, there was not a figure of Paris life that was not sketched by
body that provides the necessary data. And thus, Regnault writes, the "sav- a physiologue. . . . After the types had been covered, the physiology of
age" has no real language: the scientist will inscribe his languagea lan- the city had its turn. . . . When this vein, too, was exhausted, a "phys-
gage pai gestes common to all "savages"into film. They become hiero- iologie" of the nations was attempted. or was the "physiologie" of the
glyphs for the language of science: race is written into film. animis neglected. For animis have always been an innocuous subject.
Innocuousness was of the essence.32
Improving the French Body: The marche en flexin I lie obscrvation of the Ethnographic and the spectacle of the ethnographic
rx positura was another instance of this marketplace of modernity. The in-
When the whites feel that they have become too mechanized, they
iii H i lousness of Doctor Regnault waving at the camera and the urban glance
turn to the men of color and ask them for a little human sustenance.
w h i c h the French citadin aims at the West African woman reveis that the
Frantz Fann, Black Skin, White Masks (ipy) 2 8
ni ii-nt ist also posed as flneur, the distant nonchalant observer. The look of
As described in the last chapter, late-nineteenth-century French anthropol- llii- llimeur was both part of urban spectacle (that is, meant tobe sean) anda
ogists were interested in applying their techniques not only to categorize hu ik in control: the anxiety of difference and of being seen, as I described in
non-Western peoples of color, but also to improve the European body. The l l n l.ist chapter, is smoothed over by the performance of the idle stroller.
obsession with evolutionary typologies was perversely double-edged: the I IR- flneur, however, was also viewed as a figure verging toward deca-
Ethnographic Other was pathological, but in some ways more genuinc; ilriK e, and the affinity noted here between scientific filmmaker and flneur
the Historical Same was normative, but possibly also decadent. Lurking (luis .ilso suggests that the scientist's focus on the body was a focus on
behind the desire to classify the "savage" was the desire to ameliorate the hlinse11, betraying his fear of becoming suraffin. The fear of overmechani-
"civilized." Indeed, in his later writings, Regnault wrote repeatedly of the i i i i m i is expressed by Regnault's teacher Marey in his preface to Regnault
danger that the urban European was becoming suraffin (overrefined, over iiml de Raoul's 1897 book, Comment on marche. Marey wrote that man
civilized): too pal, too blond, too weak.29 He and his colleague de Raoul (ii'iid the urban European) had become a slave to aesthetic convention in
complained that the European city dweller lacked grace when he walkecl: linw he walks. 33 He suggested that physiology and chronophotography,
"In our day, the civilized man no longer knows how to walk well."30 Look lliiiiii)',h researches such as that of Regnault on how humans walk, would
ing for clues, Regnault compared his films of West Africans walking to films i i i n i i i h u t c to perfecting the national body:
of French men walking.
( Inonophotography . . . is, in this manner, the educator of our move-
There is an aspect of the turn-of-the-century flneur in certain of Re
i n r i i i s , it makes us aware of the ideal perfection that we must attain,
gnault's images. In the chronophotography with which I began the firsi
.ind makes us observe the incorrectness of our movements or the prog-
chapter (see illustration 3) in which a West African woman is filmed walk
iess we realize.
ing with a Frenchman, only the French man is actively looking; her head i s
Thanks to theprogress of the graphic method, the mechanical acts of
down, her look averted. Robert L. Herbert defines the flneur as one with a 11
liinimotion can be translated into geometric graphs in which all is
active, naturalist gaze, one who, although engaged in "apparently idle strol I
me.isurnhlc with a precisin that observation alone couldnot achieve.34
ing," is observing with the intensity of a plice detective. Like the detective,
the flneur was a reader of detailsboth of the human subject and of loca NlKHiflcantly, one of Regnault's principal reasons for filming the loco-
tion.31 It is interesting that, as Walter Benjamin pointed out, the literatura < >! Mini mu ni West Africans and French soldiers was to prove his theory that
the flneur in the 18405 was called the physiologie, akin to the dioram.i l l n I u in 11 m i l i t a ry walk con Id he ameliorated through adoption of the en
Benjamin writes, lli MI iii i ' . i i i , a liighly (lexed walk in which the knces were greatly bent and
l l n inr.u l u - n i lorward, said to be the natural walk of "savages" as well as of
[The literature of the physologis] investigatcd lypc's t h a t might be en
J I M l i r . i o n r m a n . In i Sg6 Marey piesented Regnault and Charles Comte's
countered by a pcrson t a k i n g a look al t i u-111.11 kri pl.n e. l'ioin the il i m i
The Writing of Race in Film 61
scientist speaks foi the actors in the text accompanying his inscriptions. Kcgnault's conception of a comprehensive archive of scientific research
The image is always possibly threatening, more so than other scientific I I l u i s is rarely considered. Regnault, however, was one of the first to artic-
inscriptions such as the graph: it has an iconic presence which must be l a l e t h e desire for an archive of humanity, one later openly embraced by a
regimented through verbal description. In the case of Regnault, this textual mimber of other anthropologists and implicit in the work of nearly all who
description portrayed the Ethnographic Body as a hieroglyph to be made in,uk- and studied anthropological research film in the following decades.
sense of by scientists able to find the key to the langage par gestes. < inc need not posit a direct causal relationship between Regnault's theories
Mary Ann Doane explains in her essay on the representation of feminin- u 1 1 i I m and the anthropological research film which followed in order to use
ity in cinema that the image of woman in film is akin to the hieroglyph, the i lie ligure of "Regnault" to draw attention to the central themes which were
most readable yet the most mysterious of signs. The hieroglyph is a compo- in eonstitute the ideological underpinnings of ethnographic film: (i) its
nent in an iconic system of representation in which the sign and the referent inieisecting discourse of science and spectacle, manifested, for example, in
remain suffocatingly cise, since the sign directly mimics the physical form Itty.nault's enthusiasm for the ethnographic exposition; (2) its faith in cin-
of the referent. As a hieroglyph in Regnault's posited langage par gestes, the rin.i as an objective positivist recording tool; and (3) the ever present, if
Ethnographic Body is always in a contradictory position, both "real" and I m p l i e i t , ideal of an archive of ethnographic filmwhat Regnault called a
sign.40 While cinema makes the white woman into an imageDoane speaks i n i i s e n m of filmwhich would allow for the cross-checking of detail and
of "a certain imbrication of the cinematic image and the representation o) llir piescrvation of "vanishing races" in cinematic form. Regnault, as we
the woman"41cinema makes the native person, man or woman, into un- liiivi- seen, combned these elements in his belief that the ethnographic
mediated referent. Whereas the female spectator, according to Doane, has inii'.eiim/archive could be elevated to the status of the scientific laboratory
difficulty establishing a distance from the image of the woman in cinema, llimiiyji the use of explanatory film and phonographs.
the spectator of ethnographic cinema has no difficulty in establishing a I l u 11 the 19205, anthropology in Europe and the United States was still
distance, since the posited viewers are by definition not the filmed subjects |i I ni the museum. That is, anthropologists did not often go into "the
themselves but a Euro-American public. l l i l t l " .ind take down ethnographic observations, but relied on second-hand
m M i n e s such as explorer, traveler, missionary, and colonial accounts. In-
The Legacy of Regnault ili cil, anthropological books were coined as the "Amongtha" genre by the
|ti M i s l i anthropologist E. B. Tylor, due to the ubiquity of titles such as
As late as 1931 Regnault continued to trumpet the importance of ethno A n u i l ij; the Watchandis of Australia .. ." or "Among the Esquimaux .. .,"
graphic expositions and ethnographic films.42 In an issue on colonialism fm .un .1 s i m i l a r "boxed-set" mentality also characterized early commercial
the Journal La nature, Regnault exulted, "Thanks to the Colonial Exposi l i i i v i loj'.ues (described in the next chapter).45 Even those colleagues of Tylor
tion [of 19 31 ], the ethnographer, who studies the behavior of peoples, is t h i u n Kej'.nanlt who didgo into "the field" were often trained first in physiol-
man of the day. We are avid to know this science which reveis the mltiple n(',v .MU! i h e natural sciences. (The use of the word "field" was borrowed
ways of human thinking."43 Cinema and sound recording could unite the h ' i m n a t u r a l science terminology.) As historian of anthropology Martin
various disciplines which study humankind: I . H I H ). w i i t e s , the anthropologists who followed Regnault's lead accepted
Thanks to [films and phonographs], the psychologist, the ethnographei, l i i - i ule.i t h . i t film provides objective documents and his goal ofbuildingan
the sociologist, the linguist, and the folklorist will collect in their labo MU I n v e ni ethnographic film. Taureg states that the body of theory justify-
ratories all the manners of numerous ethnicities and will be ablc to c a l i iiii' i i lmoj',raphic film devcloped from biases in physiology and the natural
up life at their will. In analyzing, in measuring these objective docu u i es lemaincd unquestioned for a long time.46 Henee the first anthro-
ments, in comparing them, in organizing them, they will fix the met li |Mi|,.)T.i\n used film "in the field" studied humans rather as zoological
ij'i < i i l i r n s
ods which make up their science, and know the laws of human mental
ity. The ethnographic museum w i t h its collections o objects, films, I i l i n U'fhnology during Regnault's time developed quickly. Contempo-
and phonographic records w i l l hecome om laboratory and our centei ni i H u , ni Uej;naiilt wenl on tn use motion picturc cameras, and to actually do
i l n u l i l i m n r , ni ( l i e "UeKI": the liritish anlhropologist Allred C'ort Haddon
64 Inscription The Writing of Race in Film 65
(trained in zoology) went to New Guinea and the Torres Strait Islands in Special Commissioner for Aborigines,49 used film as well as lantern sudes
1898-99 on the Cambridge Anthropological Expeditions, and the Anglo- .md phonographic records for his very popular public lectures.50 Visual me-
Australian anthropologist Walter Baldwin Spencer made films in 1901 in dia presented to the public could turn aboriginal culture into Savage specta-
Central and Northern Australia. Rudolf Pch, an Austrian, made films in clc. In his lectures on aboriginal rituals, Spencer called the Arunta "children
New Guinea in 1904-6, and a number of other German-speaking anthro- o darkness," and described the Arunta as "weird," "savage," and "disgust-
pologists went to South America and frica with cameras before 1915. ing." He said of the people in his films: "They were in a condition in which
All these anthropologists used their cameras much as Regnault used his: o u ancestors were in past ages, and through them we learned something of
the camera is static, the subject entering and leaving the field of visin i he original conditions in which our ancestors lived."51
of the camera. The people portrayed in these films, like the West Afri- Th o anthropologist's frequent inclusin of scenes of indigenous dance, a
cans in Regnault's films, are treated as specimens both textually and cin- Ic.K ure already present in the films of Spencer and Haddon, contributed to
I lie spcctacle. Spencer's Austrian colleague Rudolf Poch explained, "Dances
ematographically.
Ethnographic footage purportedly obtained for research purposes was of- iiii- i lie simplest and most effective subjects for cinematography and the
ten used as entertainment (with an educational veneer) for mass audiences: licsi means for practising the mdium since they enable one to record what
the authoritative lecturer, the use of intertitles, and, later, the voice-over i'i most visual and effective when reproduced."52 Dance was almost always
were different means used to control the interpretation of the films. Indeed, icpicsented as spectacle: to be watched at a distance. The public as well as
the figure of the anthropologist often appeared within the film, attesting to NI i c u i i s t s were fascinated by the bodies of indigenous peoples, and dance
its legitimacy and serving as an intended entertaining contrast. Early film I l l i u si 10wedhowthose bodies moved, how masks were worn. Moreover, an
by anthropologists did not always announce itself as intended for science or li nnoj;raphy is formed: the nativeas we have seen in Regnault's concep-
for popular spectacle; the two domains were intertwined. Just as Regnauli iion o tlie langage par gestesisidentified with the body. Dances by indige-
made his films for science at a popular fair, scientists and natural history M I n i - , peoples were projected as wild, "savage," frenzied movements by peo-
museum curators often used ethnographic film both for research purposes |l l.icking rationality: an image which became a popular stereotype in
and for commercial spectacle. Turn-of-the-century anthropologist Baldwin i ummcrcial film.
Spencer, for example, renowned for his books on cultural anthropology, A l i hoiigh museum expeditions almost always brought along cameramen
used film in popular lectures in a sensationalist fashion. One of the firsi |iinlli icni in photography and film, the actual use of films for research was
ethnographies to depart from the "Amongtha" mode was Spencer's Tin- Mir, I.u more often, the footage was used for public entertainment, or in
Native Trbes of Central Australia (1912), a work which attempted an am mime i .ises, to help construct museum dioramas. Anthropologists like Re-
bitious, far-reaching analysis of Australian cultures.47 In the same year that Hii.iuh, l'och, and Spencer, to ame only a few early ethnographic film-
the book was published, however, Spencer cautioned a popular audieno iii.il'i !, lidievod m the necessity of ethnographic film archives, but film
against the power of words to mask the true "savage" nature of the Aust i .1 Wiin i n i i .1 l.ivored mdium of presentation within the academy. Film was
i n )> .1 lool lor inscription, much in the way that the photograph, phono-
lian aborigine:
DHl'li .iiid calipers were, rather than as a mdium for "writing" ethnogra-
It is extremely difficult to convey in words a true idea of many o i l n |I!M ' I I K in.i, intended for scientific research purposes, was instead used for
native ceremonies. Any such description is apt to give the imprcssiun f i i i l i l i i '.pe-lacle, as a sensational means for attracting viewers and thus
of a much higher degree of civilization, or, at least, of greater elaboi .n i |iinlli I lie liomularies between the cinema of science (cinmatographe) and
ness than is really the case. It must always be remembered that thonr.li Mil' m.i "I c n i T i a i n m c n t (cinmatoscope) were never clearly drawn.
the native ceremonies reveal, to a certain extent, what has becn <l<
scribed as an "elabrate ritual," they are emnently crudo and sav.ip
( l i d 1 1 1 , 1 / 1 n'iill'llli Nales
They are performed by naked, howling savages. m
It is no wonder then that Spcnccr ( i K 6 o u)?,g), c h n i r o biology ai i l n M'"l*' n .mi lnopoloi'.y, k u d o l l l'ocli obscrved, would no longerbc conducted
University o Melboume, director o tlu 1 Victon.i N a t i o n a l Muscum, .m, 11'i i .1 nuicliook, .1 pcn, and mea sin ing instruments, but would roquire
66 Inscrption
The Writing of Race in Film 67
use of a motion picture camera and a phonograph. For P6ch; the advantage
of film is that it allows for true voyeurism because images could be captured ords. In 1930, Boas even shot some film himself of dances, craft-making,
for future study without the native's awareness. Poch advocated setting up and games of the Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw) of the Northwest Coast. Ira
the camera in a public place and just letting the film roll, complaining only Jacknis arges that Boas was interested in "relatively discrete behavioral
that the camera could not capture all of a scene because it can point in only sequences of a 'traditional' nature, especially motor patterns and material
culture." 60 He writes,
one direction at a time.53 Working in 1904-6 in Germn, British, and Dutch
New Guinea and in New South Wales, Pch filmed activities including For Boas, a culture was imprinted on the very movements of a person,
dance, women carrying water, and a man being shaved.54 His assertion that which would be expressed apart from his or her surroundings. Thus, in
indigenous people were ignorant of the technology and that his own films spite of his belief in cultural wholes, Boas tended to think of culture as
were not choreographed, however, is belied by his own photography and embedded in isolable actions, so that one could, at least for the pur-
films. In many films, the figure of Poch is painfully conspicuous. In one poses of documentation, record only this behavior fragment, apart from
scene, wearing a white pith helmet on his head, a rifle in one hand, and what the complex social matrix of which it was usually a part.61
appears to be a pole in the other, he stands among a group of Melanesian
people (in New Guinea?) who pose for the camera.55 The film footage is not Thus, like Regnault, Boas's interest in film stemmed from a concern with
candid but is staged, and the performers appear to recognize that they are llie body, and with the ability of the camera to record "isolable actions."
part of a performance. Still, the notion of voyeurism, that the presence o M.my of Boas's students went on to use film to aid their research: Melville
the filmmaker did not disturb the scene, endured in ethnographic film unti I I le skovits, who later encouraged Katherine Dunham to make films, filmed
well after World War II.56 m I >.ihomey (nowBenin)in 1931 and inHaitiin 1934,- Zora Neale Hurston
It is striking how much early ethnographic film borrowed from the ico lllmcd in Florida in 1928-29; and Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson
nography of anthropological photography and the construction of "anthn Illmed in Baliin 1936-39.62Mead, Boas's most famous student andprobably
pological types." Filming natives as "types" in profile and frontal shots and i l n ' most enthusiastic and well-known U.S. anthropologst/filmmaker, ar-
walking or standing in formation were important staples of the genrc. In in-il well into the 19705 that film would elimnate much of the ambiguity
one sequence filmed by Haddon in the Torres Straits, the camera, which i% ul i lie written ethnography. She believed that long takes and an immobile
stationary, films several men who, in dancing, pass the camera one by < > n < i iimri.i could study nonverbal behavior objectively. Like Regnault, Mead
in a line, only to disappear briefly offscreen before entering the carne ni'-, lliniif'Jii t h a t film could provide an important record of the ways of life of
field of visin again from the other side.57 In a sequence by Poch, womrn v M 111 ! 111 ij; races,- she also endorsed the idea that by collecting and examining
walk one behind the other in profile, turn around, and then walk han- iin r i i i n m o t i s amount of film material, the anthropologist could make an-
breasted with their hands up in the air.58 In this last image, anthropomel i n I lin i| u ili ij;y ;\6-3 This shift from an interest in the body as inscription
imagery combines with the clear tendency in both research and enteri.ini ( n i l i i hdtly inscribedin apictorial "whole" will be discussed in thefollow-
liiil i h.ipicr.
ment film to portray the indigenous female body in titillating voyeui isi n
ways.
Significantly, even those who f elt that film could not achieve true voy i 111 llii 1,1,'oloy.v oftheArchive
ism believed that film could serve as a faithful record of dances and ivn
I ttiiiil . in , in,'111(1, the anthropologist can, today, collect the life of all
monies. In the 19605, anthropologist Andr Leroi-Gourhan stated th:ii i l n
j4fn/'/i , In- u-////w.sie.s'.si in his drawers all the special acts of diffeient
function of film was to act as "cinematographic notes," as a m d i u m l"i
IHI i- II, u /// /*< ahlc (o //;/;.s' hivc. contad at the same time with a
recording movements, dances, and ceremonies, even if staged, that w n n M
l-iii i i n i i i l ' i ' i <>/ i>t'<>i)/cs. I r l i x Louis Regnault, "Films and Eth-
subsequently serve as records for verifica!ion.' 1 ''
||M|it(i|'lni Mnsfiiiii.s" (1i;?, i)'"'
Franz Boas, the most prominent anthropologist in the United St.id m
the early twenticth c e n t u r y and the l o u n d r o the sdiool o A n n - m < |t<li>iiiii> . I . i l u . i n notes ( h a l .mlhropological d a t a b a n k s are not just innocent
cultural ism, wrote ahout t h e i ipo rt anee o l i l m Inproviding ohjc-ci i v > i < i ^ I I M ' . H M M , . h u "are i n s i i i u t i o n s which make possible the (politically
68 Inscription
The Writing of Race in Film 69
charged] circulation of information."65 In other words, while the ethno-
graphic film archive purports to be nothing more than a collection of visual 10 film the "daily lives" of people and to capture the historical forces of
documents from a diverse array of culturesthe anthropologist-filmmaker evolution at work. I will discuss Kahn's archive in the next chapter; what is
merely goes out into the world, objectively captures life on celluloid, and i mportant at present is to recognize that the archive of ethnographic film
brings it home for storagethe world is not being structured in a value-free was a shared ideal. Margaret Mead explained Boas's conception of the ar-
manner. On the contrary, the circulation of images presupposed by the ehive as follows: "[Boas] wanted a real corpus of materials to work on, large
archive implicates social, historical, and political relations of dominance. bodies of materials which would make possible the cross-checking of each
James Clifford's statement that collecting in the West "has long been a detail and would provide a basis for making certain kinds of negative state-
strategy for the deployment of a possessive self, culture, and authenticity" inents." 69 Both Regnault and Boas thus believed that an archive of eth-
nographic film should be created as a repository for permanent documents
casts a revealing light on the proliferation in the late nineteenth century of
new forms of public collections such as the zoo, the museum, and the which would enable the scientist to examine detail, verify hypotheses, and
|i>>; his or her memory.70
ethnographic exposition. The ordered plurality of forms itself suggests a
desire to stem or otherwise control the inevitable march of historical time I )ifferent national anthropological traditions had different theories about
by preserving objects, artifacts, animis, and cultures. Clifford goes on to i he use of ethnographic film, and yet the basic tenets which Regnault set
explain that with the emergence of modern classic anthropology, "cultures" l u i i h underpinned popular and scientific notions of the genre across na-
carne to be represented in collections as the embodiment of that which is i u mal boundaries. In France, anthropologist Marcel Mauss, in his essay "Les
pur and authentic. Even today, these collected "cultures" are nearly always le -hinques du corps" (1934), took up questions that Regnault had raised and
ili-( lared the body to be the first instrument of man. Mauss saw film as
represented in the "ethnographic present": they are explained in the present
tense but conceived as remnants of the human past, and thus are repre- ii jnivileged means of obtaining records of the use of that instrument. 71
M.IIISS'S best-known student, Marcel Griaule, used film to document his
sented as timeless, without history. Clifford explains that "both collector K l u d y ofDogon ritual.72
and salvage ethnographer would claim to be the last to rescue 'the real
thing.' Authenticity . . . is produced by removing objects and customs from 11 was German-speaking anthropology, however, that most fully em-
luiit ed Regnault's ideal of a scientific archive of ethnographic film. In 1950
their current historical situationa present-becoming-future."66 Ethno-
graphic cinema takes this process one step further,- it takes you "there." In ( l i e I ncyclopaedia Cinematographica at the Institu fr den wissenschaft-
film, the time travel is immediate: you "enter" the ethnographic present o |h lien l-'ilm (IWF) was established for the collection of research films. The
Bali, or Samoa, or the Northern Quebec Arctic. IWI spccifically invokes Regnault, and views its task as collecting vi-
Mn,il eihnographic records, to facilitate future cross-cultural comparison by
The ethnographic archive necessitated the production of visual records.1''
l i i i i n e d anthropologists. Like Regnault's films, the films of the Encyclopae-
Many anthropologists, however, considered film technology too difficult
and bothersome to learn. To maximize time and energy, cameramen wer ili.i t incmatographica emphasize movement and ndigenous technology.73
often hired to accompany ethnographic expeditions. One of the earlicsi A I W I director Gnther Spannaus declared, film was a "non-corruptible
ilin i u nen i" which allowedfor "direct andunbiasedobservation."74
mentions of using film for collecting anthropological records is the BURMII
of American Ethnology report of 1902. In this report, acertainO. P. Phillip 1 , I In ( . c r i n a n emphasis on "material culture" may explain why ethno-
is mentioned, a filmmaker employed to make films "representing the in H M p l i u l i l n i has been so relatively important to Germn anthropology and
vhv M i i i i s h social anthropology, lacking the material cultural emphasis,
dustries, amusements, and ceremonies of the Pueblo Indians and otlu-i
h.i ve -i liad much interest in film. 7S Film, however, also appealed to those
tribes in New Mxico and Arizona. The object of the work was to obiam
w-lin I u hevcd culture could be classified through study of the body, through
absolutely trustworthy records of aboriginal activities for the use of f u t i m
pin-'ii'r.iiomy -'111(1 pliysiology, and Germn anthropology was a leader in
students, as well as for the vcrification of current notes on fiducial dam < .
and other ceremonies.'"'8 (iliviii .il .inihropology (a body of research exploited by the Nazi regime to
l i j i l i mn.-e i.u i . i l e x t e r m i n a ! ion and imperialism). 7 6 These contrasts do not
Albert Kahn, thefirst to make a sustained eflort toconstruct an archive "I
research film, also hired camera operalors, and si-ni iln-ni a round tlie wm M li II i l n l i l e story, however. In Grcat H r i t a i n , although the "tradition" of
r i l i i i i i | ; i . i p l i i ( lilil as research tool tur anlhmpology is c n m p a r a t i v e l y weak,
yo Inscription The Writing of Race in Film 71
ethnographic film remains a popular staple of televisin programming, as Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson have been edited to produce ethno-
evidenced, for example, by the success of the Disappearing World series.77 graphic films now often used in undergraduate anthropology classes, the as
If "scientific" ethnographic film has had a wide, if disparate, impact yet unviewed boxes of their film sitting in museums and librarles attest to
among anthropologists, it has clearly failed to live up to the expectations of I he fact that the use and study of film never became a central method of
visionaries like Regnault and Poch. One often overlooked explanation may academic anthropology.81 As anthropology shifted its domain from the mu-
be that people do not readily perform their "daily lives" on cue for the se um to the university, writing ethnography rather trian filming ethnogra-
camera. Anthropologists M. W. Hilton-Simpson and J. A. Haeseler sought to phy remained the mdium for advancement in the social sciences. Despite
film "only what the natives do for themselves," but there is the problem of l'och's turn-of-the-century prediction that the tools of modern anthropol-
the camera's conspicuousness, as Haeseler explains, "No matter where in i >>;y would no longer be the notebook and pen, but the film camera, anthro-
the world one sets up a cinema camera, one becomes a centre of interest and pology in the United States and Europe has remained a "writing" discourse.
attracts a crowd that soon runs into scores. Managing these is a task for two I'he profilmicwhat occurs in front of the film camerais not as easily
or three vociferous native assistants, and on market days or during cere- nianaged as writing, as Anthony Michaelis's and M. W. Hilton-Simpson and
monies the conditions are particularly trying."78 I A. Haeseler's telling descriptions of the problems of anthropological film-
Anthony Michaelis's enthusiastic explanation of how to film "native" inakng attest. Photographs and films were thus used as evidence of having
peoples also establishes the need to hire "native plice": "hcen there," rather than as media to be studied in themselves.
Mut what is a more powerful legacy of Regnault and the conception of film
Before departure, the anthropologist can easily obtain a few feet of id .111 ethnographic tool is how it teaches spectators to see native peoples in
3 5 -mm film from a commercial production company; for this purpose t i l n and televisin as the Ethnographic. The iconography of race in films
unwanted cuts from newsreels should prove highly suitable. They could used lor popular audiences will be discussed in the following chapters.
show Europeans whose film images made them important-looking per- Muieover, the anthropologist himself or herself often became a popular
sonages, and they could be shown to natives as proof that the recording i i i i i horitative figure such as we have seen in the case of Baldwin Spencer or
of images does not produce any harm; in case of continued distrust these M.uj'.aret Mead.
cuts might be given as hostages.. . . The unwanted cuts, might also be
off ered to natives as reward for letting themselves be filmed. Instead of a
reluctance to be filmed, precisely the opposite may occur, and an all-toc > n- l.iiii^uage of Racialization
eager crowd of natives may cluster around and prevent the working o y.aii hy showing how the "ethnographic" in film works to deny the voice
the cinematographer. The only solution is to engage some reliablc na .l nulividuality of the indigenous subject. The performers in Regnault's
tives as a "plice" forc to perform the same duties as their white ie meant to represent not only a typical West African body, but a
colleagues have to undertake in a similar situation at home.79 | v i v pical of what anthropology called Primitive. Their ames and his-
Michaelis's recommendations for how to "capture" the native on film i< ii y .ne not given: the fact that they are performers from a fair, the colonial
reveal that Regnault's ideal of the unfettered anthropologist filmmaker w.r. n- ni hance's relation to West frica, etc. Emptied of history, their
far from reality. In the U.S. Southwest, for example, Native Americans wci e -, .ni- racialized. The racialized body in cinema is a construction deny-
known to jump in front of the camera, throw sand or rocks, and even brcak ini' -nple o color histrica! agency and psychological complexity. Individ-
cameras to prevent filming. Acts of resistance were not always so obvious .iie iead as mctonyms for an cntire category of people, whether it be
rituals could be performed in a false manner, without the anthropolo.i r ,r.i i f.itinp, race, or Savage/Primitive/Third World. Regnault is both in-
even knowing. Famed photographer Edward Sheriff Curts made a film m ied liy a inl i nlorms the scientific and popular circulation of the imageof
1904 of a Navajo Yeibichai ceremony ; some have argued that the N a v a "el Imut'.iapliic." Thus scientific cinema teaches us how to read bodies:
performing the ceremony did it i n t e n t i o n a l l y backwards.8" The world w.r. i i l i m >)',i, i plne" squals, el i ni lis t i ees c l i l l e i e n t l y , carries the colonialist in
not a perfect laboratory; f i l m was raro I y peilcel voycui ism. i . i l . i i u | i m i , p c i l o i m s a n i m a l s.ienliees, and goes ahont her affairs bare-
A l t l i o u g l i son ir o I lie loolagc I rom I he l l i o i i s a i u l s o I ce I o l i l i l made l i v .i-.ied A s m i l . u leonoi'.iapliv o i . u e is .11 w o i k m (he eonstruction
72 Inscription
11ii'y tlid not likeme, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was mo-
nii-iiiiinly worth watching.George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant"
For nobody could see picturesquely who had no recollection of pictures, CesturesofSelf-Protect ion 81
besides the power of abstract visin, to associate with objects per-
ceived. Apart from such colouring and lighting as gave abstract plea-
sure, the enjoyment derived from, for instance, ruins, laes, hovels,
and gipsies consisted entirely in their association with pictures in the
memory of the observer.8
The picturesque was thus powerfully associated with emotion and the sub-
jective, with memory and death. It evoked the passing of time and dis-
tancetaking as its subjects the remote and marginal. Sara Suleri has dis-
cussed the picturesque in relation to Anglo-Indian narrative, but Suleri's
discussion sheds light on early travelogue film as well. Suleri writes, "The
picturesque becomes synonymous with a desire to transfix a dynamic cul-
tural confrontation into a still life, converting a pictorial imperative into a
gesture of self-protection that allows the colonial gaze a license to convert
its ability not to see into studiously visual representations."9
From an accumulation of practices for imaging the exoticfrom la pein-
ture ethnographique, travel literature, the ethnographic exposition, travel
photography; from street scenes, panoramic landscapes, scenes of dance and
rituala genre is established. The picturesque is a shielding gesture: rea
_ __nnnMlHEBW:v>.^^.-^MMM>- - '. .4(45
tions of dominance are preserved in ideologies of death (the "vanishing
n> Len Busy, "Village performersHa-noiTonkin" (1916). (Original document:
races"), in the entertainment of relentless binarisms ("we do this, they do
Antochrome, courtesy of the Muse Albert Kahn-Dpartement des Hauts-de-Seine)
that"), and in the use of text or intertitles to wrest a narrative out of poten
tially disturbing images, mechanisms already present in the works of Re
gnault and other scientific filmmakers. The disturbing gaze of the Nativc rd ways of life that were vanishing quickly, Kahn felt that the forces of
described by Orwell, as I explained in chapter i, is tamed by visualizing thr rvolution could be captured by the camera. Another motivation for the
picturesque. The langage par gestes is actually a gesture of protection. .iichivc was to provide both scholars and adminstrators photographic and
The archive pro vides the perfect framework for the collection and displa v i mrmatic records of directly observed ways of life. The resulting archival
of the picturesque. One of the first archives of moving picture images was m.iicrial includes many exceedingly lovely autochromes whosepal colors
the Archives de la plante, an archive of autochromes, photographs, and li-nd l he images a ghostly, precous air. The tinted quality of the atmosphere
films collected by Albert Kahn, the French financier and patrn of the soru I IM i he photographs is heavy, almost gauzelike: in his autochromes, Kahn
sciences.10 This archive, begun in 1909 and directed by Jean Brunhes, t l > < ni,ule ihe planet into a series of snapshot jewels.
first Chair in Human Geography at the Collge de France, was intended i < > In romparison to the autochromes, the films in Kahn's archiveun-
arrest history as it happened and preserve on film customs and manners In i diicil, intended for use in lectures or for researchare less arresting. Lifein
fore they disappeared. Unlike early films by Edison and others, the Arch i vi. In mi o (he camera passes quickJy,- the films do not allow for meditation or
were not intended for the general public. Instead, films were screencd Im icmplation. They represent scenes similar to those portrayed in com-
selected meetings of intellectuals like Rabindranath Tagore, HenriBcrgsnn ( i n u i.il travelogues: mostly market and street scenes, views from a train or
and Auguste Rodin. Kahn's camera opcrators filmed not only in Europc, I m i .i i.nlio.id, and scenes of dances and rituals. Like the commcrcial travel-
also in many of the French colonics in Alnra, Asia, and thi- Middle Kasi, ai ni'.nr 1 , which I disctiss lielow, (he K a h n archive footage almost always in-
well as in China and lapan. Relioving t l i . i l cmrm.i and photography r m i l . l Imlcs p. i ora mic virws of (he la mise pe, ol cu from (he point of view of an
j', (ravcleron an incoming ship o ( r a i n . I hesi1 vii-"- '"' '
82 Taxidermy
GesturesofSelf-Protection
+ xv/tw^LlUll KI
^ \. As the travelogue
22. Osa Johnson and unidentified actors on location in Osa and Martin Johnson's 23. Still from Osa and Martin Johnson's Simba (1928).
Cannibals ofthe South Seas (1917). (Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art) (Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art)
panying a rifle-bearing hunter and several of the white hunters holding their Oneof the Johnsons' early films, Cannibals ofthe South Seas (1917), said to
guns, posing with their hunting dogs. Rainey's film is a striking hybrid have been filmed in Malekula, reveis how the Ethnographic picturesque
of photography and film. Upon seeing the photographs in Rainey's film could be almost entirely textual. The Malekulan actors hardly move for the
photographs of hunters who look the camera straight on, or of a dead leop- camera, but instead appear to be constantly posing, as if for a photograph.
ard stuffed in a hanging sackthe viewer is forced to contmplate a sense of Much in the way that a lecturer would concoct a lurid story out of a few
loss, a stopping of time, a death, Barthes's "that-has-been."31 The frozen anthropological photographs,34 however, the Johnsons use overly long inter-
images of the photographs are akin to cinematic taxidermy: the camera and titles to establish that they have been chased by cannibals. A man stares at
the hunt are again literally linked. (he camera in plan amricain with only his genitals covered; this repeated
Death becomes cartoonish in the jungle films of Osa and Martin Johnson, shot, reminiscent of anthropological photographs of a "native type," is the
whose Simba (1928) was produced and distributed by the American Mu p rtense for the narrative. Titles explain that he is Chief Nagapate, Can-
seum of Natural History.32 Part of the humor they employed was the juxta- il i bal King. Interspersed with shots of this man staring at the camera are
position of native people (especially men) with Martin Johnson's wife Osa, 111 les like "By this time we were literally scared stiff, and Nagapate's sarcas-
who, like the Germn actress Meg Gehrts in Hans Schomburgk's films, was ne laugh nearly paralyzed Mrs Johnson with fright," and "We packed our
portrayed alternately as intrepid hunter, scolding housewife, and beautiful cameras and prepared to leave when Nagapate signalled his men. Each of us
object of desire, a trope later used in 19303 jungle films like King Kong and w.i.s seized, Nagapate himself holding Mrs. Johnson, dislocating a wrist
Trader Hora.33 lionc as she struggled." In this film, a sensational narrative of cannibalism
When he was hired by the writer Jack London in 1908 as a still photogra .nul rape is spun out of a rather innocuous image of a man staring at the
pher for an expedition to the Solomon Islands, Martin Johnson met a group t .uera. There is n o t h i n g in the man's face or actions to suggest that he is a
of Pathc filmmakers who showed hiin how lo use- a f i l m camera, ail lu i . i n n i b a l : the spcctacle is constructed e n t i r e l y out of text. The Johnsons
embarked on a career filming in the Pacific Islands, Indonesia, and A l i u . i .pe.ik lor t h c n a t i v e s ' desire, but wliat is revealed is t h e i r own tear, their
yo Taxidcrmy
own fascnating cannibalism, and conscquently the audience's fearful de- Gestures of Self-Protection 91
light in confrontng thcgazc of the "camiibal."
much of anthropology was that the native was always already vanishing,
The Johnsons' image of indigenons peoples as stereotyped protagonists
and the anthropologist could do nothing but record and reconstruct, racing
n "the age-old story of Man emerg ng from savagery" was unremittant.35
aganst the evolutionary clock. Often accompanying this premise, however,
In the Johnsons' Simba, The King of He.atitx, A Saga of the Afican Veldt
was "abstracted" guilt, as a nostalgia for lost origins, and as fearcontem-
(1928)"a dramatic record of shecr reality" filmed in East fricamuch of
plation of death in the abstract leading to contemplation of one's own death.
the action and adventure is in the very act of shooting with the camera. The
Colonialism in the Americas, Asia, frica, Melanesia, Micronesia, and
big game hunting film was a natural outlet for braggadoccio; the film itself
Polynesia did not, of course, destroy all indigenous peoples and their ways
was proof of the filmmakers' expertise and courage. Through intertitles, the
of life. Dsease brought by the colonizers wiped out many populations
Johnsons describe the Africans they encounter as monstrous and ridiculous;
some have suggested as much as half of the colonized worldand native
the women are alternately labeled sexually desirable and ugly, foils for Osa's
peoples were murdered, enslaved, and brutally exploited. Yet indigenous
plump white "showgirl" looks. The climax of Simba is a scene in which
cultures responded and survived. The representation of the "vanishing na-
Lumbwa men spear lions, but, even here, the focus is the daring of the
tive," however, which denied the coexistence of indigenous peoples and
Johnsons: at one point the lion is shown charging the camera, followed by a
turned a blind eye to how they were able to resist and survive European en-
reaction shot of Osa shooting it. Rosen's notion of the ability of cinema to
croachment and dispossesson, was an extremelypotent and popular image.
control meaning finds a perfect example in the cinema of the Johnsons. Osa
Curtis, like Regnault and Flaherty, s often cited as an early ethnographic
is sexualized, but never entirely in control at least in relation to the real
filmmaker. In his photographs and film, Curtis did much to promote the
hero established, her filmmaker/hunter husband Martin. Simba ends with
an aproned Osa smugly baking a pie. myth of the timeless "authenticity" of the Native American. In the myth-
ological archetype of the horse-riding Plains Indan warrior with feather
headdress, essential to the ideology of U.S. westward expansin, the Native
The Archive of Salvage Ethnography: Edward Sheriff Curts American was represented as dying, yet noble, a "last of the ..." phenome-
non. The complex ways that Native Americans have negotiated the pres-
The Johnsons were able to conjure ethnographic spectacle out of the gaze of
ence of whites in the Americas were never part of Curtis's mythology of the
Indian.
a Malekulan man staring at the camera. Commercial cinema like that of
showman Burton Holmes presented a travelogue collection from the point
The cinema of Curtis represents the beginnings of a genre of ethnographic
of view of the fat colonialist tourist; expedition films, like those of Cherry
cinema which emerged from the early travel film, and which offered a quali-
Kearton, were made from the point of view of the Great White Hunter. In
tatively different point of view on the "ethnographic." Curtis amed for the
the photographic "archive" of Edward Sheriff Curtis, author of the twenty-
clegiac and aesthetically beautiful: his object was to produce images of the
volume book of photography The North American Iridian, the point of view
noble, vanishing "savage," and, together with filmmakers like Flaherty, he
is markedly different. Curtis's films mythologize the "vanishing native,"
spectral yet proud. brcame the poetic and artistic accomplice of the academic purveyors of
s.ilvage ethnography. Salvage ethnography took as its central tenet that
As suggested above, the picturesque tableau was aligned with authen
( n t a i n peoples would soon be extinct, and influenced representations of
ticity through detail, conventionalized ethnographic detail serving to im
indigenous peoples both in the museum and in ethnographic film, whether
pose a unity on the inherent multiplicity of the "exotic." As a mask to hidc
"scicntific" or popular: cultural reconstruction eclipsed bodily inscription
colonial anxieties, the picturesque was a means to catalog the distant, in .1
in importance. Jacob W. Gruber explains how salvage ethnography neces-
discourse which Suleri describes as "an unhinged aesthcticism that vals ..mly produced a collection of dataan adhoc accumulation of detailand
and sequesters questions of colonial culpability, but in so doing, bccoincs .1 he .ngues that it was motivated by a valu system which conceived of the
casualty of its own abstracted guilt.""' In t h e "picturesque" cataloging o i ollivlions as evidence of iiihvrcntly pathologcalcultures:
peoples in Melanesia, the Americas, and su on, anilimpology providcd t l n
justification for what was ni m a n v c.iscs gcnocide: .1 (.'cutral prcmisc ni Sucli .in appioaeh COtlld lead only lo a collection of data rather than a
body o data. The very opera I ion o I he rollcction i t se 11 inlii.scd i' 1 ' ' -"
92 Taxidermy
with a sense of separateness, a notion of item discontinuity that en- (Yeibichai) ceremony, it had to be staged for daylight filming: it was appar-
couraged the use of an acontextual comparative method.... Moreover, ently legitimate to "stage" the visual representation of authenticity.41
the sense of salvage with its concern with loss and extinction, stressed Curtis, like Dixon, was determined to eliminate all signs of white culture
the disorganization in a social system at the expense of the sense of from his films and photographs of Indians. As Christopher Lyman has docu-
community; it stressed the pathology of cultural loss in the absence of mented, heads, torsos, and full-length bodies of Native Americans are shot
any real experience with the normally operating small community. in a dreamy pictorialist style, foregrounding the corporeal presence of the
The recognition of the pathology of that state provided the basis and sitters while denying their contemporary presence. The smoky ghostlike
rationale for the useful concept of the ethnographic present as the ideal backgrounds and the use of costumes which iconographically were seen as
of organizationbut it was an ideal whose reality, stability, and order more "authentic," but which were worn exclusively during the photogra-
were to be the source of a continuing skepticism. The fact was that the phy sessions, were major aspects of Curtis's oeuvre. The Indian is portrayed
very notion of salvage insisted on the investigation of those sociocul- as the romantic hero of a "vanishing race." The image that Curtis created for
tural systems already in a advanced state of destruction; as with the himself was of an explorer/photographer with a mission: to document Na-
development of medicine itself it was the abnormal that set the norm tive Americans who he claimed had adopted him and initiated him into
secret societies. Curtis even boasted that he had become a Hopi priest and
of investigation.37 that he participated in the Snake dance.42
The strange doubleness of the politics of authenticity meant that the Particularly significant among the earliest feature-length works of eth-
"vanishing native" was imagined as simultaneously pathological and gen- nographic cinema is Edward Sheriff Curtis's film In the Land of the Head-
uine. If salvage ethnography was a race against the perceived destruction of hunters (1914), a film which, like Nanook of the North, involves recon-
native life "from a pictorial point of view,"38 it was also a race backwards, to struction and salvage ethnographythe desire to "re-create" what native
a less cluttered, simpler past. Joseph K. Dixon, whose photographs of the life was like before European contact.43 A melodrama filmed in the Van-
noble Plains Indian warrior, like those of Curtis, would become the image of eouver Island rea about a young Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) man, the
native authenticity for white Americans, succinctly summed up the aes woman he falls in love with, and an evil sorcerer, the film also includes
thetic of salvage ethnography in his own photography: "Every effort was i n a n y scenes of war and ceremonial dances.44 In a brochure for the film,
exhausted to eliminate any hint of the white man's footthe spirit of the C !urtis wrote that because of the "historical and ethnological importance"
native environment dominated."39 I i muges of Indians, films like his would only increase in valu, and could
Impelled by similar motivations, Curtis became more famous tb.au he nsed by students, scientists, and the masses.45 In the Land of the Head-
Dixon, mainly because of the popularity of the photographs in his tweniy Inuiicrs was promoted as a authentic record of Kwakwaka'wakw life at
volume set The North American Indian. Funded by some of the very people i he lime, but it was clearly based on cultural reconstruction. The Kwak-
who were exploiting the land and thus changing Indian ways of lifenon 11 w.ika'wakw actors wore cedar bark costumes and wigs and were made to
eastern merchants and industrialists like Teddy Roosevelt and J. P. Morga i1 ih.ive off moustaches; building fronts were constructed and ttem poles
Curtis's collection of photographs was perhaps the largest visual contribu i ,11 ved tor the film. All traces of "the white man's foot," as Dixon put it,
tion to salvage ethnography by a non-anthropologist. Curtis himself labrl< < l w i - i c painstakingly erased.
his work "Art Science," conceiving of it as both art and ethnography.10 h.i lacknis has outlined some of the similarities between the salvage
In his lectures, Curtis capitalized on the public's hunger for imar.i. i i h i u ij',ra phy of Curtis and Boas. As Jacknis writes, "Given the popular insis-
using lantern slides and filmof sacred Indian dances, induding the pupu h in e lu a 'picturesque savage,' Boas and other photographers (Curtis even
lar Hopi Snake dance at Walpi, Arizona. With the opening of the Atchisnii i i so) were encouraged toarrange the 'reality' before thelens to depict as
Topeka and the Santa Fe RR in i 88o, the Southwest Ln the f ollowing decadl | i i i i n li o i he tradicional culuirc as possihle." Although Boas disapproved of
had become a mecen for wliite KocUk-tOtiHg t o u n s t s atlcnding dances U' t in i is's mode o representacin and even atCacked Curtis for manipulating
sides the Hopi Snake Dance, ( a n t i s m.nle ,i l i l i n in H)O,| o .1 N a v a j o i i i n . i l |lnilo)',i,iphic s t y l e in a Ictter todirtis's patrn Thcodorc Roosevelc in 1907,
Because the r i t u a l itsell look place din mj-, I he m u l l nif.ht o I he Niy.hl w . i \s of Self-Protection
hn.r. 93 ilul un d e s l a t e h n n s e l l lo n i . i n i p n l . i t e photographs lo remove SKIIS
'
24. Edward Sheriff Curts, "Bridal group" (1914). 25. Edward Sheriff Curtis, "Masked dancers in canoes" (1914).
(North American Indian vol. 10, courtesy of the Library of Congress) (NoTth Amanean Indian vol. 10, courtesy of the Library of Congress)
Curtis's tale is convoluted and melodramatic, and only the intertitles skulls and is seen laying his head to sleep on them. The beheadings them-
carry forward the narrative. Curtis even allowed several different actors to selves, like Motana's hunting successes, are not portrayed.
play the same parts. Visually, however, the audience at times does see from Although the Kwakwaka'wakw performers in some scenes stand on
the point of view of the actors, as when the shore is filmed from the point o shore highlighted by the sun, appearing shadow-like, on the whole they are
view of Yaklus and his men as they move in to attack Motana's village, o not rendered hieroglyphs as were the West African performers in the Pars
when the seis are filmed from Motana's point of view as he stalks them Ethnographic Exposition filmed by Regnault. Instead, they are clearly ac-
True to the salvage ethnography mode, there are no tourists, no hunters, and I ors, playing roles in a dramatized narrative of Noble Savagery. If the goal of
no scientists in the filmno trace of the "white foot." i 'urtis was truth, however, he clearly failed: the superimposed melodrama,
Two aspects of the film were criticized by contemporary scientific re .un i he film's sensationalized versin of salvage ethnography, predominate.
viewers as highly inaccurate, not truc to Kwakwaka'wakw Ufe in 1914: t l u - I lie actual historical and political situation of the Kwakwaka'wakw, whose
visin quest and headhunting.53 But these two themes, essential to t l n I id i la (cb ceremonies, for example, had been forbidden by the Canadian gov-
narrative, also carry an important allegorical impact. The visin quest p.n i i n i n e n t , is nowhere addressed.
aliis Curtis's quest, and, while headhunting was seen by Western vicwcr. I ii ilic I,and of the Head Hunters leavesonestrangelyuntouched: Curtis's
as pathological and "savage," Curtis's own profession as a photograplu-i/ photography, with its topographic obsession with the surfaces of faces, is
filmmaker made him a hunter of Indian "heads." In several striking scciu,, I I H I I C powerfu] and has more presence. Indeed, the film was not a great
warriors stand at the prow of oncoming raimes, sliaking the heads they h.ivi MU rrss despite good reviews. The stillness of Curtis's photographs eerily
captured up and down as tlu-y appioai'h s l m i r . Mot.m.i h i m s e l l dances w i i l i Mimesis tle.ilh in a inanner t h a l his s t i l t e d fea ture film does not; Harthes's
98 Taxidermy
102 Taxidermy
Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography i o T,
brought about a crisis in the nineteenth century: the realization that instead
of one history there were many histories. Donna Haraway, in her marvelous
article on Cari Akeley's early-twentieth-century dioramas, taxidermy, pho-
tography, and film at the American Museum of Natural History, likewise
speaks of taxidermy as a means to protect against loss, in order that the body
may be transcended: "Taxidermy fulfills the fatal desire to represent, to be
whole,- it is a politics of reproduction."10 Thus in order to make a visual
representation of indigenous peoples, one must believe that they are dying,
as well as use artifice to make a picture which appears more true, more pur.
Since indigenous peoples were assumed to be already dying if not dead, the
ethnographic "taxidermist" turned to artifice, seeking an image more true
to the posited original. When Flaherty stated, "One often has to distort a
thing to catch its true spirit," he was not just referring to his own artistry
but to the preconditions for the effective, "true" representation of so-called
vanishing culture.''
It is a paradox of this cinema of romantic preservationism that the re-
action"That person is alive!"is most easily elicited if the subjects filmed
are represented as existing in a former epoch. As Johannes Fabin has
pointed out, the specificity of anthropology is that the subjects of its inquiry
are represented as existing in an earlier age. Fabin explains the significance
of the use in modern anthropology of the "ethnographic present," the prac-
tice of writing in the present tense about the people whom the anthropolo-
16. Still from Nanook of the North (1922), dir. Robert Flaherty.
gist studied. The dominant pronoun/verb form is "They are (do, have, etc.)" (Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art)
This form of rhetoric presupposes that the people studied are timeless, and
establishes the anthropologist as hidden observer, akin to the natural histo-
rian in that he or she stands at the peephole into the distant past.12 The Nanook, the archetypal moment is that of a society ignorant of guns or
ethnographic present obfuscates the dialogue and the encounters that took gramophones: a society of man the hunter, man against nature, man the
place befween the anthropologist and the people studied. In other words, as eater of raw flesh. Nanook of the North was a cinema of origins in many
Fabin writes, "pronouns and verb forms in the third person mark an Other ways: its appeal was the myth of authentic first man.
outside the dialogue."13 What has been called Flaherty's "slight narrative"15 thus fits perfectly
The cinema of Flaherty worked in the same way: Nanook and his family with a racializing representation of the Inuit, which sitales indigenous
were represented in a cinematic "ethnographic present" in which intertitles peoples outside modern history. Nanook, however, is structured as a film
establish the camera, and thus the filmmaker, as observer. Furthermore, i I about the daily life of the Inuit, its novelty deriving from the fact that it
the indigenous man, Nanook, is constructed as a being without artifice, as was neither a scientific expedition film meant to serve as a positivist record,
referent, the indigenous woman is there to be uncovered, her bodyand this or a traveloguc of jokey tourism. As mentioned above, Siegfried Kracauer
is true of ethnographic cinema in generalto be scopically possessed by the dcscribcd Flaherty as a filmmaker of the "flow of life." Kracauer writes,
camera/filmmaker and the audience as well. As intendcd, however, this "Flaherty's 'slight narratives' portray or resuscitate modes of existence that
form of ethnographic film, infused with the not ion o dcath and the idea o obtain among p r i m i t i v o peoples. . . . Most Flaherty films are expressive of
vanishing races, is a cinema ofarchetypal momcnis cndlessly repeated. 11 In his romantic desiro to summon, ail preserve for posterity, the purity and
IO4 Taxidermy
Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography 105
'majesty' [Flaherty's word] of a way of Ufe not yet spoiled by the advance of
civilization."16 The Hunt for the Inuit and the Alaskan Eskimo:
Flaherty explained this best when he described film as "a very simple Explorers, Museums, Fairs, and Films
form." For Flaherty, the mdium made simple was well suited to the subject
The trail of contact between Arctic peoples and whites was already littered
matter: with corpses by the time of Nanook. The appetite for the Inuitspecifically
[Films] are very well-suited to portraying the lives of primitive people for images of their bodiesby both scientists and the public began in 1577
whose lives are simply lived and who feel strongly, but whose activities when the explorer Martin Frobisher presented Queen Elizabeth I with a
are external and dramatic rather than internal and complicated. I don't man, woman, and child from Baffmland.20 The representation of the Inuit
think you can make a good film of the love affairs of the Eskimo . . . began with explorers' accounts: the belief that the word "Eskimo" means
because they never show much feeling in their faces, but you can make "eater of raw meat" reveis what the public found most interesting about
a very good film of Eskimos spearing a walrus.17 them. Because of their diet of raw meat, they were described as animal-like,
savage, and cannibalistic. They also would be repeatedly compared to their
The Ethnographic is without intellect: he or she is best represented as sled dogs, and this canine metaphor was used in Nanook.21
merely existing. It is the camera of the explorer/artist who will capture the
Arctic explorers brought back more than just maps, furs and ivory. It was
reality of their "simply lived" lives. Henee the notion (and myth) that the
common for explorers to bring back Inuit and Alaskan Eskimo. It was also a
actors in Nanook were "non-actors." "tradition" that these Inuit rarely returned to their homelands: they fre-
The desire of Euro-American audiences and critics to perceive Nanook as quently died from diseases for which they had no immunity. Like the West
authentic Primitive man, as an unmediated referent, is evident in the fact
Africans and Malagasy whom Regnault filmed in exhibitions, the Inuit
that until the 19705, no one bothered to ask members of the Inuit commu-
were extremely popular performers in exhibitions, zoos, and museums.
nity in which the film was made for their opinions of the film. Only then They were treated as specimens and objects of curiosity.
was it learned that the ame of the actor who played Nanook was Al-
Some of the Inuit left behind written records of their experiences as per-
lakariallak. The same applies to all the other characters in the film. Al-
formers. One such account is that of a man named Abraham, one of eight
though it was typical for explorers to "nickname" the Inuit they encoun- Labrador Inuit brought over by J. Adrin Jacobsen to perform in the Hagen-
tered, Flaherty's innovation was in giving the Inuit nicknames that soundcd beck Zoo in Berln.22 Abraham kept a diary in which he described how one
Inuit. Henee Nanook (the Bear) was a better and more easily marketablc
member of the group was beaten with a dog whip and how they performed at
ame than Allakariallak, because of its seeming genuineness and its dual the zoo in freezing conditions. Like the climax of Nanook, the climax of
connotations of cuddly like a teddy bear, and wild like a savage beast. these performers' acts at the zoo was a seal hunt. Within three months,
At the end of the film there is a haunting shot of Nanook sleeping, a cise
however, all had died from smallpox. Their bones immediately were used
up of his head. He appears to be asleep, but his absolute stillness reminds us for anthropological research.
of a waxwork or a corpse. Taxidermy is also deeply religious: when Bazin
Explorers like Robert Peary were dependent on the good will and money
writes that the mummy complex is the impulse behind the evolution o of industrialists and museum philanthropists to fund their expeditions. To
technologies of realism"To preserve, artificially, his bodily appearance is
increase their own fame, and to make some profit, explorers brought back
to snatch it from the flow of time, to stow it away neatly, so to speak, in thc
Inuit and Alaskan Eskimo to be exhibited. Peary was notorious for his cru-
hold of Ufe"one is reminded of the imagc of the sleeping Nanook. 18 In
elty and arrogance toward the Inuit who worked for him, often treating
ethnographic cinema, the narrative of the film hinges upon the body of thr
ihcm no better than dogs.23 When they died, often from diseases which his
nativeplugged into the narrative of evolution and the myth of vanishinr, ships inadvertently brought, he would exhume their bodies and sell them to
races. It is this body, and not that o an (Vdipal father or mother, whicli nuiscums. Explorers also made most of their fortunes through the furs and
must be slain and upon which the na r ral i ve tesis. 1 '' Tliai A l l a k a r i a l l a k dietl ivory they received from the I n u i t . ' 1
two years afler ihe f i l m was leleased, o r i i l i e i s i a i v a l i o n or disease, only In iSy, Pranz Moas, who w.is l l i r n as.sistam curator o the American
enhanced the film's status as a woi k o . u i i l i e n i u u v M u s e i i m o N a t u r a l l l i s t o r y , ple.ided w i i l i l Y . n y to h i i i i L ' h.-irlf "> !"' '--
io6 Taxidermy
Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography
.tl,ji.j5idpiiy 107
107
died the scentists had staged a fake burial, and that indeed his father's
bones were at the museum. As Wallace explained in a letter to a friend:
You can't know the sad feelings I have No one can know unless they
have been taken from their home and had their father die and put on
exhibition, and be left to starve in a strange land where the men insult
you when you ask for your own dear father's body to bury or to be sent
home.
These are the civilized men who steal, and murder, and torture, and
pray and say "Science."26
Not surprisingly, the Inuit were popular subjects for museum models in
dioramas. For example, the first museum models at the Smithsonian In-
stitution's United States National Museum (now the Museum of Natural
History), made in 1873, represented two Inuit named "Joe" and "Hanna,"
flanking the figure of the explorer Dr. Elisha Kent Kane. Museum displays
of life groupsdepicting cultures in nuclear family units performing rituals
or subsistence activitiesare another characteristic form of the "taxider-
mic" mode of salvage ethnography.27
In the nineteenth century, the image of the Inuit and the Alaskan Eskimo
aequired nuances in addition to that of "wild Savage." As Ann Fienup-
R iordan explains, the Eskimo were made into the mrror image of the ex-
plorers. Like the explorers, the Eskimo were represented as noble, brave,
mdependent, persevering, and incorruptible. But ideas about the relatively
lofty status of the Eskimo did not mean that the Eskimo were perceived as
27. Elisha Kent Kanc, Joe, and Hanna, Smithsonian Institution Ufe group, 1871 alilc to undergo their own "independent progress" without white interven-
(Smithsonian Institution photo no. 28321, used by permission of the Smithsoniii i ion.1'8 In a sense, the Eskimo were seen as Primitive success stories of an
Institution, National Anthropological Archives) A i c t i c "survival of the fittest/'Fienup-Riordan explains:
joint hunting ventures and communal rituals and dances in Inuit life. As
one woman sings at the end of Qaggiq, "Let's help one another. White
people are coming." As in Nunaqpa, the importance of language is empha-
sized in the use of Inuktiput. Kunuk allows his actors to act out scenes from III TERATOLOGY
the recent past of their own culture, demonstrating that he views film and
video as a means of expressing history and exploring memory. For Kunuk, as
for many contemporary Inuit, a film about the community should be made
in the same spirit that one builds a qaggiq. As Kunuk declared, "We are
saying that we are recording history because it has never been recorded. It's
been recorded by southern film makers from Toronto, but we want our
input, to show history from our point of view. We know it best because we
Uve it."85
The Inuit live history, according to Kunuk. Flaherty removed signs of
history, such as the Inuit encounter with whites, in order to sustain the
signs of the Ethnographic: the myth of the Inuit as archetypal Primitive
man. My purpose has not been to prove whether or not Nanook was a
truthful document of Quebec Inuit life in the 19205, or whether Flaherty
staged scenes. Instead, my goal has been to excvate the levis of discourse
around the notion of authenticity, salvage ethnography, the history of the
media cannibalism of the Inuit, the film's historical and intellectual con-
text, and the style and content of the film. I have also attempted to show
how a reading of the film is inextricably connected with the cult of the
Ethnographic Filmmaker in ways that other film genres are not. Flaherty's
awe for the figure of the great explorer, and his own similar self-fashioning,
reveis the underlying narrative around his persona: Flaherty is the father
of a men's club of explorer/artists. Like his fictional character Grant, Fla-
herty was the first to "pentrate" and open up ethnographic cinema foi
other chasseurs d'images, those many independent U.S. and European film
makers like Jean Rouch and Richard Leacock who admire him. The awr
that he is granted emerges from the myth of his relationship with Nanook:
it is an ideal perfect relationship between ethnographer and his faithful,
loyal, simple subject. Unlike the Trobrianders who were resistant at tinn-s
to Malinowski's image-making, the Inuit who worked for Flaherty dicl so
out of love, so the myth goes.
This is why Nanook of the North is seen as a point of origin for art f i l m ,
documentary film, and ethnographic film: it represents the Carden of lidcn,
the perfect relationship between filmmakcr and subject, the "innoivni
eye," a search for realism that was not just inscription, bul which inade ilir
dead look alive and the living look dcad.
5 TIME AND REDEMPTION IN THE
But going ahead, we were turning the pages backwardson and o'n
further back into the centuries.
Till we reached the first Chapter, arrived at the very beginning
A voyage back in time to the origns of the "Aryan race" (and thus to the
origins of the purported white viewer), Grass has no central native protago-
nist: even Haidar Khan, the chief of the tribe of Baktiari, portrayed as a
leader of this trek, is not developed as a character.17 Instead, what is fore-
grounded is epic endurance and spectacular nature: wide-angle shots of
t housands of dark figures making a zigzagging line as they climb mountains
o ice and rock. This epic theme, however, is adorned with cuteness. As the
re viewer in the New York Times commented, "It is an unusual and remark-
ablc film offering, one that is instructive and compelling but in no way a
31. Stillfrom Crass (1915), dir. MerianC. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. siory. Yet in this picture, there is drama interspersed with captivating com-
(Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art) cdy, and the audience last night applauded some of the wonderful pho-
tographic sequences and at other times they were moved to laughter by the
, i n i ics of the animis."18 Thus picturesque details such as the blowing up of
a human unknown. The Baktiari of southwestern Irn are referred to as f.o.ii skins for floating across rapids are accompanied by jokey intertitles.
the "Forgotten People" living the life of "three thousand years ago." Grass I lie Times reviewer accurately noted that the intertitles appear to have
begins: I u < n w ri tten for Barnum and Bailey's circus.
The way of the world is west. < .'fv/.sp.v ends with the triumph of the filmmakers as contemporary Aryan
Long the sages have told us how our forefathers, the Aryans of od, hemes who followed the Baktiari on their dangerous trek in order to make
rose remote in Asia and began conquest of earth, moving ever in the 1111 11 I i I in. The film thus betrays a curious anxiety with producing suf ficient
path of the sun. r v i i l c i i i e, reminiscent of the Time Traveller in H. G. Wells's novel who goes
li.n k i n t o the future with a camera in order to take photographs which will
After a panoramic shot of camels walking in profile on the horizon, t l n - i i ii i v mee othcrs of the veracity of his trip. The final film sequence in Grass
intertitles continu: < v i - 1 1 mrludesaclose-upof a document signed by officials claiming that the
Back in the East behind us are the secrets of our own past, and a tradi U l i i m i . i k t T s were the first foreigners to make the dangerous trek across the
don of our brothers still living in the eradle of the racea long siim / M i N l i K u h pass. Dcspite the obvious effort to make the film succeed as
Forgotten People. I I n l l v w o o d entertainment, the filmmakers were concerned with establish-
int; i he l i l n i ' s status as truthful document.
The hroes of the film are introduced: pipe-smoking Cooper, ruggeil i uii|iri .uul Sehoedsack's next film, Chang(ig2j), filmedinThailandasif
looking Schoedsack, and female journalist Harrison. Tilles explain i h . u in i In "ethnographic prescnt," is about a family living in the jungle who
Cooper and Schoedsack will not be pictured in the film, because they .m n n i ' i i l u i i i e i i d w i t h w i l c l mimis, especially tigers and elephants.19 The
behind the camera. Subscquently, Harrison, portrayedasagenteel lady u . i v M U " ' . i I r . i i r d In-.ist is "chang" (elephant), a word that the audience repeatedly
eler fully dependent on her malc traveler companions, is t h e only I H > M """ "i i n t e r t i t l e s but does not le.im the m e a n i n g o l u n t i l midway through
Baktiari person filmcd. Altbough providinga w h i t e point o relerenee li I 'he vnv.if.e ni discoveiv m ('Inii^ is onc leading to the revela-
136 Teratology
Time and Redemption 137
both wild (hungry tigers, rampaging elephants) and domestic (especially
Bimbo the pet monkey and a bear cub), with the intertitles even attributing
dialogue to them. In his book L'exotisme et le cinema, Fierre Leprohon
explains that the success of Chang derived from its ability to evoke the
shock of childhood: "It is here that cinema brought us back again to the
most beautiful moment of our childhood. We suddenly found again our
desire for discoveries, our nostalgia for these 'elsewheres' where we would
never be able to set foot."22
As the product of "photographer-adventurers," the filmed scenes with
wild animis were considered risky, thrilling, and dangerous, and Chang
cnds with the spectacle of the elephants entering a corral, the intertitles
underlining the lesson that "Brawn surrenders to the brain," man conquers
nature. A glowing review in the New York Times called Chang "an unusual
piece of work, beside which all big game hunting films pal into insignifi-
cance, and through the clever arrangement of its sequences, excellent com-
edy follows closely on the exciting episodes."23 Slapstick comedy, espe-
cially evident in Chang in the scenes between the children and the pet
animis, as well as patroni/ing and corny intertitles, are again present. In
i lie expedition variant of the "racial film" genre in general, the filmmakers
na ke "inside" jokes with the audience about the "ignorance" of the subjects
32. Still from Chang (1927), dir. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. ihrough intertitles or with montage, the use of slapstick only serving to
(Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art) lu-ighten the physicality of the characters. Much of the patronizing quality
i il t he Hlms derives from the use of the ape metaphor. In Chang, shots of a
w i/rned od villager are intercut with that of a monkey, intended to lead the
tion of the identity of the beast, a discovery made all the more impressivr
v i r wcr to laugh at the parallel. This simian motif contines in Schoedsack's
when the film opened at the Rivoli theater in New York City, through t h e
l.iin Knngo (1931), a film about a family in Aceh, a regin of Sumatra,
use of magnoscope technology for the climactic scene of the stampedinf,
Indonesia, that takes as its premise a comparison between the orangutang
elephants.20
.mil (lie Acehnese protagonist. Finally, of course, the anthropoid ape be-
The stars of Chang are not the human characters Kru and his wife mu i iimcs (he star in King Kong.
children, but the animis and the filmmakers who capture them on f i l m
Schoedsack wrote that, with Chang, they were pursuing the same thcmr as
they pursued in Grass, "the theme of man's struggle against naturc, o n l v Mi '.n, The Silent Enemy, andPrmitivist Romanticism
this time nature was represented by the jungle and its animis."21 The f i l m
A l t liough there appear to have been two distinct categories of "racial film"
begins with the opening statement common in ethnographic cinema t h . n
ni dir ryiosand 19308one whichglorified the Great WhiteHunt, andone
Kru's family, these "natives of the wild," have never seen a motion pict un
u I I H li p.unted a picture of romantic primitivismthe two categories over-
The family is represented as archaic Primitive Jungle people who m i r . i
l , i | > .nul mcrgc. dVc/.v.s1, for example, appears to be an expedition film, but it
tame or kill wild animis in order to survivc. In Chang, thcre is somc .H
.intiri/.cs the llaktiari as Aryan ancestors of the West; Chang, a film
tempt at depicting nuclear family life in the jungle (it is man and his l . i i u i K
v v i i l i n i i l v Thai actors, might he thought an exereise in romantic primitiv-
against nature), but again there is l i t t l e character dcvelopment and no scn-.i
i ' i i i i . l u i i .m underlying theme of the f i l m is the courage and skill of Cooper
of any broader social intcraction. The real stars of ihc f i l m , the a n i m i s , .n < l l i i l '.( liurds.irk.
K
138 Teratology
Time and Redemption T39
As George W. Stocking }r. explains, the period after World War I in both
Europe and North America was a period in which the cultural status quo
was being questioned, a period of sexual experimentation and intellectual
bohemianism. This "ethnographic sensibility" coalesced in the search for
"genuine culture," and certain geographical places became the focal points
of the search: Greenwich Village, the center of white bohemian life;- the
Southwest, where anthropologist Ruth Benedict found Pueblo culture ex-
emplifying the Apollonian balance; Tepoztln Mxico, romanticized by an-
thropologist Robert Reducid; and Samoa, pictured on the dust jacket of
Mead's Corning of Age in Samoa as a barebreasted young woman running
off hand-in-hand with a naked man for a moonlit encounter. In European
and U.S. avant-garde movements in art, the application of aesthetic forms
borrowed from African, Asian, Pre-Columbian, and Oceanic art burgeoned
into the movement known as Primitivism, an art movement characterized,
among other things, by the use of non-Western aesthetics as a means to
rattle the "rational" status quo. As Stocking rightly points out, however,
there was another side to this use of the "primitive" to criticize Western
culture. Referring to the subtitle of Mead's Corning of Age in Samoa, Stock-
ing writes,
1 1 . Still from Moana (1926), dir. Robert Flaherty.
The presentation of cultural relativism in an evolutionary package ("A (( oiirtesy of the Museum of Modern Art)
Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation") made it possible to
appeal simultaneously to motives of romantic primitivism and ethno-
centric progressivism. On the one hand, Mead insisted that "our own U;r (1926). After the success of Nanook, Paramount eagerly gave Flaherty a
ways are not humanly inevitable or God-ordained" . . . and that we "pay l i l . i n k check to make Moana. Although purporting to be a film about the
heavily for our heterogeneous, rapidly changing civilisation." . . . But in d . i i l y lifc of the island Savaii in British Samoa, Moana, like Nanook of
return, we gained "the possibility of choice," the recognition of "many ilii' North, is a reconstruction of aprojectedidyllicpast. 25 Thefilm tclls the
possible ways of life, where other civilisations have recognized only .ini v o the daily life of a young, handsome Samoan, Moana, who hunts for
one. 11 u 11 uses with the young boy Pe'a, and flirts with his girlfriend Fa'angase. As
ni i l u - f i l m s of Regnault there is a fascination with native tree climbing. At
This same duality, of course, was present in Nanook of the North. In
i l n "climax" of the film, however, Moana undergoes a painful ritual tattoo-
Flaherty's film of 1922, the Inuit are shown as true hunters in an epochal
n i i ; IIMUCSS, <i practice already prohibited in 1926. If the character Nanook
struggle with nature, but they are also represented as tragically vanishing.
i mhndicd First Man, Man the Hunter, the young Moana embodies Primi-
While the West implicitly is portrayed as a civilization that can learn from
i n i Man as Carefrec Adolescent, whose only pain is culturally imposed.
other peoples, indigenous peoples implicitly are seen as threatened with im
Hi u r.h documentary filmmaker John Grierson, who coined the term "docu-
minent extinction. The anthropologist, like the ethnographic filmmaker, is
i n i n i . i i v " f i l m in his 1926 rcview of Moana, wrote, "The golden beauty of
thus the agent of redemption, but he or she can only really savc the West.
I m u i ve heings, of a South Sea Island that is an earthly paradise, is caught
As described in the last chapter, Francs Flaherty claimed that her bus i i n i l n i i p t i s o n e d in Robert J. Flaherty's Moana.""'
band was interested in "primitivo" peoples prccisely bccause he was n t e r
A / i > , / / ; < / hcgins l > y v i s u a l l y i n v i t i n g ( h e v i e w e r t o f a l l haek into Paradise.
ested in the emergence of the machine; wc (ind that dual movement o
I I u i . u n c a l i l i s f rom t h e lop o t a l I pal ni trees down through f o i age i n t o a
romantic primitivism in his second l i l i n , Miximi: A Itoniiincc <>/ iln- ( , ' < ) / < / < / /
hlililcn tropical s a n c l i i . i l v: l l i e v i c w c i is ( l u i s welcomed m o a mvthiral
140 Teratology
Time and Redemption 141
golden age without colonialism, without missionaries, where the most dan-
gerous animal is the wild boar, and food and smiles are plentiful. The cam- the Samoans are given a poetic and idealized form, reminiscent of the ide-
era often adopts an observational perspective, placing the viewer above it alized representational manner used by artists to depict Renaissance angels.
all. The village, for example, shot from very high overhead, appears small, At times the images are quite effective: the faces of the elders as they sit
like a display in a glass museum case. Shots altrnate between high camera around Moana as he is tattooed, shadows flickering across the lines and
angles and close-ups of hands, backs, and buttocks as the Savaii villagers crevices of their solemn faces, are particularly moving. Again, as in Na-
wring coconut, prepare bark cloth, and tattoo each other. Francs Flaherty nook, the landscape and the face are the film's foci. One intertitle explains:
declared, "Simply in the beautiful movement of a hand the whole story of Through this pattern of the flesh, to you perhaps no more than cruel,
the race can be revealed," a statement with which Regnault probably would useless ornament, the Samoan wins the dignity, the character and fibre
have agreed.27 Although Moana lacks the drama of man versus nature pres- which keep his race alive.
ent in Nanook of the Nozth, Flaherty creates suspense by not revealing
immediately the purpose of human actionas in a scene where the boy Pe'a The irony was that tattooing was no longer practiced, having been banned
is shown poking rocks with a stick. Only later does the viewer discover that ater mass conversions to Christianity, but it remained an attractive trope
Pe'a is smoking out a crab. Grierson complained of the fllm's chasteness, or a Western audience eager to see and visualize a golden adolescence
where the most threatening moment in life is a ritual ordeal.
but sensuality is present in the way Moana pours water from a bamboo tube
into Fa'angase's throat, and in the way she rubs his body with coconut oil. In many ways, Moana is of a piece with Nanook, and both are prem-
Desire is also manifest in the nocturnal dance of Moana and Fa'angase, ised on self-conscious reconstruction, thus manifesting the vanishing races
described by intertitles as "The art, the worship, the courtship of the race." I heme. If both are works of Ethnographic taxidermy, however, Moana, with
The viewer is meant to view the couple as the archetypal Samoan adoles- iis implicit mourning of a lost Golden Age, more starkly sets a paradiasical
cent pair. l'rimitive against the Modern. The character of Nanook, with his disci-
As in Nanook, the body of the native woman is revealed to the viewer. In plined hard work and industriousness, is simultaneously an embodiment of
one scene, Fa'angase is barebreasted facing the camera, her knees deep in i he "living dead" and a dramatically heroic evolutionary "ancestor" for the
water and her arms raised above her head to pick leaves. Unlike Paul Gau- Western viewer to identify with (as suggested by Balikci, he s a "primitive
guin's Where do we come fmmi What are we! Where are we goingl (1897- Pmtestant"). In Moana, by contrast, the lush tropical setting and utter ab-
98), which represents Polynesian women in a similar pose, there are no '.eii ce of Western presence take the viewer to a Carden of Edn. Critic Grier-
enigmatic figures lurking in the background as devils in Flaherty's paradise. '.on thus described Moana a welcome experience for those suffering from
The Samoans are seen living in a timeless Edn, in "traditional" garb: there i lie "grime of modern civilization" and longing "for a South Sea island on
is no place in paradise for Christianity and British colonialism. i he leafy shores of which to fritter away a life in what 'civilized' people
The visual effect of Moana depends in large part on Flaherty's use of a long wi ni Id consider childish pursuits."31 In catering to this longing, Moana reas-
lens and panchromatic film. According to Flaherty, this technology allowed '.ii i es the viewer that all is well in the Ethnographic world (no colonialism,
for better voyeurism, since the Samoan actors were less self-conscious with ni i war, etc.), and also holds out to the viewer the promise that earthly
..i I va(ion might still bepossible.
a more distant camera presence;28 it also lent "a roundness, a stereoscopic
quality that gave to the picture a startling reality and beauty.... The fign res S.ilvation is given explicit Christian overtones in The Silent Enemy
were alive and real, the shadows softer, and the breadfruit seemed likc {i <) IH), a "racial film" dirccted by H. P. Carver which was not a product of
living things rather than a fat background."29 As with Nanook, it was this I lnllvwood but of the museum. 32 A wealthy young amateur and American
roundness, this three-dimensional quality in the representation of indige M u s c u m o Natural History trustee W. Douglas Burden produced the film,
nous peoplesin contrast to the hieroglyphs of Regnault, or the exotic dcc< >t u l i i c h purportcd to show the life of the Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indians before
i l i e ronimg o Jesuit priests. Carver used a natural history approach, with
of early travelogues suchas thoseby Gastn Mlieswhich anthropologistl
. i i i e i i i i o n to m a t e r i a l c u l t u r e . The cast was advertised to be all-Indian and
were topraise. 30 Portrayed as without COinplcxity or histrica! specifieity,
. m i l i r n i i e : (he ch.ir.iclers iiu luded the Chiel Chetoga (Chauncy Yellow
142 Teratology
Time and Redemption 143
film technology sets the stage for the film as truth. A hybrid film, the rest of
The Silent Enemy is without sound and uses intertitles.
The film, despite being set in a period before white contact, has a power-
ful Christian framework, as Elizabeth Weatherford has pointed out.33 The
shaman Dagwan is portrayed as evil in traditional Jesuit terms: he becomes
the greedy capitalist. The Great Spirit is made into an Indian versin of God.
Baluk, who has led the tribe on a seemingly futile trek to find caribou, is
unjustly sentenced to die by Dagwan. He is led to the pyre, his Christ-like
body set momentarily aflame like a cross on fire, and he is only saved at the
last minute when caribou are spotted. Given that the Chippewa did not
practice immolation, the narrative apparently was intended to appeal to
Euro-American notions of Christian sacrifice. In the expansionist ideology
of the vanishing Indian found in the United States, this image may be taken
as an indigenous Christ dying for the sins of the West, assuaging the guilt of
gcnocide and dispossession that Anglo colonialism had inflicted on the
native peoples of the Americas.
Like Moana, The Silent Enemy contains scientific pretensions to salvage
cthnography and reconstruction for the purposes of redemption. The ideol-
ogy of how The Silent Enemy reflects the Western pastime of picturing
34. Still from The Silent Enemy (1930), dir. H. P. Carver. Native Americans as Noble Savages struggling to survive in the wild is
(Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art) belied by the biographies of the main actors of the film. Chauncy Yellow
Robe was not a Chippewa, but a Lakota from Montana, one of the thousands
ul Indians who as a small child was taken from his parents and sent to the
('arlyle School in Pennsylvania, forced to forget his native language. He
l.ii i-r lived in New York and was married to an Euro-American woman. The
Robe); the Beautiful Maiden Neewa (Molly Spotted Elk), the Heroic Hunu-i
li.iidsome star Long Lance was also a Carlylc gradate, but had embellished
Baluk (Long Lance), and the evil Medicine Man Dagwan (Akawanush). Tbr
.1 wliolc Indian biography for himself. Although he claimed he was a chief
Chippewa Indians are represented as always precariously involved in .1
and .1 war hero, historians have discovered that he was Usted as a "colored"
struggle with nature for adequate food.
xnldid in World War I rosters. Both he and Yellow Robe were part of the
Like several of the "racial films" of the late 19205 and early 19308, V'/ic
New York social life: they could eat at the Explorer's Club, a wealthy lite
Silent Enemy's implicit theme of transition in its depictions of indigenoui
mrn'.s club in New York, a privilege which, as an African American man,
peoples as innocent Primitives parallels the transition of film technology
I mi); l.ance would never have been granted. Molly Spotted Elk, aPenobscot
occurring at the same time from silent film to sound. In many of tlu<
I M U 11 M.iinc, was known as an exotic dancer in New York and Pars. She
films, the language of gesture of the silent film and accompanying m i n
IM i l m m i ' d in speakeasies in the 19205, wearing for her act an Indian war-
titles coexist with sound sequences. The Silent Enemy begins with soinul.
I un, bul was also a Native American historian and an assstant of an-
with Chauncy Yellow Robe declaring that the film is "the story of my |><-n
tluopologist Frank Speck. In 1931, she was invited to go to Pars as part of
pie," thanking "the white man who helped us makc this picture," a m l < x
i l n l n i l i . n i Ballet Corps for the I'aris Colonial Exposition, and she settledin
plaining that very few of the Native American actors liad cvcr bcloiv srcn i
I' n r . Ini scveral ycars." Tbus tbe lead actors in The Silent Enemy, "reel"
motion picture. This convcntional declaralion o llic nativos' ignotaiu r ni
Political Physics
The treatment of time in anthropology turns on what Fabin calis "political
physics," the cultural equivalent of the scientific principie that two bodies
may not occupy the same space at the same time.35 The "racial film" genre
serves implicitly to reenact the logic of political physics: in the films dis-
cussed above, the Primitive is sacrificed like Christ, or otherwise as a figure
of redemption; in other films of the genre, however, the Primitive is directly
juxtaposed to the Modern and enters the same time and space as the posited
audience. Either way, when the Primitive meets the Modern, the only possi-
ble outcomes, as Fabin put it, are the annihilation of the Primitive, or
apartheid,36 the Primitive trapped forever in the "imprisoning" image, to
paraphrase Grierson, of the Ethnographic. This result, even in the guise p:P a. K
liftf s * .. -** *.i':;l|:5^
of tragedy, reinforces the Historical/Ethnographic dichotomy. Primitivist
films like W. S. van Dyke's White Shadows in the South Seas (1929), Andr
Roosevelt and Armand Denis's Goona Goona (1932), and F. W. Murnau's
Tab (1931) all highlight the inevitably ruinous effects of modernity on thr
Ethnographic.
The colonial guilt which Lvi-Strauss speaks of in Tristes Tropiquc\s personified in the white protagonist Dr. Matthew Lloyd of W. S. van
Dyke's White Shadows in the South Seas (192,9).37 One of the first films ID
use sound technology, White Shadows in the South Seas portrays Tahiti ,r.
in transition from paradiasical isle to adulterated colonial island. Tallin
in the 19205 was already seen by anthropologists as syphilis-infested, m >
i s Si ill from White Shadows in the South Seas (1929), dir. W. S. van Dyke.
longer genuine, corrupted from the French colonial presence and too u u l i I ( '"iirtcsy of theMuseum of Modern Art)
tourism.38 In the film, the story of degeneration is presented from Lloyil'-.
(Monte Blue) point of view. Shipwrecked on an "untouched" island, l . l o v t l
saves the life of the chief's child and marries his wide-eyed daughtcr I .iv.i 1 1 . i vi I i nevitably brings contamination. The camera pans the beach with the
way (Rachel Torres). Lloyd's voyage back in time is suggested by onc r.-n l\e in which he is washed moni iidil up title
on the"Whiteisland.shadows
The first .people
. . Whitehe sees a 11 11 u a boy is dressed in
shadows":
W r M r r n clothes, an alienated woman smokes a cigarette, and there is a long
beautiful young women of the island bathing and sleeping by a w a t n l . i l l .I n ii ni a white man lounging and a glimpse of a native woman dancing in a
flowers in their hair. The lens of the camera is in soft focus, and s l o w l \s the foliage to give
l u the lm viewerwhite men. a closer
The look at this
film endsprimeva! si > i >
with a close-up of Fayaway's sorrowful
l.u < , as vcil upon veil of black gauze darkens the screen.
When Lloyd learns of the damage that the "white race" has inflicu-d < > n i In l . i l i i - White Shadows in the South Seas, Andr Roosevelt and Armand
Tahitians through disease and exploitation of male divers, he is asli.iim < l l ii iip.'s I o ve melodrama set inBali, Indonesia, Goona Goona: An Authentic
the "white shadows" of the title are the evil white capitalists. Howevri, .1 i Mi-ln,li,nuil of lie Isle of Rali (1932) is a film in which political physics
white man, Lloyd cannot elimnate the instinctive greed in his bloml I 1.1 !<, piomincnce. Sincc Bali wasalso the site of early research and films by
realizes that he can be rich when he notices the size of the pearls t o i n n l m inthropologists Meatl and Bateson, it is useful to survey the historical set-
the waters near the island. He inadvcriently triggers the dcmisr o i l u \d society, and, in M i ithe i ; o end, i l u - lisi i nhimscll
i In ( l i eslioi by vBali
U.HOS, v h i t replaced
r c a p i t a l iTahiti
s i s l mand Samoa as the new
i l n . i i n l . i i u l topos loi i i n i n h i h i t e i l desire: anthropologists, artists, and tour-
Time and Redemption 147
146 Teratology
ists carne to Bali with ideas of romance, barebreasted dancing women, and
handsome men. According to Tessel Pollman, Bali was a favorite tourist
spot and a fashionable artists' colony in the mid-i93os: Mead and Bateson
could thus enjoy a kind of caf society existence whenever they wanted to
take a vacation from the site of their fieldwork, the village Bajung Gde.39
Pollman's articlewritten, perhaps subversively, in the "ethnographic pres-
ent"describes the machinations of this circle of white intellectuals in
Bali. Like Derek Freeman, who went back to Samoa and interviewed Mead's
informants, discovering evidence that Mead's research methodology and
conclusions were faulty, Pollman concludes that Mead's work was suspect.
Pollman, however, more pertinently emphasizes Mead's blindness to the
political infighting in Bali and the brutalities being worked by Dutch colo-
nialism at the time of her research. Mead's anthropology, Pollman explains,
was in this way complicit with the Dutch policy of "Balinization," a set of
colonial policies designed to maintain Bali as a static, folk culture. As the
Balinese historian Prof. Dr. Ide Gde Ing. Bagus explains, "Balinization is
this: the Dutch wanted us to be a living museum."401 Made Kaler, Mead and
Bateson's main informant, explained that he did not dissuade Mead and
|6. l'latc 56 from Margaret Mead's book Balinese Charactei[i<)42).
Bateson from their belief that Bali was a "steady state." In other words, he
(('ourtcsy of the Instituto for Intercultural Studies, Inc., New York)
did not explain to them that "rust en orde" (calm and order), the Dutch
colonial slogan, was not an indigenous notion: "To Margaret Mead and
Gregory Bateson I never talked about what was invisible, but very much nnply that the Balinese are indeed schizoid. Mead and Bateson's use of a
alive in Bali. Talking was too dangerous, regarding the Dutch. Margaret psychoanalytical approach, a methodology characteristic of the Culture and
Mead herself never broached a political discourse."41 Mead's informants did 1'iT.sonality school, and their personal discomfort with the Balinese are not
not explain to her their f ear of the Dutch plice state and why they f elt they .!. surprising as their eulogizing of Bali as a "last paradise."44 In this last
had to comply with the demands of Westerners to pose nude. As I Madc .cuse, "Balinization" picked up where representations of Tahiti left off,
Kaler recalls, "The people don't want to sit nude and are angry when they Itlthropologists, adventurers, and popular filmmakers alike adopting the
were forced to do so, but yet agree. They are afraid to be arrested if they lii-.t (olden Age rhetoric characteristic of tourist promotion and colonial
reuse."42 propaganda.
Like Regnault, who classified West African movement as Savage, and 1 ikr Mr.id and Bateson's view of Bali as a lost Edn is directly reflected in
Regnault's colleague Charcot, who used chronophotography to study hys (.mull (:<><ma. A cinematic form of Balinization, Goona Goona indeed
teria in women, Mead and Bateson filmed Balinese in trance in the interest i n . i k r s Kali a "living museum." In the film, Bali is allegorized as a lost
of medical pathology. Mead and Bateson's films of 1936-38 were finaiuvd l>.ii.idi.se: colonialism and political infighting are erased. It begins by intro-
by the Committee for the Research into Dementia Praecox (schizophrenia), il i)', (he bespectaclcd Andr Roosevelt, notebook in hand just like the
and were motivated by a belief that the Balinese routinely entered i n t e llf.uic o (he anthropologist, sittingunder a trec with a fewBalinese. Roose-
dissociated states of consciousness akin to those of the schizophrenic: p.i vi It, wr .ir told, "reconstructed this Balinese story as it was told by the
thology is still apart of the anthropologist's conception of the Ethnographu i i . i i i v r s " l'.inoramic views of the landscape follow as a male voice-over
In Mead and Bateson's film, Trance and lance in liali (1936), the camcia r, ih i l.ui-s, "Bali, t h e last paradise," and the viewer is then presented with
consistently always al a distVICC, a l w a y s in control, a cool medical ryr ' | M I | I I I | . I ( ion s t a t i s l i c s , ;i map, and other postean! views. The story unfolds
But, as l'ollman p o i i i t s mu, Mr.u! did nol really like Bali, and her w o t k - .
148 Teratology Time and Redemption 149
volve the voyage of a considerable crew and tons of material. They "endangered species." Ethnographic ventriloquism assumes the inarticu-
organize real expeditions to give some intrigue of an obvious impover- lateness of the Native, and it is the West's own narratives of evolution, loss,
ished nature a "sensational" frame. They accumulate impressive fig- and "political physics" which are expressed.
ures, dramatic episodes, with the desire to provoke the astonishment In trying to understand the shift in interest away from films constructed
and the enthusiasm of the public. So much results that are not worth so on the model of Moana, to films like King Kong, Murnau's Tab is a key
much money dispensed, or the dangers run. The film disappoints like text. It embodies transition: it focuses on the drama of the clash between
vacation photos. Such a equatorial site takes on the look of a zoological the Modern and the Ethnographic, a clash typified by the image of Reri and
garden and the natives have the air of figures deprived of their trade.51 Matahi clapping their hands with innocent delight at the colonial bar,
caught up in the spectacle of the colonial dance, a transitional moment
Leprohon's use of the metaphor "zoological garden" is instructive: "racial
which is further signified by the shot of feetbare, brown, high-heeled,
films" more often than not rendered natives as specimens, and the inevita-
whiteof the faceless, dancing colonial subjects. The ideology of the inev-
ble ennui of the viewer soon approached that of a zoo visitor. At the zoo one
itahly destructive nature of this clash is present in Tab but is given its
sees what one already knows one will see: the interplay of wildness and
purest expression in the image of King Kong clinging to the Empire State
domestication. With ethnographic cinema one also sees what one is already
Building. This "entertaining contradiction," as Haraway succinctly puts it,
prepared to see, one "sees anthropology." The "roundness" of Moana soon
produces pleasure in its violation of boundaries, here between the "primi-
became fat, at least to mass audiences. i ive" and the "modern."55 Tab contains a moral message which will reach
To avoid this resemblance to the experience of the zoo, Leprohon writes,
11 s f ullest expression in King Kong. The indigenous person who does not
Hollywood turned to the use of sets as well as organized scenes of spectacle.
irmain in his or her proper space is something abhorrent, and it is the
As Bazin explains, the exotic film in the 19308 went into "a decline charac-
implicitly monstrous character of this hybridity which King Kong takes
terized by a shameless search after the spectacular and the sensational. It Utcrally.
was not enough merely to hunt the lion, the lion must first gobble up the
beasts."52 This mannerist turn led to King Kong, one of the most outrageous
"racial films" ever made. The genre of the "racial film" became increasingly
baroque: if writers describe Nanook as epitomizing the Golden Age of sucli
cinema, they describe King Kong as an example of how the genre degene r
ated.53 Andr F. Liotard, Samivel, and Jean Thvenot explain the dierence
between Chang and King Kong as follows: "The travelers and the explore s
themselves give in to the temptation of the 'spectacular.' Their works ai e
less and less spontaneous, more and more premeditated, organized, mu
what they gain in coherence and formal qualities, they lose in authentu u \54
IN ETHNOCRAPHIC CINEMA
// l'oc weie olive,, he would not have to invent horror; horror would
invcnt him. Richard Wright
Al t h e beginning of the century, a Chirichiri man named Ota Benga from the
K.is.-ii regin of what is now Zaire was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo. He and
i u hcr Batwa were brought to the United States by missionary anthropolo-
>,!>i Samuel P. Verner at the request of William Tohn McGee, director of the
Imithsonian Institution. After "exhibiting" Ota Benga and others at the
i o i.| St. Louis Exposition as anthropological specimens, Verner, unlike his
prtulcccssors such as Arctic explorer Robert Peary (see chapter 4), ensured
i l u u i i ' t u r n back to theirhomeland.
( >nr man, Ota Benga, chose tocme back to the United States. Itisunclear
w l i v I Imised first at the American Museum of Natural History in New
Vi 'i ! ( 'ii y, where Minik Wallace had also stayed, Ota Benga was one of sev-
i hil Alnc.ms "exhibited" at the St. Louis World's Fair. In oneincident, Benga
> i i i i l i i i l u - i African performers attacked a photographer who had taken their
|lmi <i>;iaph without asking first for their permission: they demanded that
!n j i . i v lu i lie privilege. Benga was later put in a cage at the Monkey House
.u i l n - I t i n i i x /(o, rendered a zoological spectacle for the hungry public and
I M . itti ( nnlrmporary press accounts reported that Ota Benga could not be
i h l l i n ni i.iicd (rom the other monkeys. What Ota Benga thought about his
i IM m u c is u n k n o w n . The few documents that remain of his time in the
un u n lude phoiographs of him looking seriously at the camera, posed in
i li u u i r n s i i i .mthropomctric stylc: he is photographed frontally, from the
li.ii ! .mil i n piolilc, holding piops .1 m o n k e y in one .-irm and a club in
MIH u I h i \vlin 11 icmliiiccd his public i/.rd "missinj; l i n k " status.
158 Teratology
King Kong and the Monster 159
^iiotvi 139
for racial taboos. Its status as cinematic fantasy, as "a modern, movie-born
myth" without historical antecedents, remains, however, largely unques-
tioned.3 But King Kong is not merely a classic Hollywood film, it is a work
which in significant respects builds on and redeploys themes borrowed
from the scientific time machine of anthropology.
The lineage of King Kong should be obvious: the filming, capture, exhibi-
tion, photographing, and--finally murder of Kong takes its cue from the
historie exploitation of native peoples as freakish "ethnographic" speci-
mens by science, cinema, and popular culture. Critics have consistently
40. Photograph of Ota passed lightly over the fact that, in the 19205, Cooper and Schoedsack were
Benga (1904), St. Louis well-known ethnographic filmmakers, producing and directing both Grass
Exhibition. (Neg. No. (1925) and Chang (1927). King Kong, moreover, begins with an expedition,
299134, photo by Jessie ully equipped with film camera, to a remote tropical island: King Kong is
Tarbox Reals, courtesy literally a film about the making of an ethnographic film. As exaggerated
Department of Library and baroque as King Kong may appear compared with Regnault's chrono-
Services, American photography or Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North, the film makes
Muscum of Natural irlerence to many of the themes that characterized the construction of the
History) "cihnographic" in early cinema. If, as Cooper had complained, there were
no longer any remote, genuinely alien cultures left to be discovered, mon-
One may surmise from what happcned later that the experience of being a MCIS still lurked in the imagination of interwar ethnographic cinema. In the
zoological exhibit destroyed Ota Benga's mind if not his soul. Protests by '.ptvtacular commercial cinema of this period, monstrosity was the mode of
icpicsentation of the Ethnographic.
African American ministers probably led to his relase from the Monkey
House, and he was allowed to walk freely about the grounds of the zoo. Ota I'ierre Leprohon writes that the cinema of exoticismand under this
Benga ended his time at the zoo when he brandished a knife at one of the zoo M i l u u- he includes both the research films of an anthropologist like Marcel
keepers. After this incident, Ota Benga left the zoo and in 1910 moved to i .1 i.iule and falsified documentaries like the film Ingagi (1933)partakes at
Lynchburg, Virginia. Six years later, he committed suicide.2 i l i e same time of science and of dream: as scientific document, it furthers
i lie pursuit of knowledge,- as poetry, it is the food of dreams.4 In this chapter,
I w 111 show how the monster is both the subject of scientific representation,
King Kong and Ethnographic Spectacle .1% w.is i he case with the Komodo dragn, the object of W. Douglas Burden's
In Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's film King Kong (1933), i lu i n i i ' . e i i m expedition in 1927, andof fantastic cinematic representation, as in
giant prehistoric gorilla Kong is captured and made into a lucrative Bro.nl i nope and Schoedsack's The Most Dangeious Game (1932) and Erle C.
way attraction by the jungle picture filmmaker Cari Denham (Robert Moni IM nioii's Tlic sland of Lost Souls (1933), horror films which explore the
gomery). Kong then escapes, creating terror in the metrpolis,- he s t a l k i n i i n M I ni hybridity in teratological terms. Whether the monster was the
the blonde heroine Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) and carries her off to the t n p < >! nl'ii i i o science or fantasy, and whether shot with rifle or camera, it was a
the Empire State Building where Kong is killed by an incessant barragc ni u mili o i epicsen tation inextricahly linked with sex, power, and death.
bullets from fightcr airplanes. The incredibly polysemous quality o Kmy M n l i k e inosi of the films of the "racial"genre which I describedin the last
Kong, which has assured its continuing widcsprcad popularity, has also l< I i l i . i p i e i , KI/IK Kong was a sotind film. With the advent of sound technology
to a multitude of interpreta!ions o! the film as dream, capitalist l a i r v i . i l i In i l n e.nlv lijaos, ihc "racial film" genre ironically lost one of the dimen-
imperialist mctaphor, allegory lor t l u 1 unconscious, ail repressed spiTi.u l< H i i u i ' . ni i i s "ivalism." Andiv !'. l.ioianl, Samivel, and (can Thvenot note,
I v i ii i l u doesn't havc dialogue, I he i'xotir sound f i l m always risks bcim r
16o Teratology King Kong and the Monster 161
betrayed by its noises, and especially by its music and its voiceover."5 What it is its logical negation. . . . The normal is the effect obtained by the execu-
propels King Kong forward is not the voice-over or intertitles of the scien- tion of the normative project, it is the norm exhibited in the fact____It is not
tific research film or lyrical ethnographic film, but sound of a different paradoxical to say that the abnormal, while logically second, is existentially
sortthe blonde heroine's screams, the giant gorilla Kong's roar, the lush first."8
Wagnerian score of Max Steinerand movementthe longboat rushes to The Ethnographic, as we have seen, could be romanticized as authentic
Skull Island to save Ann, the crew runs through the jungle in order to save culture and/or as "pathological" culture, as in Margaret Mead's representa-
her, and later the hroes run through Manhattan in an attempt to save Ann tion of the Balinese as schizoid. But one need not seek out extreme exam-
from Kong again. King Kong is not a film of poetic juxtaposition like Na- ples: the notion of the "ethnographic" as monster was only an exaggeration
nook, but of frenetic braggadocio, clunking the viewer over the head visu- of the common propensity to see native peoples as strange, bizarre, and
ally and aurally, a tone set by the very title of the film with its alliteration abhorrent. As I have already noted, it is significant that anthropologist
and rough-hewn rhythm. King Kong is the ultimate carnivalesque versin Bronislaw Malinowski's infamous invocation of Heart of Darkness "ex-
of early ethnographic cinema. termnate the brutes" comes out of his exasperation at the refusal of the
Trobrianders to sit still long enough to be photographed. The Ethnographic
becomes monstrous at the very moment of visual appropriation.9
Teratology and Fantasy: The Science Noel Carrol! has explained that, in the horror film, the two essential
Expedition and the Honor Film characteristics of the monster are its impurity and its dangerousness. Bor-
My notion that the mode of representation of the "ethnographic" in spec- rowing from Mary Douglas's analysis in Purity and Danger (1966), he ex-
tacular commercial cinema takes the form of teratologythe study of mon- plains that monsters are impure in that, as hybrids, they are not easily
strosityderives once again from Stephen Bann's study of the rhetoric of categorized, and thus cross the boundaries of cultural schemas. Monsters
history-writing in nineteenth-century France and Great Britain. Emphasiz- i re, Carroll emphasizes, interstitial. Kong, neither human or ape, is im-
ing the parallel between monstrosity and taxidermy, Bann points out that purc in this sense. Thus the monster is not just physically threatening, but
the monster is "the composite, incongruous beast which . . . simulated the .ilso cognitively threatening: its existence threatens cultural boundaries. As
seamless integrity of organic life."6 It is thus not surprising that King Kong ( .u roll suggests, this cultural dangerousness explains why the geography of
emerges in large part out of the "racial film" genre initiated by Nanook. Imrror often involves lost continents and outer space.10
Nanook was a work of taxidermy, inspired by the politics and aesthetics of The Ethnographic is seen as monstrous because he or she is human and
reconstruction, and King Kong is not only a film about a monsterthe film voi radically different. Early examples of the monstrosity of the Ethno-
itself is a monster, a hybrid of the scientific expedition and fantasy genres. C.i.ipliic include Regnault's association of race and cranial deformation,-
Bann states that the "very anxiety to establish [the] distinction between '.|ioiic.cr's description of "naked, howling savages"; the Tohnsons' coding
'all' imagination and invention, on the one hand, and on the other the facts, ni Western Pacific peoples as lascivious cannibals,- the obsessive filming of
is of course the evidence of a desire to repress the rhetorical status of histor- n.ii u r (a ubiquitous subject in ethnographic cinema); and the plethora of
ical writing."7 The desire to find truc representation of the real, or truc u .iv. in which indigenous peoples were, through the use of cinematic spec-
inscription, was characteristic of Regnault's work, and his writings ail I . M Ir, in.iclc into Savages, a term which still had credence in anthropology as
chronophotography betray a deep-seated anxiety with differentiating fac Li i < .is i Q^O." Monstrosity is essentially visual, an aspect of "seeing anthro-
from imagination, the normal from the pathological. Teratology was an IMiluc.v" t h a t involves a scarch for visual evidence of the pathological, a
important aspect of early anthropology: the "monster," like the Primitivr i l n un niadc ovidont in both Paul Broca's and Franz Boas's recommenda-
Other, was of keen interest because it could be used to study and define i lu i I ni 1 , i h . i i anthropologists observe the indigenous person as apatient. 12 Be-
normal. In The Normal and the Pathological, historian of sciencc Gcory.i". i in .r i h c miago in ethnographic film is taken as "real," footage of aperson
Canguilhem describes how abnormality is necessary to constitute normal Mi
I r o t h i n g a t the mouth and biting off a chickon head, or of aperson
ity: "The abnormal, as ab-normal, comes after the detnition of the normal, ni) 1 , opon ,1 sea I and e a l i n g raw moa I, ofton is road by the i n tended viewer
King Kong and the Monster 163
162 Teratology - " ' -;'
Under a layer of rouge and powder they were hiding syphilis, tuberculo-
of ethnographic film, the Western viewer, as evidence of the essential savag- sis and malaria. They carne in high-heeled shoes from the banaco,
ery of the Ethnographic. As Wilson Martinez and Asen Balikci have ex- where they lived with "the man," their seringueiro, and, although
plained and documented, cultures in ethnographic films are usually seen by ragged and dishevelled all the rest of the year, for one evening they
students and other audiences as aberrant, bizarre, and even repulsive, un- appeared spick and span; yet they had had to walk two or three kilo-
less the culture on display is similar to the culture of the audience.13 Such metres in their evening dresses along muddy forest paths. And in order
audience studies raise questions about the ethics of filming acts which were to get ready, they had washed in darkness in filthy igaraps (streams),
never meant to be seen by outsiders, and showing the films in contexts in and in the rain, since it had poured all day. There was a staggering
whicheven with extensive commentary from anthropologistsabhor- contrast between these flimsy appearances of civilization and the mon-
rence is aroused. Brazilian ethnographic filmmaker Jorge Preloran explains: strous reality which lay just outside the door.16
After seeing dozens of films on ethnographic subjects, one thing stands Although with greater pathos, Lvi-Strauss, like Murnau, mourns the pas-
out clearly for me: the majority of [the films] crate a gulf between us sage of time: acculturation brings disease and despair, and indigenous cul-
and the "primitive" people they usually depict. This to me is a racist ture cannot withstand the onslaught. Mixture, whether it takes the form of
approach because unless we have a chance to listen firsthand to those miscegenation or acculturation, produces monsters.
people, letting them explain to us WHY they act as they do, WHY they Stephen Neale's description of the monster in the horror film reveis a
have those extraordinary rituals, those fantastic, colorful, exotic, dis- direct similarity between screen monsters and the Ethnographic rendered
gusting, fascinatingyou label itceremonies that are shown to us, we as monster. In both cases, the focus is on bodily disruption:
will only think of them as savages.14
The monster, and the disorder it initiates and concretises, is always
Several different tendencies converged to produce the image of the Eth- that which disrupts and challenges the definitions and categories of the
nographic as monstrous. First, the great variety of indigenous societies con- "human" and the "natural." Gencrally speaking, it is in the monstcr's
tinually destabilized the Modern/Primitive dichotomy. Second, thepercep- body which focuses the disruption. Either disfigured, or marked by a
tion of indigenous peoples as a link between the ape and the white man, as lieterogeneity of human and animal features, or marked only by a "non-
in between animal and "human" (white), made the Ethnographic always liuman" gaze, the body is always in some way signalled as "other,"
already monstrous. Third, the image betrays anthropology's obsession with signalled, precisely, as monstrous.17
hybridity. The concern with hybridity manifested itself both through an
abhorrence of interracial intercourse and "blood mixing," reflected in Paul Noi surprisingly, the archetypal narrative of many forms of ethnographic
Broca's influential research purportedly establishing that the offspring of i m u n a , hut especially of the expedition film, mirrors that of the horror
blacks and whites were infertile,15 and through notions of salvage ethnogra- 111111 l '.irrol 1 points out that the horror film uses variations on the "complex
phy, the belief that the "ethnographic" as embodiment of an earlier, purer i l i - . i o v r t y " plot: the monster first appears or is created (onset); it is then
humanity, would spoil upon contact with the West, a conceit which was in ii u o hy the human protagonists (discovery); its horrible existence is ac-
played out in the "racial film" genre. This latter form of hybridity is besl klinwli'dgcd (confirmation); and the film ends with a fight to the death
expressed cinematically in the scene of clashing styles of dancing in Mur I i wo-ii h u m a n and monster (confrontation). 18 As Neale explains, the nar-
M I I V I - pioo-ss in the horror film is "marked by a search for that specialized
nau's Tab, described in the last chapter.
Its literary counterpart to the spoils-upon-contact theme is exemplificd i ni o knowledge which will enable human characters to comprehend and
in Lvi-Strauss's description of the society of Brazilian Indian rubber tappers i i n l i l i . H wliich simultaneously embodies and causes its 'trouble.'"19
I
in Tristes Trapiques. He explains that if the Nambikwara had taken him lo M i m l . i i l v , t l u 1 plot of expedition films like Grass and Moana is structured
the Stone Age, and the Tupi-Kawahib to the sixteenth century, then ilu MI I i l u - disrovery and confirmation of a being (whether zoological rarity
society of the seringal (rubber plantation) in the Brazilian Amazon brouglii ni i'.ion|i o |H-opk-) w i t h incongruous features or habits.
him to the eighteenth century. ll is worth quoting his description o i l u I In i \ | i o l i i i o n f i l m clicl not have lo t a k e n a t i v e peoples as its subject
I n d i a n women at Icngllv.
164 Teratology
King Kong and the Monster 16
matter in order for it to be informed by the obsession with race and fears of _ ..^vyil^LW IOS
hybridity characteristic of ethnographic cinema. Perhaps the best example in Cari Denham's oft-repeated reference to Ann's relationship with Kong
of an expedition film that contains "ethnographic" elements without being as "Beauty and the Beast." Burden comments, "A fiery dragn in itself is
explicitly about indigenous peoples is a film by W. Douglas Burden, on a fascinating ideaso, also, is the thought of a beautiful white-skinned
the 1927 American Museum of Natural History expedition to study the Ko- maiden. Link these two ideas together, in some way or other, and you have a
modo dragn lizard. Komodo, an island in what is now Indonesia, is the story which by its very nature would survive through untold ages."27 Thus
home of Vaianus komodensis, the Komodo dragn lizard, described as the the narrative of the expedition was propelled forward by the figure of the
largest lizard in the world and the closest living relative of the dinosaur.20 white woman, a kind of lure for the monster-like beast.
Cooper would later claim that Burden's expedition was a direct inspiration Cooper, the creatve mind behind Kong, was struck by Burden's account
for his film King Kong. of the immediate death of the two Komodo dragons which Burden brought
Burden's short film begins with a view of the American Museum of Natu- back and displayed at the Bronx Zoo. In a letter to Burden dated 22 June
1964, Cooper wrote,
ral History, followed by a map detailing the itinerary of the Burden voyage,
and then scenes of the arrival of the expedition on Komodo Island, the
When you told me that the two Komodo Dragons you brought back to
hunting of animis for use as bait, the hunting and shooting of the lizard,
the Bronx Zoo, where they drew great crowds, were eventually klled
and the capture of other live lizards. Although Carroll is discussing the plot
by civilization, I immediately thought of doing the same thing with my
of the horror film here, he might as well be discussing the Burden expedition
Giant Gorilla. I had already established him in my mind on a pre-
film: "An initial, contested discovery calis forth a project or expedition for
historic island with prehistoric monsters, and I now thought of having
the purpose of corroborating it, and closure is secured when the confirma-
him destroyed by the most sophisticated thing I could think of in civili-
tion can be made to stick."21 King Kong, labeled a fantasy horror film, was
zation, and in the most fantastc way. My very original concept was to
successfully modeled on the narrative of an expedition film. The fantasy of
place him on the top of the Empire State Buildng and have him klled
the movie draws its sustenance from the science of the museum expedition.
by arplanes. I made considerable investigation on how this could be
The title of Burden's book on his expedition even sounds like a horror film done technically with a live gorilla.28
title: Dragn Lizards of Komodo: The Expedition to the Lost World of the
Dutch East Indies. Burden, like Cari Denham, the fictional expedition film- In the expedition film, Burden himself does the shooting. At one point,
maker in King Kong, stressed the importance of maintaining secrecy in i IHTC is a shot of Katherine Burden crankng the camera juxtaposed to a shot
order to be assured of being the first white man to lay claim to the exotic i il I )i uiglas Burden shooting with his rifle. The positioning of the two makes
beast.22 In Burden's book, Komodo Island is represented much as King u ippear as if he is in fact shooting Katherine.29 This scene s followed by
Kong's Skull Island will be represented by Cooper and Schoedsack: Burden une ni which a Komodo dragn is shot and killed. Shooting with a camera
writes of the sound of "tomtoms beating across the water; incessant, mo- .iiul shooting with a rifle are conjoined: the product will be the display of the
notonous, rhythmic beats, thrilling and barbarous," evidence that the na- ii u l l f i l dragn lizards together with film footage at the American Museum
tives are "child-like and superstitious."23 Burden's portrayal of the expedi- ni N.iiural History. But the woman is also shot and captured on Burden's
tion's Chinese servant Chu as an amusing lackey prefigures King Kong'* l l i n sex and the hunt are implicitly made parallel.
portrayal of the Chinese cook Charlie.24 In King Kong, the monster Kong's attraction to Ann s transgressive:
Similarly, just as Kong and the dinosaurs of Skull Island are portrayed ;is KIIII.I;, .1 liybrid figure, a manlike beast, threatens the taboo on interracial
riveting, prehistoric monsters, the Komodo dragn according to Burden is ",-i i \s obsession with racial differencethe Javanese are "unfathom-
perfectly marvelous sight,a primeval monster in a primeval setting."'' i i h l r , " i he "cannibals" of Wetar are "Oceanic Negroids"30is exposed in his
Cooper later explained that the character of Ann Darrow was inspiro! tli'.;iisi lor (he Dutch colonials who do not enforce a caste system or color
luir
by Burden's wife, Katherine Burden, a photographer on the museum i-x
pedition.26 Burden himsclf extollcd the spectacle of a monster attractc-d
W h e i e is ( h i s gctting I lie world, t h i s intermarriage hetween race and
to a beautiful white woman, a themc repeated frequenlly in King Kuuy
ure, i l n s breaking ilown o tlic h . n i i e i s o i.ice consciousness? In the
166 Tcratology
long run, as intermarriage becomes more and more frequent, does it not Kingu Kong
.., and
ojiu the
uie Monster 167
lead inevitably to one grand hodge podge, one loathsome mixture of all lieved my book." The Count, by contrast, takes the visual logic of the Great
races into a pigsty breed? An unattractive thought, perhaps, but sure of White Hunter to ts logical extreme: his own desire to see, to visualize the
fulfillment, as long as racial intermarriage contines.31 hunted, is revealed in his collections of pickJed human heads (he even has
It is the body of the racially mixed hybrid which Burden finds loathsome, one taxidermic group depicting the hunt of an unfortunate victim). His
the hybrid body which defies the idealized polarization by science and mo- pathological visin, embodied n his bulging, piercing eyes, in one scene
dernity of the Ethnographic Other and Historical Same, nature and science, fixes Eve, in the manner of a scientist gleefully pinning down a butterfly
specimen.
archaic and modern.
According to film critic Claude Beylie, the very dry, nearly scientific style
of the film mixes elements of the documentary with a touch of de Sade: The
Islands ofFantasy: King Kong and the Horror Film Most Dangerous Game utilizes "the words of science, or of teratology, be-
King Kong borrowed not only from the scientific expedition film, but also cause it was about a prehistoric animal, or a phenomenon of a fair." Thus
from the Hollywood horror film. The Most Dangerous Game (1932), di- l he very tenor of the film betrays a fascination with teratology. Watching
rected by Irving Pichel and Schoedsack and produced by Cooper, was started i lie film, Beylie asserts, is like watching animis at a zoological preserve.32
before but made concurrently with King Kong, with some of the same sets In his intriguing analysis of The Most Dangerous Game, Thierry Kuntzel
and actors (Robert Armstrong, Fay Wray, Noble Johnson, and Steve Clem- secs the film as revealing a relationship between dreams and cinema, be-
ente). As in King Kong, the hunt in The Most Dangerous Game is a means c.inse the viewer must believe a little, but not too much; he or she is drawn
of playing out the survival of the fittest. Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks), the mi o viewing not only frorn the point of view of normality, that is, of the
bored, effete big game hunter, lures Rainsford (Joel McCrea) and Eve Trow limitcr hero, Rainsford, but also from the point of view of abnormality, that
is, tliat of Zaroff.33 The horror film thus makes the viewer complicit not
ridge (a brunette Fay Wray) onto his island and then f orces them to becomr
n i i l y with the protagonists, but with the monster as well.
game for his hunting pleasure. The plot again follows Carroll's model
onset/discovery/confirmation/confrontation. Here, however, the monstci r/ii' Most Dangerous Game is an exploration of the relationship between
is the Count, a man who embodies Regnault's nightmare of the suraf/iin' i l i c hunted and the hunter, between Savagery and Civilization, a theme
(overrefined, overcivilized). i>',iiilcd by the recurrent image of the centaur. The centaur, half-beast and
The Most Dangerous Game also reveis that where taxidermy lurks, h . i l l man, emblazons the film as both mythical and fantastic. Kuntzel has
teratology is sure to follow. Zaroff vilales cultural boundaries, but he alsi > l ' i u n i c d out that all the men in the film figure for the centaur, especially
I v . n i , i he Cossack servant (Noble Johnson).34 The same fascination with
pushes certain notions to their logical limits, such as the link betwcen se\d the hunt: "We barbarians know that it is after the chase, and then < > n U
l i v l u u l i i y hetrayed in Burden's account of his expedition is made explict in
i l n % l.iniasy horror film in the image of the centaur.
that man reveis. You know the saying of the Ogandi chieftains: 'Hunt l i r . i
the enemy, then the woman.' It is the natural instinct. The blood is q u i i I II / 1 n - Most Dangerous Game is a meditation on Savagery and Progress,
i n i l i l i c i lie "racial film" which purported to offer a peephole into the past,
ened by the kill. One passion builds upon anothcr. Kill, then love! W i n n
you have known that, you have known ecstasy!" i l n I l l i u .il.so looks to the future, envisioning a "monster" of overcivliza-
H H I I AiioilicT horror film that presents a visin of deviant evolution is
The monster is thus the Count himself who crosses the boundaiy I"
tween Civilization and Savagery, and tellingly invokes the "Ogamli c l i n I 11 li i Kriiion's nhind of Lost Souls (1933) based on H. G. Wells's The Is-
l,in,l *'l I > Mon-in (1896). i s The island ofDr. Moreauis describedas "anex-
tains." Rainsford is the hunter who remains within "propcr" hotiiul 1 . In
|n H I I M n i . i l si.iioii or bioanthropological research." The narrative s again
hunts only animis and recognizes the valu of expedition photography .i'i
un. ni iiiisei/discovcry/confirmation/conrontation: the shipwrecked Ed-
evidence of "having been thcre." As Rainsford says to the Docioi, "Ymi
fc.iiil l ' . i i k c i ( R i c h a r d Arlen) is I u red by the oily, odd-looking Moreau
didn't turn out so hot as a hunter, I )oc, but oh what a photographe:! V i \i
|l h n l i . I . i i i r j i l o n ) (o ( h e l.niei's island station, where Moreau has caused
we'd had you to take pictures on t h c Sumatra n trip, (bey mii;hl I I . I M I"
p V i ' l i i i imi i" l>e speeiled np Inmdicds ni ihous.inds o years, producing not
Mili) n mi pl.mis, h u .liso .1 new biccd o "liiim.nw" ! **--
168 Teratology King Kong and the Monster 169
sarong, she is a typical "South Seas" screen siren. When they kiss, Parker
discovers that her fingernails are really claws, and he confronts Moreau
with his knowledge. Moreau is merely perturbed, because this fact is evi-
dence that the animal nature of his "human" creatures reverts back and
cannot be suppressed. Interbreeding fails (nineteenth-century anthropolo-
gist Paul Broca might have approved), and the monster is thus necessarily
impure, no longer animal but not capable of becoming fully human.
The danger of miscegenation appears again when Parker's virtuous blonde
liance, Ruth Thomas (Leila Hyams), comes to rescue Parker only to be
nearly raped by Ourlan, the hairy ape-man, mirroring Ann Darrow in the
paws of Kong. Parker saves her from this fate, but is warned not to do the
same for Lota, the Panther Woman. Later, Ourlan pursues Lota: when he
Kiabs her, they maul each other to death, as natural selection takes its toll on
( h e imfit.
In the end of the film, Moreau's society of hybrid Savages rebels in a per-
Irrt enactment of the colonialist nightmare. Although forced to worship
M i n e a n as a God, and as keeper of the Law, they revolt and torture Moreau
w 1 1 1 1 1 nstruments from his own laboratory, called the House of Pain. In both
I I 1 1 ns, (lie true monster is the insane white male who desires to maniplate
iiiii m e and is willing to upset the boundaries separating man from beast.' 6
In l;l,nnl of Lost Souls as in The Most Dangerous Game, the viewer takes
lii'i ni her cue as to how to react to what is happening from the human
|ihii,i)',iniists on the screen, but since the viewer at times sees the action
l i i n i i i h e point of view of Moreau or of the island's other "humans," the
* wt i
n is made into a monster as well. Like Moreau, a doctor obsessed with
i'ilf.e, with destroying the limits between the biological and the fan-
41. Still from Island of Lost Souls (1933), dir. Erle C. Kenton. M I M i he viewer is simultaneously fascinated and horrified by the trans-
(Courtesy o trie Museum of Modern Art) |i i -MU i c ni i il bou ndaries. The revolt of Moreau's hybrid experimental subjects
| i j m . i l i d (mematographically by the reverse of a zoom: one by one, the
section of live animis. The doctor hopes that Parker will mate w i i l i I ln^niti nr.li np lo thc camera lens, their hairy faces filling the lens as they
most prized creation, the beautiful Lota, the Panther Woman ( K . n U ' |W>H np u i h c eamera.
Burke). In hi'i ile.i iission of King Kong, }. P. Telotte has argued that an effective
The monsters in thc film, Moreau's creatures, are neither ful 1 y a m i n. 11 i l t i i i I l l m Ji.iws ihe viewer into its world of excitement and terror through
human. The racialist and imperialist underpinnings of the f i l m .m >|ii h t i ' i n i p n l . i i u n o boundaries: "The horror film can play most effectively
explicit, for the monsters are coded in racial terms. Ourlan, an api in.ui | K M l n i i i i i i l a i v posiiioii; monsterlike, i t can simply reach into our world
coded as the lusty and bestial dark Savage. M'ling, Moreau's l a i i h l n l -! I i t i i i l ' i i r . p . i i i o i i s ni^htmarish realm, forcing us to complete horrific
man, is coded as East Asianservile and bestial slightly highei i n i t in i ' ' S i m i l a r l y , e i t i n g Tzvetan Todorov, Noel Carroll explains that
than somc of Moreau's other heasts who have heeome his slavr .m.l ) i t n i . C I | M m c i n e m a is piodueecl by allowing for a vacillation between
form hard physieal labor. Lota passes as a l'olynesian: w i i l i In i ! > i M u i i i i . i l .ind n a l u i a l i s l i e e x p l a n a t i o n s . M a n y horror stories begin as
madc-up cyes, rouged lips, lonj; hlack eurly liair, and s k i n i p v l u m l i I M v i M p m p o i l i n g l o oller r a l i o n a l e x p l a n a t i o n s lor ( h e lanlastic, b u t
170 Teratology
King Kong and the Monster 171
then build up to a confrontation with the monster, a supernatural being that
jungle filmmaker, and bis colleague Jack Driscoll, first mate of the ship and
cannot be explained by science.38 Above all, Carroll adds, the horror film
later the fianc of the Fay Wray character, Ann Darrow. In addition to the
demands proof, proof of the monster's existence and a clear explanation of
model of Douglas Burden, Cari Denham was closely modeled on Cooper,
why it exists. The horror film genre works because the audience is fasci-
Jack Driscoll on Schoedsack, and Ann Darrow on Schoedsack's wife, Ruth
nated by the monster's impurity, its hybridity, and because it is curious to
Rose, as well as Katherine Burden (Rose, in fact, was one of the screen-
get at the heart of this unknowable: the audience follows the narrative until
writers for King Kong).40 Denham was apparently also modeled on the brash
it discloses all the secrets of the monster.39 This knowledge is arrived at
showman Frank Buck, who made films about capturing animis for zoos,
only by observation. It is this desire for proof by observation that links the such as Brng 'Em BackAlive (1932).
ethnographic film to the horror film: from its inception, the efficacy of
Noel Carroll writes, "No other film has ever been as self-congratulatory
ethnographic film was believed to derive from its status as pur observa-
,is Kong. It is a swaggering, arrogant film that spends much of its time tell-
tion, pur inscription, evidence for the archive. But this logic linking visin
iiij; ushowgreatitis.... Kongis the quintessential American filmits self-
to knowledge, producing an incessant desire to see, is not without its atten-
i in.ige is so enormous."41 The self-referential tenor of the film does not arise
dant dangers. Nolely because of King Kong's many references to film history, a point made
l>v (.unes Snead,42 but also because, as shown in the last chapter through the
King Kong: A Cise Analysis itlisrussion
mema. of Grass and Chang, self-referentiality is central to ethnographic
In a scene about two-thirds of the way through King Kong, a dishevelcd
young couple Ann Darrow, a pal blonde woman, and Jack Driscoll, lu-i
I u Depression-era Manhattan: The White WomanCriminal, Trouble,
virile male lover flee on foot from the giant ape-monster Kong through .1
i />//< / of Exchange. The second scene of the film takes us down one level
jungle of enormous, primordial vegetation. As they run we see their widr In i l i e evolutionary taxonomy of race and gender to the white womanAnn
eyed but grimly set expressions as they frantically brush aside the leaves i il
I Mu o w the forever fainting, screaming blonde heroine of King Kong. If
the jungle that hang in their way, the young man pulling on the woman i < >
MI i rvs.ir y for the propagaton of the "mee" and the furtherance of Civiliza-
run even f ster as she becomes progressively weaker, until she is so r \d that she has to Ibe I M Icarried
I , '.lie is,toassafety in thealways
Jack says, man's arms. This
trouble. Shescrm
is the, >i object of the film spec-
i.n Ir, ireognized as a necessary accessory because, as Denham explains
the two running, running, forever running, is full of suspense Wi II Km ir
t v i v l v , " I he public, Bless 'em! Must have a pretty face to look at." King
catch up? Will they make it? Moreover, will they make it back to C i v i l i i ^ M i i r I ir i; ms then as thehunt foran appropriate "pretty face" for the exped -
tion? Their running is a literal embodiment of the race of history, .1 i . n ' HHII ,i w h i le womanjust as t later becomes a hunt for Kong.
which is a locus of ethnographic cinema. The outcome is known- iln- n u m
I IM l i l m is set contemporaneously at theheight of the Great Depression.
ster will be destroyed, and the heroic whites will triumph but i l n - n i I t i i t i u r . l v , c t i i i c i s m of King Kong rarely mentions Ann's poverty and her
always a tensin, an element of uncertainty, a possibility that the i .1, r i n n l i n i ' l i , ,1 i i i m m a l status. In the taxonomic classification system of early
go either way. |tnliiM|', >lor,v aiul Regnault's conception of race as pathology provides an
MI i II. ni i l l i i s i i . i i ion of this thcmethe interest in indigenous peoples as
i. At Dock: The White Male lite Hunters, Filmmakers, Voviiy.i-r. n, |*ltiini u i u .is rlosely allicd to the study of "sociolgica!" types such as the
roes. King Kongbegins and ends as a tribute to the Empire S t a i i - U n i U m , MIH..I u u n i l i r c n m m . i l , the e t h n i c immigrant, laborers, homosexuals, and
the triumph of modernity. After credits with graphics of the l.u .ni, "i <\ JJit I H - . I I A l l o i hese marginal groups were sccn as deficient both morally
building, the film introduces the viewer to the humans whom ani h n i | > , > l , , | , > i. I I , , ni.illv."
had glorificd as being at the "hcad of the stecplechase" of hisloi y i In > l m < | ii n l i mi r'.pies A u n I ).irrow when she is canght tryng to steal an apple
male, specifically the adventurous white ni a le l i t e . We meei l i i s i i l n h u
-i \ m i , u , i h e liciomc to he is an l ; ,ve wlio has alreaily fallen. He takes
male crew of the moving p i e t u r e ship: the m a s t e r n i i i u l o t h r i .|>, , i n l < i II IM i , , i l l r r shop lo ex pa i n his i n t e m i ns, a nil t h e audience as well as
the w h i t e b e a t i t v and I he beasl i s a characle nameil C !ai 1 I >enh.im . l.iU I. i i
MU r, !. in -.eiiilim/r hei uiule llie hiij'.hl liglils o the interior. In
172 Teratology
several close-ups from the chest up, Ann sits eagerly with her back against a
wall lined like a Cartesian grid; she is posed in the manner of anthropologi- M '
cal as well as criminal photographs. The lines of the wall imprison Ann as a
type; it is Denham who has saved her from criminal punishment, but he
will entrap her, even while elevating her, as object of trade and of spectacle.
If, as a criminal in the darkened streets of Manhattan, Ann is first associated
with darkness, she also represents lightness: as Cooper told Fay Wray, he
wanted Ann to be a blonde beauty in order to highlight the contrast with
Kong (Cooper referred to Kong as the darkest leading man she would ever
have).44 Throughout the film, Ann is compared implicitly to Kong. Cooper ya',M}? W Ji'fc
had his own notions about woman as beast:
Woman has retained, fortunately, the fighting, dominant blood of the
savage. . . . She would have perished as a distinctive individual long W?!P*SPK
ago had it not been for her own rights. This quality can be found in the
most frage of women. For a long time I always thought that "the
lylW'ltlIfK
most dangerous" game naturally would be one in which a woman was
involved.45 1 1 M i l i from Trader Horn (1931), dir. W. S. van Dyke.
|( i u u i i-.sy of the Museum of Modern Art)
Cinema works as a time machine not only in the scientific research film,
the romantic ethnographic reconstruction, or the Hollywood horror film: as
this "racializing" of gender reveis, white women as well as people of colm
are "evolutionized." If the 19305 was the era of Frankenstein, Dracula, and shouting at them and whipping them. At the film's end she and
King Kong, it was also the period which saw Lota the Panther Woman, N111. i l'rin Ira ve frica to get married, effectively marking Nina's entry into Civi-
the Fetish in Trader Horn (1931), the gorilla-suited Helen Faraday (Mari e 11 < ll.Miion as a proper wife. Ranchero, Trader Horn's African assistant, be-
Dietrich) in Josef von Sternberg's Blonde Venus (1932,), and the incessan Is i mus leminized and is made into the object of desire for the Great White
screaming characters played by Fay Wray. I l i n i ihno."'
H.un r i , as seen in the death scene where Trader Horn embraces the dying
The figure of the white woman is thus another object of knowledge m-nl
ing to be explored, understood, and tamed. In Trader Horn, for exainplr, .1 Ih,'.mu.u ly in Josef von Sternberg's Blonde Venus (1932), it is unmistakably
film by W. S. van Dyke (who also made White Shadows in the Soutli Seat i u l n i e woman who is the enticing object of inquiry. The film begins
[192,9] and Tarzan the Ape Man [1932]), the legendary Trader Horn and I n - r,.n n ,i y.miip of students of science unexpectedly come across Helen and
sidekick Per soon embark on a mission to save the young white w t i i n . m lu i M i n ss Iriends swimming nude in a secluded lake in Germany. Helen
Nina, who as a child had been abducted in an African raid and wlm h.i Idii i m . M I es one of these menFaraday, an American scientistand they
become a "fetish" for an African tribe. The characterization of Nina i?, un .011 named /ohnny. The image of Helen frolicking n the water is
biguous and strangely charged. Speaking no English, and with lu-i w i M .11 ni o i he South Scasbathingbeauties who representa Golden Age
frizzy blond hair and skimpy feathered outfit, she is initially pctrnvi ,1 itl l i i i i n i m e m 'l'tihu and White Shcidows in the South Seas. Helen, a the-
being "as great a savage" as the Africans with whom she li ves. Like l.oi.i i l i . illi i -ti i n .,, is b i o u g h t o u t of na tu re and thus "civilized/'Bccause Faraday is
Panther Woman in Island of Lost Souls, Nina has the crackling Innr. luill |li in i i l ni n i o i i e y lo pay lor a medical operation, Helen returns to the the-
and the blazing, darting eyes of a creature who is half-animal, h a l l h n m m |MM ( d i l . i l l lo .1 more' "savage" s t a t e is indicated hy her famous "Hot
But while Lota is, in a sense, racially coded as ;\. N i n a is codnl i i VIH u!'"' i i n m h r i In ,i laney n i g h t r l i i b ( o r a n audienee o rieh white men,
truc white woman capable o dominating tlie A l r i r a n men o hn v i l l ijii n i In i'.ur, w i i h shois o ( l i e s m i l i m ; i'.esliues o ( h e hlack orehestra
lili i u l u i r .1 conga Ime o w l n t i - >'
King Kong and the Monster 175
-'
Even as the White Woman is made into the visual object par excellence,
her wildness is linked to her desire to know through seeing. As the object of
the camera and of the viewer's gaze, Ann is punished for wanting to be an
active viewer. It is Ann's curiosity to see that repeatedly gets her into trou-
ble. Her own gaze mus be continually frustrated, for the gaze has been
cstablished as allied with the camera, and thus with Cari Denhamthe
White Male.
age.60 Sometimes the films involved evil apelike creatures such as the evil King Kong and the Monster 1 8 1
ape in Edgar Rice Burroughs's novel Tarzan of the Apes (1912), which was Both the desire to see and the dangcrs of seeing, essential to the horror
first filmed in 1918, or the evil creatures featured in the film adaptation of film, are foregrounded in King Kong. The forbidden, what "no white man
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1921), produced by First National has seen," is above all the interracial, interspecies intercourse of Ann and
Studio. In the latter film, an expedition of scientists fights dinosaurs and Kong. This titillation propels the narrative forward. King Kong the film, like
evil apelike men in South America. The animator of The Lost World, Willis its eponymous character, is a monster, a hybrid of the ethnographic film and
O'Brien, was also the animator of King Kong.61 the science fiction film. As in the Komodo dragn expedition film, itself a
But the ape-man did not merely lurk about in science fictlon, ethno- hybrid, the white woman is a lure, an object to stimulate the beast's willing-
graphic cinema, or jungle stories. The cinematic time machine was at work ness to come out nto the open and be seen. Kong sees Ann and immedately
in the racial melodrama as well: D. W. Griffith's films were masterworks wants to possess her. Ann collapses: incapable of movement, she is an ob-
of racialist evolutionism. His early films often involved prehistoric tribes, JL'ct to be possessed, an object of circulation; but it is Kong who must be
captured.
and he made several racial melodramas.62 In The Birth of a Nation (1915),
Griffith's depiction of the African American character Gus is faithful to the
book upon which the film was based, Thomas Dixon Jr.'s The Clansman <i. The Jungle: Dinosaurs and the Prehistoric Age. Kong leaves the scene at
(1905). Gus is represented in Dixon's book as a lascivious apelike beast who l lie wall after taking possession of Ann, and the camera follows Kong be-
lusts after innocent white girls. This film, which many whites, includinj; voiul the wall to a "forgotten land": here the time voyage reaches its desti-
Robert and Francs Flaherty, found to be an extremely moving and profound n.'ition a place where time has stopped and dinosaurs still roam, a pre-
masterpiece (and which many people of color found abominable), is noi hisloric jungle ofgiant trees andplants. Inhis design for the opening shot of
only a defining "monument" of the history of cinema, it also serves as a i l i i s scene, Willis O'Brien drew on nineteenth-century images of fantasy
defining artifact of the nation: the nation is born through a demarcation o Undscapes, inspired particularly by Arnold Bocklin's painting The Isle of
the African American as inferior Other against which white "superiority " \-. lili' Dcad (1880), and by Gustave Dor's illustratons of purgatories, hells,
defined.63 iiiul wild landscapes.64 O'Brien's animation is almost seamless, and its jar-
Although Kong is monstrousboth in size and by virtue of his h y l u n l i m>; M~CS and spaces add up to a pastiche which is quite compelling. Using
status as man/apeKong is a Noble Savage as well. Noble Savagery, U i i p i n . i l (ricks such as projected backdrops and painted glass plates, Willis
emphasized earlier, was important to the romantic ethnographic cincm.i < >l 1 1 Mi ICH created a hyperreal space.65 As Denham, Jack, and the crew, Lillipu-
filmmakers like Flaherty and Murnau. There is a noble side to Kong: IN m l i i i i i in contrast to the giant vegetation, fire at a huge dinosaur in the back-
the ethnographic exposition, the boundaries between viewer and vu -wc > l ni i ii 1 1 ni,
V
i lie viewer has a sense that they are firinginto a museum dinosaur
were at times broken through, allowing the viewer of King Kong to ser i I n -tUH. WJ.
world from Kong's eyes. This play with boundaries is made possibK-1>\ I n me kry scene, fantasy literally bumps up against reality. Kong places
H ......
way that Kong is filmed. For example, in the scenes where Kong v i e w. A ,< ni lop of n tree in the foreground, and we see him dueling with a
for the first time, there are shot/reaction shots of Kong and of wh.n K"m ,nii'..mnis. Ann must sit and watch, rooted to the scene. The fighting
sees. Similarly the viewer experiences Kong's view of the audicncr w l i < n In '. i l i i - n l i t e r a l l y bump into Ann's space, knockng down the tree on
is later exhibited in the Broadway theater. As these shots suggrsi, !- li '.lie sits. Ann falls precipitously farther into the foreground: in a
is dccidedly anthropomorphized. He fights dinosaurs like a h m i i . n i |>n .lie l.ills uto our space, the space of the audience. Fantasy and real-
fighter, is tender toward Ann, and is tragically defiant at the cnd o i l i < M u i onioined marvelously in O'Brien's animation. Praising the film's
his back arched like a diva just before he falls from the Empirc S I . H I r.mi.l . i i l l o c a i i n g l y drcamlikepower, Claude Ollierdrawsattention to this
i ni i l i c . m i m . i t i o n :
ing. On Skull Island, moreover, Kong is in control of the ga/.r; Aun n lm
"just wants to see," is identified only by her scrcam, and by lici IM i i i > M| un
inability to use her legs to stand up and run away whcncvcr Konj-, r. n. i l . . n i i i i o i liaws in the conl i n n i t y o perspective or movement, far
vicinity. i dc'.i l o y i n g or i'iileebling I he c r e c l i i l i l y o I he spectaclc, are in ac-
i . i i I u-1 w i l h 11 u' pre.sc'iilalion o a t o t a l I y d r e a m l i k c si. He, a dream
18 2, Teratology King Kong and the Monster 183
my eyes." To which the usher informs her, "This is not a moving picture, 'nster 185
madam." She huffs, "Well! I never! I thought I was going to see something!"
In this comic aside, the ref erent itself is secondary to the representation; the
woman's comment, however, plays on the audience's desire to see the con-
flation of film and reality. Kong, of course, is an animated monster created
through the use of eighteen-inch full-body models, and of seprate models
of his head and paws: the monster himself is not even whole, but made of
pieces, already fetishized. Like Disneyland, Kong is presented as imaginary
in order that we more firmly believe that the rest of the world is real.71
Denham tells the eager audience that he has "a story so strange that no
one will believe it." He contines,
But ladies and gentlemen, seeing is believing. And we, my partners and
I, have brought back the living proof of our adventure. An adventure in
which twelve of our party rnet horrible death.... I'm going to show you
the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was a king and a god
in the world he knew. But now he comes to civilization. Merely a
captive. A show to gratify your curiosity.
Again the audience's desire to see is made visible. The curtain is pulled back
and Kong appears, manacled as if crucified (Ann was also manacled on Sku 11
.|s Siill (rom King Kong (1935), dir.MeranC. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack.
Island). Next we see a reaction shot of the audience from Kong's (as well as |i nurtcsy of the Museum of Modern Art)
Denham's) perspective. Denham then explains that he wants to allow t l u
audience the privilege of witnessing the first photographs taken of Kong a 1111
his captors. i .ilion of this fear. Lvy thus argued that the terror of being an unwlling
In ethnographic cinema the process of visualization is often brough i 11 > v i r wcr is what made the film work:
the fore through the use of maps, panoramic views, and scenes of the t i l n
maker as intrepid adventurer/photographer. King Kong reveis what h . i | > I saw again trait by trait a remarkable detail of my familiar nightmares,
pens when the processes of visualization break down. Infuriated at the pl n < w i t h the anguish and the atrocious malaise which accompanes it. A
tographers, whom he thinks are attacking Ann, Kong's huge body frees 11 M 11 'pcctator, not very reassured, would like to leave, but one makes him
from the chains, and he penetrales the audience's space. Kong refuscs l u .ish.imcd of his pusillanimity and he sits down again. This spectator,
u '.s mysclf; one hundred times, in my dream.
"shot." He tears down the theater wall, grabs a sleeping woman thnmj'h m
open window in a nearby building, throws her down, and finally spot s A n n I li i l i - M 11 lies the film as akin to a Max Ernst fantasy of Maldoror: "It does
in a hotel room with Jack. un .i|i|u-.ir necessary to insist on the apocalyptic grandeur of certain tab-
Ann's cry that it is "like a terrible dream" makes explicit the o i u - m . li.iir., ( i . i i i i f u l a r l y the battle of King Kong in the grotto, with the mon-
character of the film, a perception shared by the surrealists when i l u Mm n t i . i i r . .( ipcnt; thcqualityof the decorsseems tome, in one hundred places,
was released. King Kong was seen by some surrealists as a poctic f i l m , 1 1 > . l u i h M.-ildororicn." 7 - 1 As Theodor W. Adorno pointed out, surrealism at-
perfect cinematic versin of a surrealist drcam. 7; The strange honoi c >! i IP i M i i i ' i 1 . lo slioc'k us w i t h i he experience of childhood, and thus makes fre-
film strucka chordin Jean Lvy. Writing for the surrealist art j o n n i . i l A l m , . l|Mi ni ir.f o moniage, > t e c h n i q u c which leads the viewer to ask, "Where
taue in 1934, he reealled that as i c h i l d he liad lost sleep mn Ir.n i l i n IIMK I M - C I I i l i . i t brloie:""' 'l'lie rccognilion (if childhood experience, so
gorilla-like monsters might appearat the w i n d o w , King Kony. w.is flttii l i i j i . n i ni s u r t c a l i s m , was made visceral n //n; Koti^.':'
V V I n i lie i ni m i l Ms loi ni w.is exallcd, however A.'/"" ' ' ' '
King Kong and the Monster 187
186 Teratology
was complicit with the avant-garde's love of Primitivism, its tendency to
look at the Primitive as a figure of the unconscious, as a limit to the ratio of
the West. Kong is a cinematic visualization of the rnale beast which the
Surrealists so longed to unleash. In King Kong, visualization is a hunt which
involves titillation, capture, spectacle, and death: King Kong is a mix of the
surrealist ingredients of the erotic, the exotic, and the unconscious.76 James
Cliff ord suggests surrealism is in this sense a modern sensibility: "Reality is
no longer a given, a natural, familiar environment. The self, cut lose from
its attachments, must discover meaning where it maya predicament,
evoked at its most nihilistic, that underlies both surrealism and modern
ethnography."77 Clifford calis the object of this ethnographic/surrealist
attitudenon-Western peoples, and womenthe other.78 If we take Lvy
seriously and consider King Kong as, among other things, a surrealist text,
the object of the ethnographic surrealist attitude of the lm is thus the
Ethnographic itself, King Kong as Other, and WomanAnnas Other.
8. At the Pinnacle of the Empire State Building: The White Male Mili-
tary Piogress, Technology, Imperialism, the Future. King Kong, which has
taken us back in time and returned us to the present, now lurches forward |d S t i l l from King Kong (1933), dir. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schocdsack.
and upwardsup to the future. Ann is seized by the rampaging Kong. The ( uiirtcsy of the Muscum of Modern Art)
searchlights of the city keep Kong in sight, and all watch as he climbs to the
top of the Empire State Building. Completed in 1932, the Empire State
Building was, at the time of the film, the ultmate U.S. symbol of progress, ni.nniained, order must reign again, and everything must returnto its place.
A'i lolin Seeleye writes,
technology, and Civilization. Like the Eiffel Tower at the turn of the cen
tury, perceived as embodying French greatness, and which provided thr K i n g Kong is a movie inextricably tied by intertextual references to a
perfect contrast to the so-called "simple" cultures represented in the e t l i l< ing literary tradition in America, one that can be traced back via fairy
nographic expositions Regnault frequented, the Empire State Building pro .i i >ries to the Wild Man myth. It is a tradition, moreover, that promotes
vided the perfect contrast to the monster Kong. Ultimately only the mus i he majority opinin found in American literature, that wild things
sophisticated technology can stop Konggas bombs subdue him on Skull w h e t h e r whales, apes, or menbelong where the wild things are, that
Island, warplanes shoot him down in New York. Even as Kong meets I u i u .iiti-mpt any interplay with civilized forces is to guarantee the de-
fate, the play with the boundaries between observer and observed u > n M i uci ion (not the assimilation) of wildness.80
tinues: we see the action both from the point of view of Kong as tlie .m
I lid Ir.n two
planes swoop toward him, and from the point of view of the planes as i In \n him down. Ironically, <>( mixing
of the was explicit
gunners in Douglas
were Burden's
reportedly playi-dloathing of the "pigsty
l > \r and Schoedsack themselves.79
I m i i l , " " 1 ,i lear that was also aroused by migration, whether it was the
inir.i u 'I Alrican Amerieans from the rural South to Northern cities, or
This was the necessary conclusin to King Kong. As in Tab and (.'< > tita llii immii',1.ilion of non-Northcrn Europeans and inhabitants of formerly
rul TI! n.iiions to colonial metropolitan centcrs. The fear of interbreed-
Goona, the native must be crucified, murdered, or at least captmvd u n
HIM WT. m . i m l r s t in t h e stuily o race and h y b r i d i t y in early anthropology: it
made a wax figure, assuggestedby the close-up of Allakariallak at t l u - r n < l l
fctiic ,i I M I I I I I I I H - I I I s l r a i n in (ernian anthropology ail was, of course, later
Nanook o//ic orth. Tur, abov- all, in ordcr tor the myth of modemit v i I
188 Teratology
King Kong and the Monster 189
embraced by Adolf Hitler. In the United States, the nativist Lothrop Stod-
crum, the raising of the Ethnographic to the Icvel of horror. He is no longer a
dard was particularly influential in mobilizing fears of racial impurity. In
referent to anything, for the referent is cannibalized from within. When
The Revolt against Civilization, he asserted,
Kong stares into Ann's eyes, and Ann looks back at Kong, they are creating
Usually highly prolific, often endowed with extraordinary physical their own mise-en-abyme. The viewer, figured in this viewing process by
vigor, and able to migrate easily, owing to modern facilities of transpor- the Skull Islanders and the Broadway theater audience, is within this end-
tation, the more backwards people of the earth tend increasingly to less precession of signifiers. King Kong celbrales its own technology: al-
seek the centres of civilization, attracted thither by the higher wage though the film glorifies the Empire State Building, its greatest boast is its
and easier living conditions which there prevail. The influx of such own technology, the very ability of animator Willis O'Brien to crate a
lower elements into civilised society is an unmitigated disaster.... The cinematic monster like Kong, the monster of evolutionary nightmare. King
racial foundations of civilization are undermined.82 Kong thus ultimately celbrales cnema's tendency to crate monsters
which mirror the anxieties of any given age. In so doing, it screens from our
This again is the realm of "political physics": the Ethnographic is not coeval
visin the historical cannibalisms which turned West Africans into hiero-
with the Historical, and the two simply cannot exist in the same temporal
glyphs for medical science, stole the bones of Minik Wallace's father for a
space. To preserve the separation, the Civilized man will resort to apartheid
inuseum display, and led a Chirichiri man named Ota Benga to commit
and murder. To set evolution back on course in King Kong, the white man suicide.
seizes upon war technology. The film moves into the future with its depic-
tion of fighter planes as cutting-edge technological achievements, but it
also anticipates the postcolonial future by anticipating the end of the age of l;.ilmographic Spectacle Revisited
high imperialism. In this sense, the film may be taken as an unintended
l'oct Elizabeth Alexander subverts the representation of the African as Eth-
advance metaphor for racial conflict within the United States, and the im
nographic spectacle n her poem about Sarah Bartman (Saartjie Baartman), a
perialist wars that the United States fought in Asian and Central American
Klmi-San woman who was exhibited in France in the nineteenth century,
countries after I933.83
u i i l y to be dissected after death by the French biologist Georges Cuvier, her
Kong is thus both prehistoricalthe Ethnographicand postcolonial p u n a i s put on display at the Muse de l'homme in a bell jar:
the Postmodern, at the end of History. As a monster, he embodies the col
lapsing of the future into the prehistorical, the "primitive" into the tcrh ()bserve the wordless Odalisque.
nological, the Ethnographic into the Historical. King Kong insists that i l i < 111,1 ve not forgotten my Xhosa
public desires or hungers for authenticity: it is more spectacular to bnn.r. dicks. My flexible tongue
back Kong, than to take pictures of him. King Kong is a meditation m i .mil healthy mouth bewilder
ethnographic realism, on the audience's desire to believe and disbclicvr, i < t h i s man with his rotting teeth.
travel backward and forwards in time, to embrace the Ethnographic, ser 1 1 M II lie werc to let me rise up
world from his eyes, and then be rid of him, murder him. King Kong cn-.m l i n n i tliis table, I'dspirit
both a monster object and a monster viewer. The audiencc can o n l v I" I ns k n i ves and cut out his black heart,
monsters, since the image precedes the referent: King Kong becomcs .1 - , | i'.il il with science fluid inside
tacle, a monstrous parade of horrific images, andto borrow B a u d i i l l . n . l .1 I x - l l jar, place t on a low
expressiona "precession of simulacra."84 ihrll m a white man's muscum
Donna Haraway, as indicated above, has argued insightfully t h a i , m i l n n i i lir wholc world could sec
twentieth century, the narrativeof race and evolution bascme to l>r p l . n ! u w.is shrivcled and hard,
increasingly upon the figure of the anthropoid ape: Cooper ail Srliuril. i < I i;i u m r i i ir, delormed, unnatural.85
take this allegorical figure one stop furthcr, crcating the pcrleri I i l m . .
In lu i pnrm, A l e x a n i l e r slidcs (rom t l i r voicc o the ohservinganthropolo-
graphic monster. Stuck in the past, doomcd to dio, Kong is p m r -.1 1<
||m m.I M i r n isi id Mari man's own voirr, speaking her revrnge in t h e pres-
190 Teratology
+^~ji.if, and
King0 Kong O.ILU the
tne Monster 191
daily activities included watching televisin and working at computers, but
they also performed "traditional" aboriginal activities. A plaque presented
visitors with a map and a taxonomc description of Guatinau, an imaginary
island in the Caribbean, and explained that the people there were only
recently "discovered." Visitors could speak to them by telephone, but only
in Spanish.87 Gmez-Pea explained this parodie performance in the fol-
lowing terms:
We want to bring back the ghosts and unleash the demons of history,
but we want to do it in a way that the demons don't scare the Anglo-
European others, but forc them to begin a negotiation with these
ghosts and demons that will lead to a pact of co-existence. The ghosts
we are trying to unleash are extremely whimsical, irreverent, and gro-
tesque, extremely crazy and picaresque.88
PASSION OF REMEMBRANCE1
Margaret Mead: No, you see, I do not accept that I have done things
1'i't'iiusel dreamt about them.
liiincs Raldwin: But Ihad to accept that I was on a slave boat once.
Mi'iitl: No.
liii/ilwin: But I was.
/\: Wait, you werenot. Look, you don't believe in reincarnation!
n, 11, l\vin: But my whole Ufe was deflned by history.... My Ufe was
i li-iini -d hy the time I was ftve by the history written on my brow.2
Rouch's film about her, Poitiait of a Frend (1978), Mead proclaims con-
fidently that she and other anthropologists have largely succeeded with Conclusin 195
their project of documenting all the "vanishing," "primitive" cultures left as embodying and conferrng authenticity. Even today, the realism of eth-
on the earth: the next project of the anthropologist, she said, was to build nographic representation is less contested than is the realism of historical
space coionies. Although Mead derided doctrines of racial determinism, she representation. At the center of the story, is the body of the Native, the
never discarded the evolutionary divisin of the world into "primitive" essential ndex of authenticity, and thus visual media, capable of capturing
versus "modern" peoples: history was for Mead one of progress, expansin, the body and holding it for the viewer, have long played a lead role in trans-
exploration, and benign colonializaton. mitting the narrative of race and evolution.
James Baldwin's "history" was vastly different. First of all, Baldwin In order to begin to come to terms with the continued hold of this narra-
claimed that history was "written in the color of my skin."6 In a colonial or tive and the role of visual media in transmitting it, I have attempted in ths
slave society, whose effects linger into the present day, the person of color book to identify and delinate what I believe are the three central modali-
could never escape the constructed difference placed on skin color. As ties of Ethnographic representation in early cinema. I used Regnault's chro-
Frantz Fann elucidated, the "racial epidermal schema" located the person nophotography of West African performers at the Pars Ethnographic Ex-
of color in three places: as a body, as a race, and as one's ancestors.7 Baldwin, position of 1895, a body of work concerned exclusively with gesture and
however, refused to place himself within the Eurocentric view of History; locomotion, to exemplify the first of the three modalities, termed here Eth-
ndeed, he saw it as impossible: "I am one of the dispossessed. According to nographic "inscription." In Regnault's film sequences, the indigenous body
the West I have no history. There is that difference. I have had to wrest my m motion, perceived as raw data, is literally written into film for the scien-
identity out of the jaws of the West."8 With a third eye, Baldwin was not ncally trained "reader"the langage par gestes. Regnault believed that
only rejecting a discourse which represented people of color as "savages," siich images would serve as an ndex for race, much as subsequent anthro-
but also the Western notion of rational, linear History. Instead, for Bald w i 11, (xilogists such as Boas and Mead believed that films of gesture and behavior
history was composed of histories: the history of racialization, the histoi v wuiild provide unimpeachable records for the classification of cultures. Re-
of a people, the history of individuis, and the necessity to bear witness d u j'.n.uilt's workshares with later scientific research film the fate that all but a
the future.
Kin.ill fraction of the images are not viewed even by specalists. The narra-
i ivr o/ evoution emerges only through the written text accompanying the
Story-telling/History-telling IMI.IJ;CS and the conceptual framing of the images as entries in a projected
flliih.il "archive" for the scientific mapping and classification of race and
The telling of history is linked to the telling of stories, both textual i u l i n r e . Direct echos of Regnault's conception are apparent not only in
cinematic (as is often remarked, the Latn word stora contains both nn MI i.illy ordered unversity collections of research footage, but also in the
ings). The epic story of human history told by the West, boundedby t h e c AAnl . n liives de la
i I umax, plante of Albert Kahn, the choreometrcs dance project of
andsoon.
lutionary schema reflected in Mead's comments, has itself had a pe r n 11 n
history. Early anthropology, cinema, and popular culture constructed u n A M-rond modality of Ethnographic representation is exemplifed in Rob-
enous peoples as Ethnographic: oan earlier time, without history, wn In i i i I l.ihrriy's Nanook of the North. Flaherty's film, which hinges upon a
archives. The construction of the Ethnographic, however, was a l w . i v Mn''Ml>;ic reconstruccin oa more authentic humanity (the "unspoiled"
bivalent, for the Ethnographic was not only viewed as Savage bul .ilv l'i f i m f i ve) and is considered today a pioneering work of the romantic, lyri-
seen as alternatively authentic, macho, pur, spiritual, and an a n t i d i i . i l i ilmo,i;r.iphic film, embodies what I term the "taxidermic" mode of
the ills of modern, industrialized capitalism, a myth embodicd m i In i I i l i i n i i ; i . i / i l n c representation. Flaherty's film was produced within the same
of the Noble Savage. No matter the particular variant of the story, h ( V i i l i i i n i n . i l v lame thatgaverise to Regnault's "ciphers"of race, theindige-
the Native was portrayed as stuck in the evolutionary past, as lu I I M I I limlv M i / I serving as evidence of n time before history, but, with Fla-
dence of a biological progression. Whelher the story was told m M |i-it 1.11 u I be/ore h i m , ('ur(is), t h e iileology of the "vanishing races" comes
research terms or imhued w i t h ronianticism, indigenous pcoples wi Ii< i l u l u i r The l'ihnographic, a l t h o u g h now portrayed "in the round," is set
(II ,i | i i M I M - . ( | I I C p.ist innocenl o, r.ilhci ( h a n m icive, comn'"" '
fellli i l n '.piiMd ul Wesicn i--m.<'-
196 Conclusin
Conclusin 197
since passed by in the steeplechase of history, the "vanishing" Native is
"redeemed" through taxidermic reconstruction: the dead is brought to life. era obscured, the viewer is meant to observe and experience the film as if he
The premise o the inevitable death of the Native, moreover, allows the or she had been there, from a "fly on the wall" perspective.9 The beginnngs
physical and cultural destruction wrought by the West to appear inelucta- i il a shift in academic ethnographic film to a more participatory cinema also
ble, and such films, albeit with pathos, implicitly provide ideological justifi- occurred in the 19505 with the self-reflexive films of French ethnographic
cation for the very colonial and economic conquests that brought film- (ihnmaker Jean Rouch, but this shift did not have an appreciable impact on
makers like Flaherty to the Arctic. mainstream academic ethnographic film until very recently.
Finally, in King Kong, a sublime example of ironic Hollywood pastiche The "crisis" in anthropology which began in the late 19705 has introduced
replaying many of the Ethnographic themes central to Regnault's chrono \e interpretive and questioning stance concerning the colonialist un-
photography and Flaherty's Nanook of the North, Ethnographic spectaclr dr rpinnings of the discipline's representational practices. This growing self-
takes the form of "monstrosity." Here the Ethnographic is made to enter thr irllrxivty did not simply reflect changes in anthropological thought, but
temporal and physical space of the white audience, the resulting "incongtu dlso resulted from post-World War II decolonization, a movement marked
ous beast" generating fears of contamination and hybrid pathology. Kiny, I w mdependence struggles and demands for self-determination. Anthropol-
Kong itself is a hybrid between museum diorama and horror film, teratoli >r,v Mj'.v's temporal suppositions could no longer be sustained: indigenous peo-
and the fantasy illustrations of Gustave Dor. Although baroque in exprrs plrs and other marginalized peoples of color were criticizing the history of
sion, the film implicitly links anthropology, or at least the camera-wieldin| 1111 11 representation by Euro-Americans, and were attempting to counteract
scientific expedition, with nationalism and imperialism: in order to bnn.r. Wrstrrn media exploitatiori by obtaining greater access to televisin and
back Kong for examination and spectacle, the Skull Islanders must be- dr I l l i n production.10 Today, the reform is being carried forward by a growing
feated, and, in order to subdue Kong, the latest war technology mus I n i u i i h r r of fllmmakers/scholars including David and Judith MacDougall,
marshaled. The film, made by early ethnographic filmmakers Coopcr . u n i ,,n v KiIdea, and Faye Ginsburg. Another recent development in academic
Schoedsack, explicitly recalls the historical practice of exhibiting hum.ni i ilmographic filminitated by filmmakers and videomakers such as Terry
at ethnographic expositions, and partakes of many of the aspects o i l n l u un, Timothy Asch, and Vincent Carelliis to teach indigenous peoples
IIMVV 10 use video and film technology.11
"racial film" which flourished in the wake of the commercial succrs.-. ni
Nanook of the North. In its construction of the ethnographiable monst, i I irsptr these innovations and growing self-criticism within anthropol-
King Kong summons a notion of time that feeds into ideologies of the i i ni i r Hj'v f.uirrally, however, the camera is still too often seen by ethnographic
enous body as the site of a colusin between past and present, Ethnographli l l l i i u i i . i k r r s as an unproblematic, innocent eye on indigenous peoples, a
and Historical, Primitive and Modern. In the end, history yanks thr mmi UN l u lool for science, many filmmakers turning to self-reflexive exami-
ster from the past only to kill it. l i i i i i i i u o the process of production to make ethnographic film more sci-
Although the discipline of anthropology has undergone s i g m l i t . i m t n i i l l ' ' l ; urthermore, even though many academic anthropologists are
changes since the 19303, it has continuedto provide fodder for botb pnpul u l i l l i l v i niical of the discipline's complicity with racializing stereotyping,
and scientific conceptions of the Ethnographic. The conception o u l m , . lln i pi'.irmeof the Ethnographic is still alive and well, especially in popular
Mu
graphic film as a scientific tool for anthropologists studying thr Im ni IMV
Televisin specials like Harvard anthropologist David Maybury-
"disappearing," "primitive," "uncontaminated" tribes survived aitn W, u M . Millenium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World (1992), Holly-
War II. Films made from the 19508 to the 19703, including works l > \" H f i n i i l l i l m s like Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves (1990), Michael
makers now considered major figures in ethnographic film- Job n M. u . I . , 11 M'inii ' /'/"' l'tisl oftlii- Mohcann(i992}, orFrankMarshall's Congo(1995)
Robert Gardner, and Timothy Aschwere often labeled "obsrrv.il i o u . i l , , , , I i i i n i i - , upd.iicol King Kongand science fiction epics like George Lucas's
erna." This cinema, characterized by a restrained stylr thr usr ni Inu, /i 1^', iinn <> llic /i'di ( l y t f } ) , with its representation of the "Ewok" tribes-
takes, slow pacing, seamless editing, and often synchronizrd souml u i,, HH u <!' pr.i< H u , hrowii crea tu res, continu to rcinforcc established concep-
tliMi'i ni i lie li Imographic.
however, a troubling form of "obscrvation." With thr prrsrnrr o
VV.iiil ( I I I I H I n l l rxplain.s tln 1 dillcrcnccs aiul thr s i i n i l a r i t i e s that a recent
198 Conclusin
Conclusin 199
film like Dances wth Wolves shares with earlier Hollywood representa-
Josephine Baker and the Stereotype of the
tions of Native Americans: Ethnographic Primitive
Stripped of its pretty pictures and progressive flourishes in directions
and affirmative action hiring, Dances With Wolves is by no means a Josephine Baker, the great music hall star of the 19203 and 19305, is decried
movie about Indians. Instead, it is at base an elaboration of movieland's by some as an agent of minstrelsy and a toady to whites, by others as a black
Great White Hunter theme. . . . hcroine and the first modern international black star.15 Because of the hy-
If Kevin Costner or anyone else in Hollywood held an honest inclina- hridity of the stereotyped images she embodied, both spectacular Primitive
tion to make a movie which would alter public perceptions of Native and fashionable French star, the figure of Baker is susceptible to disparate
America in some meaningful way, it would, first and foremost, be set in mterpretations. Born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, to a poor family, Jose-
the present day, not in the mid-igth century. It would feature, front phine Baker moved to Paris in 1925 and soon became a focal point for the
and center, the real struggles of living native people to librate them- l'icnch fascination for the black, colonial female body, jazz, andl'artnegre.
selves from the oppression which has beset them in the contemporary When Baker debuted in Pars, she was portrayed as monstrous. In her auto-
era, not the adventures of some fictional non-Indian out to save the lnography, Baker cites an astonishing review of one of her performances:
savage.13 Woman or man? Her lips are painted black, her skin is the color of ba-
What is at stake, asserts Churchill, is the obscuring of pressing Native nanas, her cropped hair sticks to her head like caviar, her voice squeaks.
American problems such as the expropriation of water rights and mineral s, She is in constant motion, her body writhing like a snake or more
involuntary sterilization, and FBI repression of Indian activism, in favor o l a precisely like a dipping saxophone. Music seems to pour from her body.
romanticized and thus pernicious myth.14 The cotinued proliferation o She grimaces, crosses her eyes, puffs out her cheeks, wiggles disjoint-
images of indigenous peoples as spatially and temporally distant, howevri, edly, does a split and finally crawls off the stage stiff-legged, her rump
sustains a dcnial of the history of native peoples' struggles against col higher than her head, like a young giraffe. . . . This is no woman, no
dancer. It's dominant
nialization and genocide, and their ongoing struggles for cultural idcni n \t the forces of an image-hungry somethingculture
as exotic and sees
which elusive as music,
them ai the embodiment
o all the sounds we know. . . . And now the finale, a wildly indecent
always already dead. dance which takes us back to primeval times... arms high, belly thrust
Before I conclude my book, I want to turn my attention to two conten|< lorward, buttocks quivering, Josephine is stark naked except for a ring
raries of Flaherty, Cooper, and Schoedsack who worked within dominanl i )l hl ue and red feathers circling her hips and another around her neck. l6
Western media and academic institutions and yet have been almost r u i n Miil'ci was thus made by the media into an "ethnographic" spectacle, a
pletely ignored in the history of cinema's relationship to anthropoloK) niitii'.itT, neither man or woman, neither human or animal.
Josephine Baker was a popular performer whose stage and screen ida u u \s based upon a spectacularization
l'l.ucd in a contradictory of the collapse of theBaker
position, Primitive i n i u that
believed 11 >. she was making
m i nli". lor African Americans as a black star in a white entertainment
Modern,- Zora Neale Hurston was an anthropologist who studied liri n n vvm lil, rvi-n as she understood that Euro-American culture constructed her
community of originthe African American Southand in so doinr. \ ' " ii'i ' i n i i l i i n g hut a body to be exhibited in varous stages of undress."17 The
lated the boundaries between Observer/Observed. In their very posil u mi ti* j tiii n i . i l i o n in ethnographic cinema for the displayed body of the woman of
women of color moving in and out of white-dominated fieldsin Jo.srpl i nli u r. icndc-redcarnivalesquein Baker's shows. For Baker was not only the
Baker's case, the entertainment business, and in Zora Neale Hursion'-. i r ' >l ni i he "black woman," but of all colonized women, and she per-
anthropology and folkloreBaker and Hurston embody the very po . < il ni .iris which represented her as Inuit, Indochinese, African, Arab,
ness of such dichotomies and reveal their limits. In their c u l i u u l | > i u ihlu'an:'* . l s
ductions, they upset the categories of Ethnographic/ Histrica I, l'i mi u n .
Modern to the extent they mobilizc the t h i r d eyc in rcspondinv, i" ''" /V..MII .nul again we rehcaiscd a lamboyant numher about the French
racialization processcs o Ethnographic cinema. 1 1 ilun i es, w h i c h included Algcrian di uns, l u d a n he lis, tom-toms from
M.iil.ij',.is( .n, rocomils (rom (hr Congo, cha chas Irom (uadeloupe, a
2oo Conclusin
number laid in Marinique during which I distributed sugar cae to the
audience, Indochinese gongs, Arab dances, camels and finally my ap-
pearance as the Empress of Jazz.19
If Baker was trapped by Ethnographic spectacle, her ame never enabling her
to escape the roles she was consigned to play in a story scripted by white
society, she was acutely aware of her predicament and responded to it. As
Baker commented, "Since I personified the savage on the stage, I tried to be
as civilized as possible in daily life."20
Ironically, although Baker was admired not only for her "primitive" per
sona, but for her elegance of manner and hyperfeminine style, on a par witli
Mae West and Marlene Dietrich, these same characteristics led to whai
many saw as an intolerable hybridity. Reviewer Janet Flanner, for examplc,
deplored Baker's transformation into "almost... a little lady":
Her caramel-colored body, which overnight became a legend in Euro pe,
is still magnificent, but it has become thinned, trained, almost c i v i
lized. Her voice, especially in the voo-deo-do's, is still a magic ute 111. \
hasn't yet heard of Mozartthough even that, one fears, will conn- m
time. There is a rumor that she wants to sing refined ballads; one i s . u i
prised that she doesn't want to play Othello. On that lovely animal v i - .
age lies now a sad look, not of captivity, but of dawning intelligence '
The figure of the Ethnographic is thus imposed again: Flanner reads Ba k > t i
an innocent Savage falling from grace to become a decadent half-Civih i
monster, a sister to the "racial film" heroines Reri, Dasnee, Fayaway
In Baker's first sound film, Marc Allegret's Zou Zou (1932), the
pans a circus scene of performers and spectators, halting backstage tu
ture the sight of a few Frenchboys spying through a window at a lil.n I
powdering her face. The girl is Zou Zou, a circus act, whose stage
a white boy named Jean. From the outset, the spectacle of racial and .
fcnll I I I H I I /.on '/.on (1932), dir. Marc Allcgret.
difference is highlighted, providing voyeuristic pleasure, and si-ii
lilil '\I i l n - M i i . s c u m of Modcrn Art)
stage for a versin of Haraway's "entertainment of violated bomnl.ii n
If Zou Zou is a sister to a white boy, she is also the object o aj1,)1,"'
for, as a black woman, she is a threat which must be control led and i.m ||i ((-i < - . ! i lie exotic, black, female performer. At the end of the film,
figure appropriate for the stage but not as marriage partncr I o i l n f l l l ' i i ' l ' i n l>v Jcan's choice of Claire, she sobs as she walks past poster
French boy ]ean. Although Zou Zou grows up to become a grca i m u Hft u "I IH r.rll as icn Zou Zou. At the film's end, there is a flashback of
star, she falls secretly in love with Jean (played as an aduli hy |r.m ' i in .1 i n n s K hall performance asa feathered bird in agoldencage.
only to discover that Jean has instead fallen for her blonde I u-m U I iipon l ' i . m t z Fanon's analyses of the psychic economy of race in
tellingly named Claire (Yvette Lebon). Zou '/ou's proper plac- i-, i l n U n I I 7 u / c M/,V/<\ I lomi M h a b h a has explored the stereotype as an
where we first saw her, where slie can orcvci si-i vi- UtheobjCCl < > l M!I MI i n d i - r i l h y h i id iniag'. As I lomi Hhahha argues,
2O2 Conclusin Conclusin 203
Stereotyping is not the setting up of a false image which becomes the Baker also embodied what critic Michele Wallace calis the postmod-
scapegoat of discriminatory practices. It is a much more ambivalent ern "negative scene of instruction" between African American and Euro-
text of projection and introjection, metaphoric and metonymic strat- American art. Wallace defines the negative scene of instruction as one in
egies, displacement, overdetermination, guilt, aggressivity; the mask- which "the exchange is disavowed and disallowedno one admits to having
ing and splitting of "official" and fantasmatic knowledges to construct learned anything from anyone else."25 The reluctance of Euro-American
the positionalities and oppositionalities of racist discourse.22 critics to acknowledge the contribution to world culture and to Euro-
American art itself of African American and other artistic traditions stem-
The obvious fabrication of Zou Zou into a sign of the Primitivethe posters niing from non-Western sources also betrays cultural anxiety. A desire to
which render Zou Zou into a stereotyped symbol of black female sexuality, rontain this anxiety manifests itself in the stereotype of the Primitive/
Zou Zou's theatrical presentation as both exotic bird and elegant star I l hnographic as mute and inferior counterpoint to the Modern. According
underline Bhabha's assertion that lo lhe logic identified by Wallace, there can be no dialogue because, by
the recognition and disavowal of "difference" is always disturbed by 11 u Irlinition, the Ethnographic is constructed as lacking fully developed
Niihjcctivity.
question of its re-presentation or construction. The stereotype is, m
fact, an impossible object. Por that very reason, the exertions of t l u II Baker was not able to escape her predicamcnt, her awareness of it and
"official knowledges" of colonialismpseudo-scientific, typologir.il, ( I i r lincsse and exuberant parody of her theatrical performance allowed her
legal-administrative, eugenicistare imbricated at the point of i l u - n til lunes to transcend the gilded cage of her situation. In Baker's filmed
production of meaning and power with the f antasy that dramatizcs 11 u |in li u manee, there are gaps and disruptions. At times, like many great Afri-
impossible desire for a pur, undifferentiated origin.23 uiii American performers such as singer and actor Paul Robeson, Baker
mmis lo rise above the stereotyped roles she was given, in herportrayal of
The character Zou Zou is thus flattened into a sign, much as Bakei w.i. /un /oii, or Aouina the goat herder in Prncess Tam Tam (1935). Although
made into an icn for the Frenen "primitive," an object of projection . u n MI i.ili.-cd as a sign of the Primitive, contained by a discourse which could
repudiation. In one of her music hall acts, Zou Zou sings "Hait," :\| n u l v i rail her as Ethnographic spectacle, Baker in her extraordinary use of
which denies Zou Zou's status as a postcolonial subject, as a U.S. l> Hiii'ii|iiei.ideappears to be winkingat the viewer.
woman of color living in Paris, for it is a song about her desire to re 111 n U
see the blue skies of her distant "homeland." In other words, e ven .1 H
viewer is meant to sympathize with the "caged" Zou Zou, shc is In m, \h i ',11 ', l't-rspective: Zora Neale Hurston
categorized and labeled according to Ethnographic convention. 1 n 11 u \\ i I 'i 1111111 ve was a stereotype consigned not only to black performers like
she can only serve as what Bhabha calis a visible fetish of racism .1 n i n i < i i l u ) .ilso to scholars and artists of color. Born in Eatonville, Florida,
in Fanon's color-coded epidemial schema of skin color. In this way, I' 'I > n ) o i , lilmmaker, writer, and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston was one
own hybrid status as a black star in white society is containcd. i llh l l r . i Al i can Americans toreceive aB.A. from Barnard College. Hurs-
According to renowned theater director Max Reinhardt, a man cen i il i" lin n , n i m ontaged by Franz Boas, then the department Head of Anthropol-
the dazzling Berln theater scene, Baker "personified ExprcssioniMn 1 1 .11 ll.n n.mi, lo collcct folklore in the South. As par of her research,
poet Erich Mara Remarque told Baker that she "brought a w l u l l ni ri> M i l u m.ule f i l m s in 1928 and 1929 of children's games, dancing, a bap-
air and an elemental strength and beauty to the tired showpl.u r ni \v. !
.iml .u n v i i i e s in a loggingcamp, and in 1940 of activities in Beaufort,
ern Civilization."24 This perception of Baker as antidote to t l u . i l i (filil i . u i i l m a , including road scenes, dock scenes, landscape, the activi-
of European society, together with the "Savage" connotalioir. w l m i > n |n| l , i i i n wniker.s, prison laborers, and, most importantly, the activities
Baker herself was aware, accompanied sueh praisc, h c a u t i l n l l v > H '< Iflli i i i m m . i n d i n e n ! Kccpcr Church, a local African American church. As
Bhabha's point that the colonial stereotype, which is ncccss.mK iu4| l l t l i l o i l lirlow, a l i h o u g h par o Boas's attraction to Hurston was as a
tUtnSODboth recognition ("they are jusl l i k e ns") aiul a disavovv.il ni l i i h i n i i u leu i" .111 insidei e t h n o g i a p h e i w h o i x u i l d pro vi de data (Boas did
ence ("they are moral and biological degener.it es"). I M i n i r . l v i ni oiii.ige llurston to consider a e.neri ;is .1 piofcssor), and
2O4 Conclusin
although her films served as a form of vicarious cultural tourism for hei
Concli
patrn Mrs. Charlotte Osgood Masn, Hurston's anthropology broke w i t l i
Ethnographic convention in complex ways.
Hurston referred to Boas as "the greatest anthropologist alive" and praisol
his "insatiable hunger for knowledge." Boas, Hurston wrote, was a man
characterized by "[a] genius for pur objectivity. He has no pet wishcs l u
prove. His instructions are to go out and find what is there."26 This stancc-1 il
objectivity, the mpetus to observe cultural practice as if from a dista i ice.
Hurston would later write, was what she had gained from her anthropologj
cal studies. In her book on African American southern folklore, Mul* <m,l
Men (1935), Hurston explains how she became attracted to the discipline
"It was only when I was off in college, away from my native surroumlimv,
that I could see myself like somebody else and stand off and look at m v
garment. Then I had to have the spy-glass of Anthropology to look thronv.li
at that."27 The "spy-glass of Anthropology," as Hurston so cogently pin n
had traditionally been reserved for the white anthropologist, the w l n i i
acholar who believed in the objective, descriptive recording of so-c.illi il
"vanishing" peoples. Not surprisingly, Hurston herself was not innocr I
objectifying the people she studied as Ethnographic. As Hazel V. Carhv liii* s
observed, Hurston romanticized the "black folk," in order to preserve m
(ii '.nll liom Zora Neae Hurston's films 0/1928-29.
aesthetically purified versin of blackness," a romanticization of blac ! m >
j| i M i i n - . v <>l Lucy Ann Hurston and theLibrary of CongressJ
ciety that was seen by critics such as Richard Wright as a continuanrr i >l i In
stereotypes of minstrelsy.28 Even as she was in part caught up in i l u I i l i
nographic romanticization of the period, however, Hurston also bioki I n m i
(toii i v n n i c i i on the porch, to an extreme long shot of the garden with the
that romanticization in significant ways.
i ||iiM'<i ' . n i ilie background, followed by a shot of the young woman lying
In one sense, Hurston's short, unedited research films of 1928 ?,< ni \ I H I |n|tiliiii|iir si y le facing the camera on the porch, concludingwithalow-angle
can Americans from the South indeed appear to be within the P O M I M i-.i
||iiii u/ .1 woinan's feet rocking on the porch next to the paws of a cat. In
scientific tradition begun by Regnault and carried on by Boas and Mi > !
I {Mili i -ilii (.;, i wo women are seen on the porch, and the camera is obviously
Much of her footage seems to have been conceived as scientific s . i n i | i l i M | i
ll^iiiMini; / n u i l hehinda tree, from thepositionof voyeur (or,perhaps, neigh-
for Boas. Boas's interests in "isolable actions" are reflected, for c x . i m i ' l ' m llMl! I I , I M u - 1 "liarnov has brillantly explained how Hurston, in what seems
Hurston's footage of children playing: they are made into "typc-s," l i " M m n
ilii ,il . i i i c i u p to cali attention to the fetishizing and the voyeuristic
uppieces of paper with their ages, filingpast the camera frontal I v . u n i l i .
iM."I ,Ai l>/. i vilu camera, antcpates the self-refexive, deconstruction tech-
. i 1I )eren.'"
in profile. Yet at one point there is a marked disruption from i l n M . . m . . i l
iconography of Ethnographic inscription, a certain knowing p l a v l n l n . A
' ||iii"inM'. i i w n u.se of the "spy-glass of Anthropology" was a constant
young, barefoot African American woman emerges from a hon-.c i ||ii i > n< nr,i;nii.-i(ion. Hurston was perceived by Masn as a sweet, un-
front porch and walks toward the camera. She smiles at the c.mn MI !>
|Hl(''' I' 1 m u i ve:: on Hua.s's advice, Hurston had sought Mason's financia!
turns her head left, and then right. It is clearhere that, despitc i l u I m ! \ u '((lilil i MI i l i . i l slie coukl pursue a I'h.D. in anthropology at Columbia
betrayed by the woman's smile, the woman is meant to he poi n.m il 44 V
U V I - I I I M ( m i M.i.son coltIJy refused, apparently beJieving that Hurston
type: Hurston uses the poses typical of anthropometry. Hu i l n - n i l n <>(
||il In i n i i i c i l hv loo iiiii'h cclucalion. Sidestepping t h i s obstacle, Hurston
shots take on an experimental q u a l i t y , (he camera c u t t i n i ' , l i o m i l i - t <4
i l i n i I C . M C lici ( i w n f i c M w u i k iiu'iliodology, borrowingfrom icachcrs
M.I-. I n 11 i el i isi ni; (o < m i l i nc hciscll lo l l i c di v ohse v.il lon.il modc / 1 > -
ao6 Conclusin
Malinowski and Boas espoused. At one point during her 1928 research trip, Conclusin 207
for example, Hurston even posed as a Jacksonville bootlegger's woman on ni ent Keeper Church, whose African American congregation often fell into
the run.31 During her hoodoo research of 1928 in New Orleans she lay fot trance, "testifying" to their spiritual visions and speaking in tongues.38
sixty-nine hours nude without food or water in order to become a novitiatc I lurston again saw these forms of religious ecstasy as stemming from Afri-
can religions. She wrote:
of Samuel Thompson, a Crele conjurer.32 Unlike Mead, who approachcc!
her subjects from the outside and pursued what she saw as a rigorous scien
This church seems to be a protest against the stereotype form of Meth-
tifie agenda, associating Balinese trance, for example, with schizophreni.i,
odist and Baptist churches among Negroes. It is a revolt against the
Hurston was not willing to scientifically analyze her own psychic expe i
white man's view of religin which has been so generally accepted by
enees due to what her biographer Robert E. Hemenway describes as "Hus
ton's awareness of the spiritual possibilities in the hoodoo experience . 'ormhirate
the Negro, and is therefore a versin [sic] to the more African
of expression.
her belief in the magic."33 Instead of participant observation, Hurston''.
Its keynote is rhythm. In this church they have two guitars, three
methods may be characterized as observing participation.
symbols [sic], two tambourines, one pair of rattle gourds, and two wash-
During the late 19208, Hurston became interested in new forms of c i l i
boards. Every song is rhythmic as are their prayers and their sermons.39
nographic cultural production. At the time that she made her 1928-29 f i l
she began to collaborate with Langston Hughes on a black opera, Wli.n makes these films unlike any other ethnographic research film of its
seen first-hand the popularity of Hughes's poems with the people she si n < l , liliiil is that Hurston herself appears in them as a participating worshipper,
ied in the South.34 Hurston's goal, one that emerged from living w i t h . u n H l f l i n playing music or walking among the congregation. In one scene in
participating in the culture of the people she studied, was to show thc wi M M ' llic, Imtch, among the worshippers playing musical instrumentsis Hurston
the great originality of southern black culture, a culture which had i i s i |il.ivm; drums while a congregation member, Julia Jones, goes first into
in African cultures. Instead of salvage ethnography, seeking to d o c i i i i n m <H tii-.v, t lien into trance as she proclaims prophecies.40 In another scene in
and preserve evidence of an ostensibly dying culture, Hurston in l u n Hflid, h .1 religious service is held outdoors on a river bank, the congregation
search, writings, theatrical productions, andfilmswasportrayingbl.il I ni tllm'i .md plays various instruments, and the preacher eventually passes a
ture as a living culture, one marked by continual, dynamic transft >i / / . 11 > " > IJWM11 w 11 i t e male onlookers. Hurston is again arnong the worshippers, play-
As she explained, "Negro folklore is still in the making. A new ! u n i< ? |lOi i l n di uns. At one point she appears to push a woman smger closer to
crowding out the od."35 lti- mi. lophone. Hurston is both drecting the action and takingpart in it.
In 1935 Hurston told an interviewer: "I needed my Barnard edm .u n m '" i i M v e , diis particular section of the footage reveis Hurston's great
help me see my people as they really are. But Ifound that it did nui J I" 'iH u, ,-, o ihe politics of spectatorship: in the scenes of the service on the
too detached as I stepped aside to study them. Ihadtogoback, diev. i i i > M i lie Kevcrend George Washington is represented as beingfully in com-
did, talk as they did, live their life, so that I could get into my -,i i u n 1 1 - - iMl u! .m impassioned congregation, but when the footage cuts to the
world I knew as a child."36 In April and May of 1940, Hurslon m ni' i > - u'Hi,; w l i n e male onlookers he becomes merely a hand passing a hat.
second set of films of activities in Beaufort, South Carolina. 'IIu-. M i I > i i i i c i i . i m m c n t valu of black spirituality to white onlookers is fore-
of footage includes road scenes, dock scenes, landscapes, thc .u 1 1 \ i. t tnin>li il hcic in a manncr that is unthinkable in Boas's or Mead's ethno-
farm workers, and prison laborers, and, most importantly, i l n i. n > m |*liii I l l m s , revcaling again Hurston's third eye sensiblity to Subject and
||l i I i l i m M r conscioLisness.
of the Commandment Keeper Church. The church, a Sevenih I > . > \ i " > . M
of God, was a local African American Baptist church w i t h .1 < > m i < > <>< -H i ''" ''Y l heme he re is that of living culture, of active tmnsfozma-
of sixteen. These 1940 films were financed by Jane Helo, an .mi Im r- 1 ' '' l l m M u n nsi-il film not only to crate a histrica! record, but also as a
who had studied trance in Bali during the time of Margatci M. i.l l < m ih ll In ( . . n i c i p a i c in and t r a n s m i t to othcrs the ongoing artistry of the
films reveal a new direction away from the F.thnographic m . i H I - H . H , ,4 |)li \l world i > l black c u l t u r e in which Hurston was involved. These
Hurston's films from the late u;2os. il/ Two camera opcialor. . u n i mii| l||i i m i l i i . i n s i l ion aiul process, henee I lurston's great interest in trance
person were hired by Helo to iloeument thc a c t i v i t i e s o i h < ' . . m i n i m l P l t i i t i l ' l i o i i h . n I I l u s i n nsc-sm her writings is the transformation from
|IH- i" , i ' l n l I l i i i s l o n ilrscnhcs how w h i t e h v m i i s simu bv Hl-i.-'" '-
ao8 Conclusin
come "a sort of liquifying of words."41 She explains the role of the preacher Conclusin 209
in these terms: Underlying t all, however, is Hurston's newfound embrace of black spir-
/ ituality, one which could never be fully recorded or expressed in words. In
The voice of the people is truly the voice of God, but it is necessary that
' writing about the Commandment Keeper Church, Hurston uses the image
some unusual man shall arise and pronounce the things strongly felt by
of the
She limbs of a tree to underline the mystery of the church's spirituality.
wrtes:
his people but vaguely spoken. He acts as a sort of catalyser. From
gaseous to solid. After this stage has been reached, the religin grows by
accretion. Things come into it from various sources and become insep The unanimous prayer is one in which every member of the church
arably a part of it.42 prays at the same time but prays his own prayer aloud, which consists of
exotic sentences, liquefied by intermittent chanting so that the words
As Hurston wrote, "the church is the visualizing of emotions."43 Ail
are partly submerged in the flowing rising and falling chant. The form of
thus Hurston 's filming of trance, the movement from consciousness to t i u
prayer is like the limbs of a tree, glimpsed now and then through the
speaking in tongues, the jerks and the spasms, is connected to her beliel m
smothered leaves. It is a thing of wondrous beauty, drenched in har-
black culture as not dying but as an ever-emerging and dynamic cultutv, .1 mony and rhythm.47
culture in which she readily took part.
In 1935, Hurston described to the folklorist Alan Lomax her techniqu < >l In the 19408 footage, there is a beautiful shot of Spansh moss and tree
collecting songs. She states: Iraves reflectingin the water. Hurston stands in three-quarterprofile while
<ii her left are the great twisting branches and wisteria for which the Beau-
I just get in the crowd with the people and if they sing it I listen as br-.i I
li u i landscape is so famous. She turns her head slightly, her eyebrows raised,
can and then I start to joinin' in with a phrase or two and then fina 11 \
N i n i l i n g enigmatically: her glance among the trees is a third bemused eye
get so I can sing a verse. And then I keep on until I learn all the vrr.i in knowledging the spectacle of the camera.48
and then I sing 'em back to the people until they tell me that I can -.u
l'liere is thus a tensin in Hurston's work, one which I believe reveis an
'em just like them. And then I take part and I try it out on dilcn m
t i l n native space withn which to begn to understand an important aspect
people who already know the song until they are quite satisfice! i h.n l
ni Aliican American culture. Part of Hurston's dilemma was that she was
know it. Then I carry it in my memory. . . . I learn the song myscll . u n
Iniri-d to picase many different audiences: the African American commu-
then I can take it with me wherever I go.44
n i i v ni the Harlem Renaissance,- the scientific audience of "Papa Franz"
Hereagain, it is clear that Hurston is engaged in much more than < > | > M - I * i Mi i.is who wanted anthropological, so-called "objective," data,- her mercurial
tion and documentationshe learns the song so that she "can take n \ li H-lnic linancial patrn, Masn,- and the community that produced her
[her] wherever [she goes]." In a letter to Belo dated May 2, 1940, hmvi \ i I i t t u n v i l l c , Floridathe site of much of her research. This multiplicity of
Hurston wrote that the congrega tion members of the church "are 11 < > i i . 11 m, rtinlit nccs is evident in her writings, both literary and anthropological, and
to it any too kindly" that "white men" were to come in and makc .1 l i l m "i In lin lilms. One of the strategies for establishing Ethnographic authen-
them.45 Soundperson Norman Chalfin explained later that the ( l u u I ili ii v is lo write in the "ethnographic present," describing the people stud-
ment Keeper Church resisted being filmed because of their religin. pin lul ni h i a l person, present tense. Hurston begins the following excerpt
hibition against graven images: Hurston convinced the church i h . n li MI 11 lin si ndy of southern African American folklore Mules and Men in the
film had 110 contouritwas not graven.46 One could spcculatc t ha i l > v i i l ,, i i h i n i j ; i a p h i c present," present tense, but then shifts and subverts the ex-
part in the film she was trying to make the congregation membcis I r < 1 1 , , . . , , ti MU! v.intai;e point by using the pronoun "we":
comfortable about the cameras. But Hurston's participation givi. i In Mu.
I ol|< loa- is not as easy to collect as it sounds. The best sourceis where
an intimacy missing from many cthnographic films. Once agam, n n l i l ni
l i m e .ni- l he leas! ontscle inlnences and these people, being usually
standard anthropological films of the period such as Mcail's 'l'nin, . '
i n i i l c i p i i v i l c g c i l are the shyesl. They are most reluctant at times to
Dance in Rali, Hurston is not prcscnt in the film as the ligme o i l n . "'
n vr.il l l i . i t w h i c h ( h e sonI lives by. Ail t h e Negro, in spite of his opcn-
bling anthropologist, QOtebook in hand, bul as both viewer and v i r w . .1
l,n rd l.nn;hfiT, his srrming acquiescence, is pai l i r n l . i r l y i-vasive. Yon
2io Conclusin
Conclusin 211
see we are a polite people and we do not say to our questioner, "Get out
erybody knows all about them. They are lay figures mounted in the
of here!" We smile and tell him or her something that satisfies the
museum where all may take them at a glance. They are made of bent
white person, because, knowing so little about us, he doesn't know
wires without insides at all. So how could anybody write a book about
what he is missing.49 the non-existent?51
In this incredible shift from "they" to "we," Hurston dramatically
From her perspective as both Viewer and Viewed, Subject and Object, at-
switches from the voice of the anthropologist speaking to a white Western
tracted to yet aware of the perverse history of anthropological "objectivity,"
audience to the voice of her African American cultural identity: You see we
Hurston was able to use her training for novel and experimental ends. In the
are a polite people and we do not say to our questioner, "Get out of here!"
concluding paragraphs of Mules and Men, Hurston recounts the tale of Sis
Hurston is alternately insider and outsider, subject and object. As she ex-
Cat and de Rat. Rat manages to escape Sis Cat a first time by chiding Sis
plains, her book is about the recording of all those "big od lies" which she
Cat's lack of manners in not having washed her face and hands prior to
and the rest of the black community grew up listening to in Eatonville.
cating, but is thwarted by the wily Sis Cat when he tries to use the trick a
Hurston's work thus not only anticipates Deren, it is a direct precursor of
second time. Hurston narrates Sis Cat's response the second time around:
the movement toward self-reflexivity that one begins to see in academic
anthropology in the late 19705. Hurston's work, moreover, is pioneering in "Oh, Ah got plenty manners," de cat told 'im. "But Ah eats mah dinner
another sense: Hurston created new forms of communicating what she and washes mah face and uses mah manners afterwards." So she et right
learned from her experiences with the communities that she studied. She on 'im and washed her face and hands. And cat's been washin' after
put her anthropological knowledge to work in a wide array of cultural pro- eatin' ever since.
ductions, including novis, children's tales, essays, and theatrical produc- I'm sitting here like Sis Cat, washing my face and usin' my manners.52-
tions. In this regard, Hurston is similar to Katherine Dunham, pioneerinj;
I lurston's daring ending to her study, shifting from the position of anthro-
African American choreographer, teacher, and anthropologist (Dunham
pologist/folklorist to that of Sis Cat, a character who learns to get what she
studied at the University of Chicago under Boas's student Melville Herskc >
wants in a story told by one of her informants, is radical: like the camera
vits), who shot ethnographic film (Dunham's films were of Afro-Caribbean
nhot in which the camera is right up next to the paws of the cat on a porch,
dance), but excelled by applying her knowledge in her dance and choreog ,i
I lurston breaks with both the anthropological and the ethnographic film
phy.50 Instead of upholding the tradition of Boas and Mead in which t i u i i.iilition of being the cool, distanced, observing, scentific eye.
ultmate objective of the anthropological encounter is the written cih
nography, a book intended for academic discourse, Hurston and Dunham
posed radical forms for ethnography, producing works which transgress i In i .i/il'hing the Camera/Facing the Camera:
liiiii^e Sovereignty
boundaries between academic objectivity and subjective insight.
These new forms are within the realm of what I cali the third eye. Evm .1 I iiin me of them, and I am their daughter. Helen Nabasuta Mugambi,
Hurston championed Boas's attempts at objectivity, she was extraordi n.m I \e of anthropology's
mi IKT powerful propensity
rclationship to temporalize
to the Baganda andshemakr
women that i-vi53 >
fllmed
lutionary specimens of the peoples being studied. In her essay " Wha t WI m. In i he late 19605, Sol Worth and John Adair conducted an anthropological
Publishers Won't Print," she decries the racialization processes at woi ! m i H|n-iiuient: they gave film cameras to a few Navajo youths to see if what
museums like the American Museum of Natural History: i l i r v lilmed would reflect an animist sensibility. The assumption was that
l l i r Navajo had little knowledge of Hollywood film language, and an anal-
The question naturally arises as to the why of this indifference, un i"
V'H'. o i he kinds of film they chose to makeand the ways theyframed their
say scepticism, to the internal lifc of educated minorities.
lin.if.fs wonlcl rcvcal something of the cultural lens through which they per-
The answer lies in what we may cali THE AMERICAN M U S I U M MI
i rivcd l l i c worlil. Worth and Adair's entireproject was premisedon Western
UNNATURAL HISTORY. This i s an intangible b n i l t on lolk bclirl li >
I l l i n i onvi'iitionsas (lie normal, a standard against which Navajo deviations
assumcd that all non Anglo-Saxons are uncomplicated slcrentyprs I v
i u n i d IH- miMsurcd. The book t h a t Worth and A d a i r wrole, Through Navajo
i
212 Conclusin
Conclusin 213
Eyes, is ascinating for what it reveis about anthropological assumptions of body, defeating the expectations of the viewer accustomed to ethnographic
"proper" ethnographic filmmaking. At one point in the project, as the book film. The expected full-body shot never materializes. In another scene, a
relates, Sol Worth became so irritated by the way that Maryjane Tsosie was row of Hopi adults and children till the land in extreme long shot: we are not
filming her grandfather Sam Yazzie as he engaged in sand painting that allowed to see their bodies up cise. And in the final dance sequences by
Worth grabbed the camera away from her. She had not chosen to go in for a Hopis in Native costume as well as in jeans and platform sandals, we are
close-up. introduced to the dancers by shots of their heads or their feet, a reticence
That Tsosie had refused to use that essential form of classical film gram- which denies the audience the sense of visual power inherent in seeing and
marthe close-upreveis not only the great respect which she held for her consuming everything. Thus the wholisticcultural anthropology's tradi-
grandfather as an eider and an important spiritual leader in her community, tional thirst for studying whole culturesand the holisticthe New Age
but perhaps also her discomfort imposed by a historical divide. As a chikl, lascination with Native ceremonial ritualsare obfuscated in a clever and
Tsosie, like many other young Native Americans in the United States, had yct moving rendering of Hopi history.
been sent to boarding schools in a measure promoted by the U.S. govern I'art of the history Masayesva is evoking here is the history of the repre-
ment in order that Native Americans would forget their own language and entation of Hopi as racialized, ethnographic bodies. Masayesva, like other
assimilate into white society.54 The violence of the gesturethe anthropol Native filmmakers and video-makers including Dean Curtis Bear Claw,
ogist Worth seizing the camera from Maryjane Tsosieis an apt metaphoi hile! Moreno, Diane Reyna, and Edward Ladd, does not so much repudate
for the control the West has long sought to exercise over the representa!ion iis i econtextualize archival photography, reclaiming his own histories from
of indigenous peoples in the pursuit of "science." I he museum's deep freeze of Native Americans as metonyms of a "timeless
Tsosie's reticence to enter too closely into her grandfather's "space" m u jiisi." 56 Yet Masayesva does not deny the ability of photography to give
rors as well a restraint that many contemporary indigenous filmmakers lee! Ic'.i nnony to the past. As he explained, "I wouldn't know my grandfather if
toward revealing certain aspects of their culture. The definition of wli.ii r. ni ti lor photography, because I never met him and I saw him in [a photo-
photographable is often in variance with the standards of the anthropologlll Hiiipli of a Snake Dance. So that's how I've met him." Film is not just a
and the filmmaker. Hopi filmmaker Vctor Masayesva Jr. says it succiiu i 1 \g from photographing certain
I H C . I I ivist subjects
record of thehas become
world but aaspiritual
kind o w< u
intervention with one's ances-
tni 1 ., what Masayesva describes as a Ghost Dance, a means to exorcise the
ship."55 Masayesva's statement would appear to tread dangerously cKr.< i . > ilr 11 u n is of colonialism and communicate with the beloved dead and the yet
censorship, violating one of thebasic tenets of Western democracy: t l u i \\ In I ir liorn. S 7
health of a state can be gauged by the degree to which it tolrales i l u l i . I he i h i r d eye turns on a recognition: the Other perceives the veil, the
flow of information, both textual and visual. The conviction that ;ill i" >< I I M M i-ss o being visualized as an object, but returns the glance. The gesture
pie should have the liberty to appropriate and disseminate informal ni I u i i i j r , Irozen into a picturesque is deflected. In a circulating economy of
widely viewed as pertaining as much to the right of academicians su. \ ti iiif. a i u l representation, there are moments in early ethnographic cinema
anthropologists andhistorians to publish data on the pcople and evenl . i Iml W l i d l i h a l l the flow of the evolutionary narrative: the Historical collapses
they study as it does to the media journalist's right to expose corrupi | > .lu M i l i ' i l i f l'ihnographic, the Savage parodies the Civilized.
cians. In stark contrast, the importance of not photographing e e i i . i m I In '.i i.itegies that Masayesva calis into playopen resistance, recontex-
jects, whether profane or sacred, is a central theme in the w o r k s o i iH'ih .ii ion o| archival images, parody, and even refraining from represent-
indigenous filmmakers. |li(i i i 1 1 . u n subjectsrecall instances of the third eye that I have examined
Masayesva's new and often sly forms of film language in his woi|. Mil i ni); I i i h i s book. Open resistance, as we have seen, is one mode of the
cerning the Hopi vividly demnstrate the complcx potential o t h r . 11 i l ' y S o m e t i m e s resistance is direct, as in the testimony of the Inuit
In one particularly fascinating section of his video Itaiu ll<iknn tli M i n i k Wall.ice who embarkcd on a publicity campaign to forc the
(1985), Masayesva scans turn-of-the-century photographs o I lop < I . M I < ni .111 M i i s e u m o N a t u r a l I listory ( h i s ormer "home") to return his
sometimes settling briefly on certain secons o the sepia lom .1 | < l > , lilil n I u he i '. liones. ( ) i , to t a k e a n o t h e i ex ampie, at t h e i 404 St. Louis Fair,
graphs: the filmmaker reluses o is u n i n t e r e s t e d in revea!mi'. Id ni'..i . u n o t h e i A l r i c a n performers chan;ed at a photographer for plio-
214 Conclusin
Conclusin 215
tory and memory. Looking at early photography and film is to acknowledge
one'spresent
the in the past, a means, to paraphrase Masayesva, of "meeting"
ancestors.
Sometimes the third eye winks at us. Parody is present in the spectacular
performances of Josephine Baker, singing in her limsy golden cage mas-
querade. See me as a Primitive, if you want to, butnoticehowridiculousmy
cage and my image are, Baker seems to say as she pushes her Mae West-like
mink stole over her shoulder. The carnivalesque is pushed to another level
in the cage of Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gmez-Pea, who demand that
the contemporary audience confront the history of "exhibting" humans for
lthnographic titillation.
Although some artists and writers ignore Ethnographic conventions en-
l i rely, as James Baldwin's comments quoted at the beginning of this chapter
powerfully demnstrate, the Ethnographic imagination is still pervasive,
.mil thus many other people of color engage such conventions head-on or
rnier into indirect, but complex mediations wth them. Finally, then, I
li.i ve drawn from examples from contemporary film and art, examining the
50. Still from Itam Hakim, Hopiit (1985), dir. Victor Masayesva Jr. wi >i ks of some of those who refuse (or pretend not) to listen to the admon-
(Courtesy of Victor Masayesva Jr.) iNlnnganthropologist who grabs the camera from their hands. Photographer
I n i n a Simpson refuses to show the facethat which is seen as the most
Individual aspect of the body yet is precisely what is vulnerable to the kind
tographing them without their permission: they demanded to be u n
ni pillaging of the spirit that many cultures have found objectonable in
bursed for the privilege. In other instances, resistance shapes itself in a loi i pilleigraphy. What is figured instead in Simpson's work like Easy for Who
of great subtlety. Dances do not lose their sacredness if they are purpns in ,S'<M' is a whole language of racialization that turns people of color into
fully performed backwards, a fact understood by the Navajo who perli > 1 1 1 \> liuilic.s for a narrative of evolution (see llustration 18). The Ethnographic
the Yeibichai dance in such manner, a detail of which Edward S. Cun r m liii.ij'.r presented by Regnault, in which the bodies of West African per-
other gleeful camera-toting tourists were unaware.
li ii i n r i s at the 1895 Ethnographic Exposition become exemplars of a Primi-
Another mode of the third eye is in the recontextualization o r i l i m l i vi-1iiiirelie en flexin suitable for war, is explodedin Ousmane Sembne's
graphic footage. The Kwakwaka'wakw who fought successfully l < n i In n i ,n11/> </( Thiaroye which concentrates instead on the individual!ties of the
patriation of potlatch objects seizedby the Canadian governmcnt igm irtl V i i i n iiis soldiers whose lives are being shaped and exploited by French colo-
stiltedness of the melodrama of Curtis's In the Land of the Headhtiiti< / i t i d i l i ' . i ' . In an Inuit vllage of Igloolik, a community uses video cameras to
well as his sensationalizing of headhunting; instead, footage f n >i 11 11 Mi i u .n r .1 ncw f'orm of oral history in order to reconstruct their recent past on
of the war canoes of the Thunderbird, the Wasp and the Grizzly Hr.n llU I i i l i n, i l i r i r fniiit colleagues form the Inut Broadcasting Corporation to
to remember a great and enduring history in a eollaborative m u s r u m < i li.n ilu- liegemonic cffects of dominant televisin on their children and
hibition. Nanook of the North becomes a valuable document t u i l n i i m l - i MI n n i i i r s . An African American woman, Zora Neale Hurston, is in-
juak community where it was filmed, not bccause of its i r i i t l i l i i l m | i l n kl nii i n l l>y hri anthropologist mentor to film ethnographic types, but she is
"sacred" Bazinian scenc of the seal hunt is the object of l a u g l i t n m ip|-" ii n n |. '.iri sin- cxpcrimcnts wiih zooming back and forth between different
ciation of its obviously stagcd q u a l i t y ) , but bccausc il r o n t . n n s un i r . . j i i i i n i . ni virw, Se 11 .-mil ( )(|HT, N;K ive and Scirnlisl, shattering the voyeur-
their land a n d their anccsiors, . 1 mrans o provoking contempla) mu < > i I n (mu "i i l u - i;.i.-c in ( I i r l . i i r i i>.>.os, long brloic MU h sell-reflexivity is leniti-
HI.HI i l n i .miInopology. Hands (<< '
2i6 Conclusin Conclusin 217
like the Hopi clown who remonstrates and educates, declines to film cer- the colonialists: the camera-person coiludes by not doing anything. Henee
tain aspects of the entire dancing body, respectful of the belief that refrain- the inappropriateness of the film: it shoves in the viewer's face the horror
ing from photographing certain things can also be a spiritual act. of colonialization, and, unlike the more soothing narrative of "vanishing
Demanding sovereignty over one's image does mean that the filmmaker races," does not conceal the annihilation and apartheid of political physics.
representing his or her own community can easily elide the multifarious Yet to confine historical scholarship exclusively to the model of critiqu-
problems of representation, as Masayesva, Sembne, and Hurston's work ing "negative images" presents the critic with the suffocating trap of fas-
attests. Helen Nabasuta Mugambi, a U.S.-educated scholar, explains that cinating cannibalism: the reproduction feeds the West's appetite for images
within the colonial structure of hierarchy, she is posited as superior in of people of color as marvelous Savages. Like Fann, Baldwin, and poet
status to the Baganda women of her village which she filmed, but culturally, Elizabeth Alexander, I have tried to read images of indigenous peoples made
Mugambi explains, she is subordinate, she is their "daughter." Her relation- into the Ethnographic for the spaces of resistance contained within them,
ship to the women she is filming distorts the Western structure that views cognizant of the danger of trying to recover voices that can never fully be
the Western-educated scholar as expert. The predicament of the media pro- represented. It is with this objective in mind that I have attempted through-
ducer filming within his or her own community is indeed complex, requir- out this book to reveal disturbances within the linear narrative of evolu-
ing the negotiation of several cultures, media, languages, and notions of tionary imaging. Recovery is incomplete, always with gaps, cracks, and
history. other evidence of reconstruction. In a work which is considered the "first
ethnographic film," a West African woman walks with a calabash, and be-
comes the nexus of a gaze of male looks including the white Parisian
WHO Took This Pictuiei
flneui; yet in the same frame, a little girl's look disturbs the neat Ob-
What is the task of the postcolonial scholar examining the history of media server/Observed dichotomy. In her glance, I would like to imagine that she
representation of native peoples and people of color? Pat Ward Williams knows this: the Emperor has no clothes. Reading performance is thus one
asks the important question of how one can be a person of color and look al important space of resistance brought into view by the third eye in images
picturesnow collected as historical documentsthat exploit the pain o I rom early ethnographic cinema. The comfortable distance of the Colonizer
one's own people. InAccused/Blowtorch/Padlock (1986), Williams accom Vi >yeur from the Colonized Native necessary for the machine of spectacle to
paes framed photographs of a lynched African American man taken from f.i i nd on collapses when a Wolof man harangues a Parisian visitor to the Fair
the book The Best of "Life" Magazine with text, asking the question, " WI K > tu toss some coins over the fence separating him from the Parisian: this is
took this picture? Oh, God, Life answersPage 141no credit." The iden noi Iree, but for your entertainment, and you must pay. The laughing West
tity of the viewer is crucial to the reception of photography and film: t i u A11 i can perf ormer is read by the European as a childlike and authentic Prim-
Observer/Observed dichotomy implodes when the Observer realizes t l i . n H i vi-: he or she is not even seen as a performer, but is said to be "exhibited"
he or she is the Observed. Moreover, the arrogance of Western culum .mil jiist "existing." But in that laugh, there may also be irony. The laugh
which looks at a Life magazine photograph of a lynched man as mere I y .m I'.H k at the visitor exposes the fact that the latter is also wearing a mask, a
objective document of historical brutality is emphatically called into qin. in.r.k imposed by the relations of dominance peculiar to a visualizing colo-
tion by the Observer who knows that this is somebody's loved one, t h r . in.11 system, as George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" so insightfully indi-
could be my loved one, this could be me. How could this photo havc ho i .u rs. Those made into Ethnographic subjects starc back at the camera, at
taken? ir., eme hundred years later, and the directness of that gaze declares, "I am
Williams's question reveis the inadequacy of Margaret Mead's teiu-i i I I . H In ir, .uul so are you." The ghostliness of testimony and presence is made
a camera running on its own steam is an objective eye. Inmy example I n v n l m i hese fragments of early ethnographic film.
chapter 5 of the inappropriate "racial film"Balinese who rcspond tu m v . i . l W h e t h e r throwing stones at the photographer, recontextualizing early
ing Dutch colonial soldiers by walking straight towards them, onlv n > I" liMii.ij'.r, w i n k i n g at the camera, refraining from representing certain sub-
gunned downthe violence of the guns is equal to the violcnre o t l u l i l m |i i !,, o t.ikinj; up the camera, the third eye isalso LIS, the Others, the native
camera. A filmmaker was thcre to record, but LB COtnplicit with the gun "i l i i l i n i n . n i i s who que.sl ion, mock, d i s q u i c t , and inlorm, descernants of eth-
2i8 Conclusin
i Flix Regnault, "Des altitudes du repos dans les race humaines," Revue encyclop-
dique (7 fanuary 1896): 9-12.
; Flix Regnault, "Le langage par gestes," La nature 1324 (15 October 1898): 315.
l See chapter i for my discussion on chronophotography, and chapter ^ for more dc-
tailed discussion of Rcgnault's theories on film.
.| W. E. B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk (New York: Bantam Books, 1989; orig. publ.
19031,3.
s Ibid., 6.
ii l'rantz Fann, Black Skin, White Masks: The Experences of a Black Man in a Whilc
World, trans. Charles Lam Markmann (New York: Grove Press, 1967), 140.
' Ibid., 147.
H I.evi-Strauss writes, "Nowadays, being an explorer is a trade, which eonsists not, as
me might think, in discovering hitherto unknown facts after years of study, but in
rcivcring a great many miles and assembling lantern-slides or motion pictures, pre-
h-rably in colour, so as to fill a hall with an audience for several days in succession.
For this audience, platitudes and commonplaces seem to have been miraculously
ii.msmuted into revelations by the sol fact that their author, instead of doing his
plagiarizing at home, has supposedly sanctifled it by covering some twenty thousand
miles" (Claude Lvi-Strauss, Tristes Trapiques, trans. John and Doreen Weightman
( N r v v York: Penguin Books, 1992], 17-18).
> H'iii., ns.
i "An Interview with Gayatri Spivak," ed. Judy Burns, Women &> Performance: A
foufnal of Feminist Theory %, no. 1.9 (1990): 82.
(.rnige W. Stockmg Jr., Victorian Anthropology (New York: Free Press, 1987), 47,
1 i')
and New Guinea in the 19308, ethnographic film began to be considered a distinct
genre only in the 19508: two important signs of its arrival wcre Harvard University's
Notes ttoChapter
o ^napter Une
One 22I 221
funding of anthropological films after the success of the Marshalls' The Hunters ing Fascism," which investigates the aesthetics of fascism and why fascism con-
(1958) and, in France, the attention paid to the films of Jean Rouch in high art venues tines to fascnate even those born after the 19405. See "Fascinating Fascism," in
like Cahiers du cinema and in educational organizations like UNESCO (Claudia
Under the Sign ofSaturn (New York: Vintage Books, 1980), 73-105.
Springer, "Ethnocentric Circles: A Short History of Ethnographic Film," The Inde- 25 Similarly, D. W. Grffith's Broken Blossoms (1919), considered by many to be the first
pendent [December 1984]: 16). art film, portrays a Chinese male as a feminized Other thwarted in his desire for an
In 1952 the International Committee on Ethnographic Film (CIFE), headed by innocent blonde girl. Again, an important cinematic "milestone" takes its suste-
nance from stereotyped views of gender and racial difference.
Rouch, was formed to promote the preservation, production, and distribution of
ethnographic film (Emilie de Brigard, "The History of Ethnographic Film," in Princi Richard Fung has pointed out that Asian men are stereotyped as undersexed
pies of Visual Anthtopology, ed. Paul Hockings [The Hague: Mouton, 1975], 28). ("Looking for My Penis: The Eroticised Asian in Gay Video Porn," in How Do ILook
Films made before the 19508 which today qualify as ethnographic were only de QueerPilm and Video, ed. Bad Object-Choices (Seattle: Bay Press, 1991), 146). In this
fined as such retroactively by visual anthropologists like Emilie de Brigard, Karl light, the title of Wayne Wang's 1981 film Chan Is Missing can be taken as a brilliant
Heider, and Jcan Rouch looking for historical precursors. See de Brigard; M a r t i n pun on the cinematic construction of the Chinese American male: what Chanthe
Taureg, "The Development of Standards for Scientific Films in Germn Ethnogra Chinese American characteris missing in Hollywood cinema is, n fact, his mascu-
phy," Studies in Visual Communication 9, no. i (winter 1983): 19-29; Karl Heidci, linity, his penis. Moreover Chan, i.e., an unstereotyped depiction of the East Asian
Ethnographic Film (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976); and Jean Rouch, "l.c American male, is literally missing from cinema. The Asian American, whether
film ethnographique," in Ethnologie genrale, ed. Jean Poirier, Encyclopdie de /</ male or female, is consistently allied with Art: with costume, surface, design, detail,
Pleiade (Paris: ditions Gallimard, 1968), 24: 429-71. and artifice. The "Oriental" is thus made akin to the "Ornamental." But like other
15 Fayc Ginsburg, "Indigenous Media: Faustian Contract or Global Village?" CultUIl people of color, whether African American or Inuit, the Asian American is also
Anthropology 6, no. i (February 1991): 104. pathologized, henee the use of "Yellow Peril" and other metaphors that portray Asian
16 Recent examples of what I term ethnographic cinema include David M a y b i u v Amercans as virulent. Frantz Fann writes, "The terms the settler uses when he
Lewis's Millenium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World (PBS special, 11>*> I mentions the native are zoological terms. He speaks of the yellow man's reptilian
which, although self-reflexive about anthropology, contines to represent and m motions, of the stinkof the native quarter, of breeding swarms, offoulncss, ofspawn,
manticize indigcnous pcoples as exotic Others,- the Ewoks in George Lucas's Kcimn o gcsticulations"
York: Grove Press, (The
1964),Wretched
42). of the Earth, trans. Constance Farrington (New
of the fedi (1983) are veiled science fiction references to the "ethnographic" as snn
pie, fuzzy, brown tribcspeople. i fi l'br an insightful article on the representation of race in The Birth of the Ntion see
17 Phil Rosen, "From Dqcument to Diegesis: Historical Detail and Film Spcct.-u l< ('lyde Taylor, rgpr):
(Inly-October "The Re-birth
12-13. of the Aesthetic in Cinema," Wide Angle 13, nos. 3-4
earlydraft of achapterfrom theforthcoming.Pasr, Present:Theoiy, Cinema, llisinn
18 Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," MI i lean Rouch apples the term self-consciously to Regnault, Flaherty, Mead, Gregory
Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Selm. |.. n llaieson, Dziga Vertov, andothers. See, e.g., Jean Rouch, "Our Totemic Ancestors and
Books, 1969), 223. i 'i.izcdMasters," SenriEthnological Studies 24 (1988): 225-38.
19 Rosen, 20. i I i la Abu-Lughod, "Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography ?" Woman &> Performance:
, 1 loiirnal of Feminist Theory 5.1, no. 9 (1991): 24.
20 V. Y. Mudimbc, The Invention of frica: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the o / , / , / ni
Knowledge (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 15-16. "i |.unes G. Fraser, Foreword to The Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw
M.ilmowski (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1961; orig. publ. 1922), ix, xiv.
21 George W. Stockingjr., "Bones, Bodies, Behavior," in Bones, Bodies, Behavim /.VMII
v Meplien Bann, 5:8.
on Biological Anthropology, ed. George W. Stocking Jr., History of Anilui"'l,n-\: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), The See
Clothing of Clio:
also George W.ASioc-|.
Study u n of
|i the Representation of History in
Nui'iccnth-century
I ' ) , ' < . | ) , f.2. Britain and France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
Race, Culture and Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology {New Yml' I u > 11 I ,iniin, 109.
Press, 1968).
22 Claude Lvi-Strauss cxplains in Tristes Trapiques how travel involves sp.uc. t n m
and status (85). i Vr;m; Anlhrnpology
23 Johannes Fabin, Time and the Other: llow Anthropology Mukcs lis ( > / > / < ' n1 '
York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 39. i \ Muclimbc, The, Inven! ion o frica: Gnosis, Philosophy and the Orderof Knowl-
24 The inspira t ion for the la bel, of coursc, comes froni Susan Sonlaj;'.s ess.iv "1.1 i / r r Illloomington: Indiana U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1988), i s ( t i l i n g R. I. Kotberg, frica
,iii,l
'iii //, / v/i/o/iT.sv
v l'iess, i M/oJ) Motives, Mctliotl and Iiupacl (Cambridge, Mass.: I larvard Univer-
222 Notes to Chapter One
3 Regnault, for example, used the word "savage" to describe the West African per- in Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: A Film Theory Reader, ed. Phil Rosen (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1986), 507-34.
formers he fllmed in 1895 in "L'histoire du cinema: son role en anthropologie,"
Bulletins et mamones de la Socit d'anthropologie de Pars 3d tome, /th ser. (6 July 15 For studies of the history of French anthropology, see Elizabeth A. Williams, "The
1922): 64. According to George W. Stocking Jr., the word "savage" ceased to be a Science of Man: Anthropological Thought and Institutions in Nineteenth-century
legitmate anthropological term for indigenous peoples only by the 19305 (George W. Fiancc" (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1983); Joy Dorothy Harvey, "Races Specified,
Stocking Jr., Victorian Anthropology [New York: Free Press, 1987], xv). Evolution Transformed: The Social Context of Scientific Debates Originating in the
4 Flix Regnault and Cdt. de Raoul, Comment on marche: dea divers mode de progres- Socit d'anthropologie de Pars 1859-1902" (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1983);
sion de la supoiit du mode en flexin (Pars: Henri Charles-Lavauzelle, diteur Donald Bender, "The Development of French Anthropology," fournal of the History
militaire, 1897). Illustration of man reproduced on p. 23. of the Behavioral Sciences i, no. 2 (Aprl 1965), 139-51,- and Brtta Rupp-Eisenreich,
5 See more detailed discussion of Regnault's chronophotography in chapter 2. ed., Histoires de 1'anthropologie XVIe-XIXe sicles: colloque lapratique de l'anthro-
6 Martin Taureg, "The Development of Standards for Scientiflc Films in Germn Eth- pologie aujourd'hui 19-21 novembre 1981, Svres (Pars: Klincksieck, 1984).
nography," Studies in Visual Communication 9, no. i (winter 1983): 22-23; Ernilii- 16 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origiti and Spread
of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983).
de Brigard, "The History of Ethnographic Film," in Principies of Visual Anthropol
ogy, ed. Paul Hockings (The Hague: Mouton, 1975), 15-17. Ethnographic filmmaki-i 17 The first anthropologist to discuss race, William Frederic Edwards, apped the con-
Jean Rouch claims that the conceptions embodied in present-day museum displayx cept to French history in an attempt to justify French nationalism (see Claude
are timid in comparison with Regnault's visin of a museum "of gesture and souml" Blanckaert, "On the Origins of French Ethnology: William Edwards and the Doc-
(Jean Rouch, "L'itinraire initiatique," in CinmAction: la science Tcran, ed. JIMn trine of Race," in Bones, Bodies, Behavior: Essays on Biolgica! Anthropology. ed
Jacques Mensy [Pars: Les Editions du Cerf, 1986], 6). George W. Stocking Jr., History of Anthropology, vol. 5 [Madison: University of
7 Mudimbe, Invention of frica, 191-92. Wisconsin Press, 1988), 18-55). Racial determinism also characterized the thought of
8 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak? Speculations on Wiilmv probably the most famous French historian of the nineteenth century, /ules Michclet,
Sacriflce," Wedge 7-8 (winter-spring 1985): 271-313. who claimed that France's superiority was due to its unique mixture of the Ceitic and
9 See my introduction. Romn races (William B. Cohn, The French Encounter with Africans: White Re
10 In 1921, Regnault along with the director of the Institu de Marey, Fierre Nnr.ni i xponsetoBlacks, i^o-z##o[Bloomington:Indiana University Press, 1980), 215-16).
fllmed the boxer Johnny Coulon, aman who billed himself as "unlif table," i n o 11 li i ti) i M George W. Stocking Jr., "Polygenist Thought in Post-Darwinian French Anthropol-
give scientiflc explanation behind Coulon's supposed supernatural powcrs. I l > i ogy,"
York: in Race,
Free Press,Culture
1968), and Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology (New
42-68.
found no evidence that Regnault made any other films (Fierre Nogucs aml I < l i
Regnault, "Explication mcanique des trucs de 1'homme insoulevable," AYri;i .' i u In the later nineteenth century in France and Germany, "anthropology" was used to
pathologie compares [10 May 1921]: 191-94). icfcr to what in the United States is described as physical anthropology, and "ethnol-
11 According to Regnault's birth certifcate at the Archives of the City of lU-mn In i>y,y" was used for cultural anthropology. In the British tradition, anthropology was
father was a professor of physics. In his dedication to his medical thesis, I n m rvM diviilcd into social anthropology, physical anthropology, linguistics, and archeology.
Regnault described his father as a professor of mathematics (correspondan r M n l i n i Ser Harvey, 50-51, and Elizabeth Williams, 116-21, for more on transfoimisme. An
Mme. Catherine Laurent, archivist of the Archives of the City of Renncs) nnportant aspect of evolutionist anthropology was positivism. Positivism, with ts
12 Books which Regnault wrote include Hypnotisme, religin (1897), <<>"""' m "i> n iiurrn with phenomenological description and the study of longhistrica! develop-
marche with Cdt. de Raoul (1897), Les gardes-malades (1901) with O. MI le 1 1 i i i i r n , as weli as its emphasis on the physiological bases of psychology, the impor-
ton, L'volution de la prostitution (1906), and La gense des mitades ( 1 1 ) n >l i.mri- o technology and progress, and the environment as shaper of human behavor,
13 Flix Regnault, "Le role du cinema en ethnographie," La nature ?.<><. ( i i > inlu-i mldimcd rnuch of anthropology during the nineteenth century [Histrica! Diction-
1931): 305. ,ii v 11/' ihi' 'l'bird French Repuhlic, cd. Patrck H. Hutton (Westport, Conn.: Green-
14 For more on film and physiology, seeLisaCartwright'sexcellent ,S'i-/ccmiiy ili. i ivoml l'n-s.s, ty6|, 796-98). For more on anthropology and Auguste Comte's notion
ni |>inj;ic,ss, sce Stocking, Victorian Anthropology, 25-30.
Tracing Medicine's Visual Culture (Minncapolis: University of M i n n < MU i i >
1995), which makcs explicit the tics between physiology, cinema, and 11 i i I lidin.isS. Kuhnarges that mcasuremcnt hecameanessentialelementofthephysi-
tion of gender. For an insightful analysis of how Miiyliridgi:'s i i m r m n i n m i n i> . i ,il M iriuv paradigm s l a r l i n g in 1840 ("The Function of Mcasurement in Physical
construct gender, sce Linda Williams, "I 1 i I ni Hoily: An I n i p l . i n l . i l ion o l'i i vi i imu '.i i i - n c r , " in Tl/c lis.sc/iiiii/ 'Ic/isiot: Sclccicd Siinlics in Sc.ienti/ic Tradition and
i li,niy,c ( 'liicago: UmviTsily ni ('hicago Press, 1979), ?.2o).
I !.( of < dmpai.iiivr anatomical siiidics, cspecially comparativo 1 s i u d y of craina
2,24 Notes to Chapter One
Notes to Chapter One 225
began in the late eighteenth century and burgeoned in the nineteenth century. In the
late eighteenth century Johannes Blumenbach used new anatomical techniques, in- 31 For more on Mortillet's applied anthropology and pseudo-sociological trends, see
cluding cranial measurement, to classify man into five races, and Peter Camper Harvey, 269-326. One of the most influential writers on racial hygiene was, of
described a way to measure facial angles. In the early nineteenth century, U.S. physi- course, Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau. In his now famous Essay on the Inequal-
cian Samuel Morton initiated what carne to be called the "American School" of ity of Human Races (1853-55), Gobineau asserted that race determines history, and
anthropology, a school which based its research on comparison of massive collec- that the intermixture of races will cause degeneration and ultimately death. His
tions of skulls; the Viennese medical doctor Franz-Josef Gall popularizcd phrenology, work, later often cited by Adolf Hitler, was not widely read during his own time, and
predates the founding of the Socit d'anthropologie de Paris.
a science in which the bumps of the head were read to determine character and
intelligence; Belgian biostatistician Adolphe Qutelet used statistics and physiog- 32 On decadence see "De la dpopulation de la France," La mdecine modeme (1893):
nomy in an attempt to identify the "average" man, i.e., European man; and, in 1840, 1256-57,- and "The role of dpopulation, deforestation and malaria in the decadence
Anders Retzius invented the cephalic ndex, which was the ratio of head length to of certain nations," Smithsonian Institution Annual Report (trans. from Revue sci-
head breadth. Retzius divided humanity into two groups: the brachycephalics (broad- entifique [Paris, lojanuary 1914): 46-48) (Washington, D.C., 1914), 593-97. Onnurs-
headed) and the dolichocephalic (long-headed). Regnault made extensive use of ce- ing, see Regnault and Dr. Mlle. Hamilton, Les gardes-malades; on prostitution, see
phalic measurements in his studies of pathology. L'volution de la prostitution; on strongmen, see Nogus and Regnault, "Explication
22 Paul Broca, "Anthropologie," in Dictionnaire des sciences medicales, vol. 5 (1866), mcanique des trucs de 1'homme insoulevable," 191-94,- and ongeniuses, see "Con-
280-300, quoted in Harvey, 42. That those who were considered "pmitive" or "sav- frence Lamarck: des infirmitcs des organes des sens dans la production des oeuvres
age" were often politically despised groups is best seen in British characterizations o de gnie," Bulletins et mmoires de la Socit d'anthropologie de Paris 9th tome, 7th
ser. (1928): 79-81.
members of the Irish as low on the evolutionary scale: the Irish skull was said to be1 n Harvey, 133-38.
akin to that of the Australian Aborigine and the higher primate (Pitt Rivers, A.H.L.E,
Catalogue of the anthropological collection lent by Colonel Lae Fox for exhibition 14 Many colonial naval doctors learned anthropometry at Broca's laboratory. Louis
in the Bethnal Green Branch of the South Kensington Museum, fue 1874, Par* I Faidherbe, Governor-General of the Sudan, was a Socit d'anthropologie de Paris
and II (London), cited in William Ryan Chapman, "Arranging Ethnology: A.H.I..I member from 1865 to 1879, and served as president of the Socit in 1874 (Har-
Pitt Rivers and the Typological Tradition," in Objects and Others: Essays on Mu vey, 115, 133-34, and 155). Faidherbe claimed that African brains were of "rcla-
seums and Material Culture, ed. George W. Stocking Jr., History of Aathropology, tively weak volume," explaining the "weak will" of the African. This, he wrote, ac
vol. 3 [Madison:University of Wisconsin Press, 1985], 28). Pitt Rivers established l lie counted for why Africans could be enslaved (Louis Faidherbe, Essai sur la langue peni
flrst anthropological museum in Great Britain, the Pitt Rivers Museum, at Oxlonl |IJaris, 1875], 14, cited in Cohn, 230-31). Paul Bert, another Socit member, was
University in 1884. Governor-General of Indochina during the Ferry government (Harvey, 133, 159).
23 George W. Stocking Jr., "Bones, Bodies, Behavior,"in Bones, Bodies, Behavior: /.SMM , t s l'aui Broca, "Instructions Genrales pour les rcherches et observations anthropolog-
on Biological Anthropology, ed. George W. Stocking Jr., History ofAnthiopology, ve 11 iques," Mmoires de la Socit d'anthropologie de Pars II (Paris, 1865), 69-204,
quoted and trans. in Harvey, 128.
5 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 19881,7-8.
24 Cohn, 234. i<> Scc Georges Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological, trans. Carolyn R. Faw-
cx-tt (New York: Zone Books, 1991).
25 Adam Kuper, The Invention of Pmitive Society: Transformations of an / / / ; / \ n > n
(London: Routledge, 1988), 5. i/ 'I'he interest in visualizing hybridity was also present in the earlier colonial (Spanish
26 French anthropologists Fierre Gratiolet and Cari Vogt, for examplc, believed i l i u and I'ortuguese) obsession with visual categorizing "castes" generated by particular
"racial" mixtures. I thank Mary Miller for this insight.
black skulls were similar to those of microcephalic idiots, and thus bclicved i l i . n |M rabian, Time and the Other.
blacks would always be mentally inferior to whites, a conclusin used by theprotta
ery movement (Harvey, 125). o llml., 106. Fabin explains that visualism encourages quantiflcation and diagram-
27 L. J. B. Brenger-Fraud, Petiplades, 2-4, cited in Cohn, 241, and Flix R c g n a n l i , "I ' in.iiic: representation "so that the ability to 'visualize' a culture or society almost
lirrnmcs synonyinous for understanding it."
lafonctionprhensiledupied," La nature 1058 (9 September 1893): 229 1 1 .
28 Charles Letourneau, Sociologie d'aprs l'ethnographie (Paris: Reinwald, i x . s . i l i i<' ( m u t i l a n Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision andModernity in the Nine-
quoted in Harvey, 139. i i ' f i i l h Century (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988). I thank Esther da Costa Meyer
lu i l n s insight.
29 Max Simn Nordau, Degcneration (New York: H. Fertig, i H y s ; repr. i g 6 K ) .
30 For more on Charcot, scc Hcliora S i l v c r m a n , Arl Nouvi'dii in l!in de .s/cc/c l-iiim i 11 I r l i x Kcgn.iuli, /)'.s' tiltcrtitwnx cniiiciinc.i iltins le rtichitisme (Paris: Steinheil,
i M K S ) , l )..
Pohtics, Psychology, uud sivlr (Berkeley: University o Ctllforni* i'iess, miui
106. Ii Al i l i c - Mii.sriini ( I l u s i o n e n . i l i i i c l l c , ilu 1 most i m p o r t a n ! (-'rend scientific research
nr.l i l u l mu o ( l i e I une, skeletOni O t lise af f l i r l c i l WH l> "!'
226 Notes to Chapter One
of microcephalics, hydrocephalics, and so on, were displayed as point of comparison Notes to Chapter One 227
to the "normal" skeleton. In the same museum one could view the Ethnographic
Hall series classifying the races (G. Xert, "Les nouvelles galleries du musum," La 's bodies in tf
nature 1297 [9 April 1898]: 297-98). Anthropometry was also extensively used in the Afean bu-ks of
new feld of criminology. In 1884, Alphonse Bertillon, the son of Socit d'anthropo- women, and he
logie de Paris member L. A. Bertillon, began work on criminal identiflcation using
a work
anthropological measuring techniques. See Harvey, 305-6. Regnault himself was rom oihercul tures , such
influenced by and wrote about the Italian criminologist Lombroso. See, e.g., "Des woman's by sc.nce, seo
anomalies osseuses chez les arrirs criminis et les brigands," Bulletins et m-
moires de la Socit d'anthropologie de Paris 9th tome, yth ser. (4 November 1926):
92-95.
43 Flix Regnault, "Les cagots et la lpre en France," La nature 1022 (31 December
1892): 67-68; J. LajardandFlixRegnauh,Derexistencedelalpreattenuechezles
cagots des Pyrenes, ed. Progrs medical (Paris: Lecrosnier et Bab, 1893); "Les mains
polydactyles," La nature 1044 (3 June 1893): 5-6; Flix Regnault, "Les monstres dans away slnclly
l'ethnographie et dans l'art," Bulletins et mmoires de la Socit d'anthropologie de of and ^
Paris 4th tome, 6thser. (3 July 1913): 400-411. dlffence-as an
umanity.
44 See, e.g., Flix Regnault, "Nouvelle race d'ours des cavernes," La nature 720 (19 March
18871:255. i early as
45 See, e.g., "De la perception des couleurs suivant les races humaines," La mdecinc ,, *~ i^ssemblance anatomique d psychlquc ,
moderne (1893): 1062-65; "Les scarifications," La mdecine moderne (1895): 507; opposed to the anatomical look intended PSychlc un"y as
"De la fonction prhensile du pied." The French were fascinated with steatopygy, Bloch's "De la race qui precede les -e, (Discusin for Ado
a trait thought to be characteristic of prehistoric French sculptures of women. One 1 Socit d'anthropologie de P,
<
cyclopoedia universalis, s.v I902|: 68, Scc
of the most tragic outcomes of this fascination was the treatment of Saartjie Baart '3
man, a Khoi-San woman (then referred to as Hottentot) from South frica who w.i'. poedia Universalis France S. msdle' s: Encyclo-
brought to Europe and performed in an animal show in Paris, displaying her boilv 48 Regnault, Hypnoti
After her death from tuberculosis in Paris, anthropologist Georges Cuvier of t h < 4 y Etienne Balibar, "'.
Musum d'histoire naturelle dissected her body and her reproductive organs. Ser Iden tifies, 19. , Natl0n, Cass:
so
Cohn, 239-41, and "The Hottentot Venus," in Steven Jay Gould, The Flmula;
Smile: Reflections in Natural History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1985), 29I-30S.
Sander L. Gilman's article "Black Bodies, White Bodies: Toward an Iconograpliy < >l
Female Sexuality in Late-nineteenth-century Art, Medicine, and Literaturc," m
"Race," Writing, and Difference, ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Chicago: Universiiv "I
Chicago Press, 1985), 223-61, is frequently cited by critics discussing the represen -rettbtrT^
tation of Woman in the nineteenth and twentieth century. I agree with C . ' i l n i . m ane see Silverman, 7 5 _ I o 6 . "-pion of Ch.rcot's study ofart and medl _
that there is a connection between the representation of women of color .un ni
white prostitutes: as Etienne Balibar explains, racism and sexism function toj'.i-dn i
(EtienneBalibar, "Racism and Nationalism," Race, Nation, Class:Ambiguous lil/-n
"A propos des deformado:
mthropologie de Pars 6
' extensively on >lmiti
^^^
,f ^ '3 ^""^ I8 9S): xo.
tifies, ed. Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein [London: Verso, UMM ,41) l
disagree, however, with the manner in which Gilman links the cxploitanvr u | > i <
claimed that art by ** ^
d ans l' slno-)ap0nl " n " "J ?Omamentation. ("Dfor-
8
sentation of Sarah Bartman to the representation of the courtisane Nana in l i i l n i i . i n l tome, 4th se, (6 Ju /^ ! ^ ^- d' anthlopologe
*
Manet's painting Nana (1877). First, Gilman's own reproduction of imanes <>l '..u i l > ous observe." who did not v ' D ^ ther ha nd
Bartman and her genitals constituios yct anothcr cxploltation o Harlin.in, . u n " ^nu^^
veis that the critique of visualism may itsclt be visualist, w i t h a l l o ( l i e .i.v.m i i i > < l - tempcr^nent R,,,,,,,,, ^ , ? t h u s Wi!s 'kty d a nt of
imperialist and patriarchal comila!mus. Sri-oml, C iImn jumps lo l l i r cmu lu l ,n U. !, n.Hlc, U,,,,, , ** --n
W ,uuv,,, ,...........,. ; ; I, " l l -.s i l u v i l c! ccc,, .,
228 Notes to Chapter One
Notes to Chapter One 229
savage hunter lives in a non-fertile environmcnt, his ornamental imagination is less
fertile) ("Essai sur les debuts de l'art ornemental gomctrique chez les peuples primi- claimed that the Pai-Pi-Bris were brought to Pars "in the hope that the memories
tifs," Bulletins de la Sacete d'anthropologie de Pars yth tome, 4th ser. [i October they take back will permit us to establish French trading stations more easily in their
1896]: 539). country" (Schneider, 171).
Regnault averred that the study of art helps one to understand both Primitive and 67 Paul Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibi-
Civilized man. The more advanced the civilization, the greater its imagination. tions and World's Fairs, 1851-1939 (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press,
The Primitive, Regnault explained, depicted real monsters, i.e., deformed people, 1988), 89; and Greenhalgh, "Education, Entertainment and Poltics: Lessons from the
whereas the ancients (for Regnault, the Greeks and the Egyptians) and Italian Renais- Great International Exhibitions," in The New Museology, ed. Peter Vergo (London:
sance artists depicted imaginary monsters (see "Les monstres dans l'ethnographie et Redaktion Books, 1989), 74-98.
dans l'art"). 68 Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas, 87.
69 Cohn, 281.
54 See, e.g., Regnault and Lajard, "La Venus accroupie dans l'art grec," La nature 1152
(29 June 1895): 69-70. 70 The story of the display of indigenous ethnic peoples is incomplete: there is little
55 Flix Regnault, "Classiflcations des sciences anthropologiques," Revue anthropolo- written record of the thoughts of the performers, and little record of the biographies
gique(ic,T,i): 12,2. and aspirations of the promoters of the shows. Accounts of the mass illustrated press,
56 Flix Regnault, "Des altitudes du repos dans les races humaines," Revue encyclo- however, shed some light on public response to the exhibitions, and accounts by
pdique (7 January 1896): 9. visitors such as Regnault shed light on the scientific response.
57 See, e.g., Flix Regnault, "Les altitudes de repos dans l'art sino-Japonais," La nature 71 Elizabeth Williams, "Scienceof Man," 139.
1154(15 July 1895): 106; "Des altitudes du repos dans les races humaines"; "Presenta - 72 Ibd., 144. According to Williams, Jomard deflned ethnography as "the science which
lion d'une hotte primitive," Bulletins de la Sacete d'anthropologie de Pars 3d tome, studied the advance of civilization among primitive peoples." The short-lived So-
4th ser. (21 July 1892): 471-79; and Regnault and Lajard, "La Venus accroupie dans cit d'ethnographie, founded by Len de Rosny in 1859, was never as powerful as the
l'art grec." Socit d'anthropologie de Pars. Its stated goal was to promote ethnography as the
58 John Tagg, The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Historie* science of progress, a science which would take as its object the societies of all
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), 74. peoples, particularly "savages."
59 For more on anthropometric photography see Visual Anthropology 3, nos. 2-3 (1990!, /i Patricia Mainardi, Art and Politics of the Second Empire: The Universa! Exposit ions
special issue, "Picturing Cultures: Historical Photographs in Anthropological IM of 1855 and 1867 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 169. Another aspect of
quiry"; and Melissa Banta and Curtis M. Hinsley, From Site to Sight: Aothmpology, the artistic interest in the "ethnographic" is Primitivism, whose flrst proponent was
Photography, and the Power oflmagery (Cambridge, Mass.: Peabody Museum Press, arguably Postimpressionist Paul Gauguin. After painting peasants in Britanny, Gau-
1986). gun began painting in the French colony of Tahiti in 1890.
60 "Dilation des joues: chez les soufleurs de verre et dans l'art, "La nature 1030 (2 s l'Vli ;.| See Adolf Loos, "Ornament as Crime,"in TheArchitectureofAdolfLoos, ed. Yehuda
ruary 1893): 200. Safran and Wilfried Wang (London: Arts Council of Great Britain and the Authors,
61 Regnault believed that religin could be explained in medical and scientific in nr. 1908). On the detail, see Naomi Schor, Reading in Detal: Aesthetics and the Femi-
He suggested, for example, that Jess was a hysteric (see Hypnotisme, Religin, I nine (New York: Methuen, 1987). On the detail and historical film, see Phil Rosen,
62 Cario Ginzburg, "Morelli, Freud, and Sherlock Holmes: Clues and S e i e n n l h "From Document to Diegesis: Historical Detail and Film Spectacle," early draft oa
Method,"in TheSignofThree:Dupin, Holmes, Peirce, ed. Umberto Eco ail Tliom.i rhapterfrom the forthcoming Past, Present: Theory, Cinema, History.
Sebeok (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983), 81-118. i \ ,'rcenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas, 89.
63 Arthistorians trace theirroots to connoisseurship studics by Johann Joacliim W i m I i. I hcophile Gauter had already remarked on prostitution of the "ru du Caire" in
elmann, Bernard Berenson, and Giovanni Morelli, but the writings o K r i ' . i i . m l i i H H y . See Leila Knney and Zeynep Celik, "Ethnography and Exhibitionism at the
Richer, and Charcot on art remain overlooked. r.xpositions Universelles," Assemblage i} (December 1990): [341-59.
64 Flix Regnault, "Exposition ethnographiquc de l'Afrique occidentale mi ( 'h.mi|. .1. > Regnault dcscribed the performers in a Dahomeyan exhibition of 1893 as little civi-
MarsParis: Sngalet Soudanfraneis," La nature 11S9 (17 August i H i ; s ) : i f i ' > li/ed and lazy, a fact he dcrved from the study of their body postures. He also spoke
65 "Un villagencgreauChampdeMars," L'iUustration 2729 ( i S J u n e r 8 ) s | SON ni l he performers as artworks, calling them "belles statues de bronzes" (beautiful
66 Petit Journal 5 June, 14 July, 26 July, and i s August i 8 i > s , quoted ni W i l l i - m i 1 1 lnonr.e statues), a reference whieh would seem to reveal how little he saw them as
Schncider, An Empire For the Masscs: ''he l'rcucli l'i>/>iiliir Inui^c I A l i n ,i iNni people ("Les dahomens," La nature 041 (13 March 1893): 371-74). In a laterarticle
1900 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, l y S i ) , i 6 g . The iustin'cation Im sin l i mi prehistoric sculptures, Regnault again mentioned the 189^ Hahorneyan exhbi-
positions ineluded eolonialisni; m the 7 Augusl i K i H l'ciii ininiiiil. mn i> >l>< l i o i i when he wrote, "Rappelez-VOUS ees lemines a l'aspeet bizarre que la Jardin
ll'Aeel i ni,Kiciii de Pars exhiba I y a quclque.s .11 mees: I loiienlols a n x seins pendan is
230 Notes to Chapter One
aux jambes faissant une enorme saillie" (Do you recall the bizarre looking women at
the Jardn d'Acclimation de Pars exhibited some years ago: Hottentots with pen- Ibid., u-12. Notes to Chapter Two 23I
dulous breasts, with legs curved to an enormous projection) (Flix Regnault, "Les
artistes prhistoriques d'aprs les derniers dcouvertes," La nature 1167 [12 October Many of the themes of the fair transferred to film: there are several early films, for
18951:306). example, showing young, non-European children in harbors diving for money. In
78 Regnault, "Les dahomens," 372. addition, films of the world's fairs were made by almost all major commercial film
companes, including Edison and Path.
79 Ella Shohat gives a survey of cinema, gender, and colonialism in "Imaging Terra
Incgnita: The Disciplinary Gaze of Empire," Public Culture 3, no. 2 (spring 1991):
41-70. TheWritnSof Race n PUm
80 Regnault, "Un village ngre," 508.
81 Regnault noted, however, that in "the black continent" the European practice of Walter Benjamn, "The Work of Art n the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," in
throwing money to African children was an established one (in this sense the visitoi Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken
Books, 1969), 233.
could play at being a French tourist in an African colony). He comments that money
throwing at the ethnographic exposition was merely an amusing practice (Regnan 11, 2 68,
Bruno
66, Latour,
71, 90. Science in Action (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987),
"Exposition ethnographique," 186). Regnault fails to recount that in both the iSi 3 Benjamn, "Work of Art," 233.
Dahomeyan exhibition and the 1895 Senegalese exhibition, one performer was a
signed the Job of policeman to make sure no one crossed the railing to get coins whii 4 Mchael Hammond, "Anthropology as a Weapon of Social Combat in Late Nine-
had fallen short (Schneider, 148). 127.
teenth-century France," Journal of the History ofthe Behavioral Sciences 16 (1980):
82 Regnault, "Exposition ethnographique," 184.
83 Regnault, "Les dahomens," 372. 5 Flix Regnault, "L'histoire du cinema: son role en anthropologie," Bulletins et m-
84 Regnault, "Un village ngre," 508. moires de la Sacete d'anthropologie de Pars 3d tome, 7th ser. (6 July 1922): 65.
85 The throwing of money to performers in native villages was popular. If one imaj'.i'" t-, Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, trans. Richard Howard
(New York: Hill and Wang, 1981), 8o.
a day at the 1895 ethnographic exhibition, one is likely to adopt the viewpoini ni / Regnault, "L'histoire du cinema," 64.
Frenchman or an African: the fair addressed viewers as national and racial stil>|< i i I Ibid.
But what about visitors of mixed heritage, or performers who stayed on a l i u i l n
expositions and settled in Europe or North America? One wonders about i l i < n Regnault wrote, "The first, or cinematograph, takes successive movements and dc-
sponse of visitors who were the children of French colonialist fathers .mi W < composes them n a series of photographic images: it is only important from a scien-
African mothers sent to be educated in France. I have no records, but om- mn l . i lific point of view. The second, or cinematoscope, recomposes the movement and
suppose that if asked to choose, they would likely have identifled with t l u - 1 i < n. i * gives us an animated spectacle, it has a commercial interest" ("L'histoire du cinema,"
with the Eiffel Tower technology. It is a sad fact that the exhibitions were si > ilc 11 6o-61). Throughout the early twentieth century, Regnault wrote about cinema and
ing to Africans that a person of mixed blood would have had little c h n n r I m i i > < 11 s history, a history he saw as an evolution originating from both science and popular
identify himself or herself as a French subject. riiiertainment, beginning with the concept of the persistence of the image on the
Timothy Mitchell has written an insightful article in which he describes i In w i l l u-i i na, Plateau's phnakistiscope, and Reynaud's praxinoscope, and reaching its apex
ten reactions of Middle Eastern visitors tovarious Universal Expositions in l'.m < m w i i h the invention of cinema by Marey, whom Regnault referred to as le pie du
the whole, Mitchell states, travelersfrom the MiddleEast were amazed .u i IH u i , smema
). (Flix Regnault, "L'volution du cinema," La revue scientifique (1922): 79-
spectacle, a reality effect in which the world was represented as thouj'.li n wi n ni
exhibition (Timothy Mitchell, "The World as Exhibition," Comparal i\-r sm.li, m n M.iita Braun, "The Photographic Work of E. J. Marey," Studies in Visual Communi-
Society and History 31, no. 2 [April 1989]: 217-36). , ilion 9, no. 4 (fall 1983): 2. See also her excellent Picturing Time: The Work of
86 The "ethnographic" body also represented biolgica! danger, t h a t wlm l i mu i l<. I u,-11111- ules Marey (1830-1904) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). For
attackedinits very corporeality. FrantzFann explaincd the represeni.n i |>. ,, ( ,l, m i i i r i i n Marey see Michel Frizot, E. J. Marey 1830/1904: la photographie du mouve-
of African descent by white society in these terms (Frantz Fann, H/<i< /. ,s/ m i l iii,-ni (('.iris: Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Muse national
Masks: The Experiences of a Black Man in a Whitc Worlil, trans. C ' l i . n l c - . I .mi M.iik J .111 mineme, 1977-- 7N), and Frizot, I,a chronophotographie: temps, photographie et
mann [New York: Grove Press, 1967!, i < S 3 - f > s ) - in,ni\ aulour di' /.'. /. Marey, exhibition catalog for La Chapelle de l'Oratoire,
87 George Orwell, Shooting an ftlephnnt ail ()tlicr /.s-.sv/v.s- ( N r w Yoil< I l.m M. IMK rI I, nI udr.s
i l - (( Yiir
.1111 il'Or)
is tlr 7.7 May
M.iivy, i yS.|).? Scpteniber 1984 (Michel Frizot and Beaune: Associa-
& World, u;so), 8. 11
1 1 11 \, " l ' i l m s r( innsrrs t l V l l i n n g i a p l i i r , " ( '(nn>li's ii'iiilus ,i' /'-^ "''-'J"
h ,in^ i//-,; / ' < ' / / / ! i\',iii, i ' i i n ' i i l ,!,'< <''
232 Notesto Chapter Two
12 "Les muses des films," Biolgica 2, no. 16, supplement 20 (1912): XX, and "Un Notesto
-_ Chapter
^iO^LC! Two
LWO 233
233
muse des films," Bulletins et mmoires de la sacete d'anthropologie de Pars 3 el 26 These examples belong to the collection of Jean Vivi and are housed at the Archives
tome, 6th ser. (7 March 1912): 95-96. du film, cat. nos. 193 and 197.
13 Flix Regnault, "Le langage par gestes, "La nature 1324 (15 October 1898): 315. 27 Regnault, "Le langage par gestes."
14 Flix Regnault, "Films et muses d'ethnographie," 681. 28 Frantz Fann, Black Skin White Masks: The Experiences of a Black Man in a White
15 For a description of Regnault's methods of chronophotography, see Flix Regnaull, World, trans. Charles Lam Markmann (New York: Grove Press, 1967), 129.
"Des diverses mthodes de marche et de course," L'illustration 2765 (22 February 19 See especially Regnault's long article "Les tempraments rustique et affin," Revue
1896): 155. anthropologique (1938): 18-40.
16 "Le role du cinema en ethnographie," La nature 2866(1 October 1931): 305; and Flix to Regnault and de Raoul, 28.
Regnault and Cdt. de Raoul, Comment on marche: des divers modes de progrensmn 11 Robert L. Herbert, Impressionism: Art, Lesure, and Parisian Society (New Haven:
dla supriort du mode en flexin (Paris: Henri Charles-Lavauzelle, Editeur m i l i Yale University Press, 1988), 33-34.
taire, 1897), 13-15. Regnault wrote an account of the evolution of fashion in "l,.i I >, Walter Benjamn, Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism,
mode," La nature 1088 (7 April 1894): 289-91. I am indebted to Samba Diop loi
I ! trans. Harry Zohn (London: Verso, 1985), 35-36.1 thank Mary Miller for this insight.
providing information on the clothes and possible cultural identities of the people ni Etienne-Jules Marey, Prface to Regnault and de Raoul, 6. Comment on marche
Regnault's chronophotography. promotes the marche en flexin and reveis Regnault's emphasis on body move-
17 "Le grimpe," Revue encyclopdique (1897): 904-5. ments and what he believed they could tell the scientist about race, class, profession,
18 "Un muse des films," 96. education, costume, personality, and envronment.
1.1 Ibid., 8.
19 Hdi5 at the Cinmathque francaise.
IS
20 Lajard and Flix Regnault, "Poterie crue et origine du tour," Bulletins de la Socic/r Note by Charles Comte and Flix Regnault presented by Marey, Comptes rendus
d'anthropologie de Paris 6th tome, 4th ser. (19 December 1895): 734-39. hehdomadaires des sances de l'Acadmie des sciences 122 (February 1896): 401-4.
21 Regnault described this film sequence in this way: "Une ngresse pile dans un j'.i.nnl l<i See "Des diffrentes manieres de marcher," La mdecine moderne (1893): 596-
mortier. Elle leve le pilou, le lache en battant des mains, le laisse retombei ei l> 97; "Ouvrages offerts," Bulletins de la Socit d'anthropologie de Paris 4th tome
reprend dans sa chute" (A Negro woman grinds in a large mortar. She lifts the pe M I. ( 1 5 June 1893): 382; "La marche et le pas gymnastique militaires," La natura ios 2
lets it go while clapping her hands, lets it fall again and then picks it up againl ( " i MI (29 July 1893): 129; "Des diverses mthodes de marche et de course," L'illustrntwn
muse des films," 96). In some photographs of African women (unnamed) t a k e n i i 2765 (22 February 1896): 154-55,- Regnault and de Raoul, Comment on marche.
world's fairs, the women often appear barebreasted. See, e.g., the photograph e n n i l . .1 Regnault also made films of Commander de Raoul in a striped maillot shirt with
"Rcncontre insolite" of a Frenchman in a suit and an African woman lightlii) 1 . < .< l > h.it, white leggings, and baton, demonstrating the marche en flexin. The Cin-
other's cigarettes. This example was taken during the Exposition Uni verse Mi 1 i n I'.M i mathque francaise collection includes films of de Raoul as well as of other soldiers
in 1889 (Exhibition catalog, La tour Eiffel [Paris: Muse d'Orsay, 1989], 117). |H-rf orming the marche en flexin. Although the filmmaker is not attributed, and the
22 Seo Regnault and de Raoul, 171, for more on the evolution of carrying. t u l e s for the films were reportedly provded by Lucien Bull, Marey's assistant and
23 See cat. no. Hni3 (Cinmathque francaise). director of the Institut Marey (years after they were made), I beleve that these films
24 This example is "Course grands pas" (1895), cat. no. Hn22 (Cinmathequc l i >" iis well as all the Hn (Homme ngre} series were made by Regnault with the help of
caise). ('liarles Comte and Commander de Raoul. Other films by Regnault are in the Collec-
25 See LPhot 194, "Ngre marche," and LPhot 198, "Ngre marche d'aprcs s i 1 ' ' i ion Eric Vivi, at the Archives du film, and at the Collge de France.
which are available in the Eric Vivi collection at the Archives du film, See Kcgnault, "Des diverses mthodes de marche et de course," 155; Regnault and de
produced here. Lisa Cartwright describes the "China Girl" test image as l o l l e m K.iiMil, Comment on marche-, Flix Regnault, "La locomotion chez l'homme (Travail
static mdium close-up of an anonymous young white woman . . . h o l d i n r .1 < nlni ele l ' l n s t i t u t Marey)" Journal de physiologie et de pathologie genrale i5thtome, no.
scale test card.... The image setsin place a photochemical standard, establislinn > i ( i lannary 1913): 46-61. Throughout Europe and North America the use of film to
norm grades of filmstock that resolve light skin tones with the grcatcsi i . n n . '.I iiiiprnvc the efficacy of the Euro-American body must be seen in relation to burgeon-
subtlety and detail, responding to darker tones with a much more rcstrirtrd i.nw ni I iii)'. iliscourses around eugenics and Social Darwinism. Cinema and anthropology
tonal resolution." Cartwright explains that the China Girl image is :m ".ilv.em . i i i i i n e e l (orces not only in Taylorism, Henry Ford's use of analyses of films of workers
"prvate laboratory fetish object. . . closely related to the establishmenl < > l phvilnH l e m.ike ihe assemhly I i ne more eficient, hut also in the birth of thefieldof physical
nomical norms in nincteenth century science" (Lisa O i r t w r i g h l , i i i . i l r n . i l I i elnc.ilion, lo which Kcgnanlt's collcaguc at the Institu de physiologie, Gcorges
ehapterdraft toScreeningihu Body:Tracing Mcilicinr'x Visual Cullurc.\M\nt\{ .ipnll | I Vineney, e ' e i n t n l n i t e d tliroeigh I lie sluely o t h e body in chronoplie>tography.
University o Minnesota l'rcss, [995] which WMDOl focludcd ni the lin.il I u mi' I I lie c x l c n l lo wlnel sucli im.ij;es .ir- eipe'n lo mlcrprctation can he seen ni I he rcce-nl
Jneelilmi; o .1 e.iclie ni miele- pliolographs ni iindergi.'idn.ile's .11 e - l n . - '"
234 Notes to Chapter Two
were taken in the 19505 and 19603. These photos, which had been stored at the Notes to Chapter
r^i Two 235
i n 235
National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian, featured full frontal and siilr Cantrill, "The 1901 Cinematography of Walter Baldwin Spencer," Cantrill's Film-
poses, and were used by scientists to study the link between body shape and posturv notes 37-38 (April 1982): 41.
49
Those photographed, including many individuis now in powerful positions such as Spencer placed Australian Aborigines n compounds in Darwin and implemented
Hillary Clinton and Diane Sawyer, had sufflcient clout to lobby successfully for t h r many racist laws directed against Aborigines and Asians. Most of the information on
destruction of such photos (Ron Rosenbaum, "The Great Ivy League Nude Postuic Spencer is taken from the excellent arricie by Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, ibid., 26-
Photo Scandal," New York Times Magazine, 15 January 1995, 26-31, 40, 46, s.s-s' 1 , 42, 56. I disagree, however, with their conclusin that permisson from the Arunta
and "Museum Shreds Nude Photos of Former Students at Yale," New York Times. Tribal Council should not be a precondition for viewing these films. They arge that
29 January 1995, 14). Needless to say, nude photographs of indigenous peoples .un
(56). and photography are our 'objects,' and they transcend the 'pro-flmic' subjects"
"Film
other people of color from the same period are not greeted with comparable shork
and disapproval by dominant society, or are the people photographed likely to havr Spencer was encouraged to use film by British anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon
sufflcient clout to demand the destruction of the images. who had also used film on the r898 Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the
39 In this sense, ethnography is also inscription, as Ira Jacknis explains: "An ethnoj'.i.i Torres Strait Islands, and who called film not only "an indispensable piece of anthro-
phy is the description of a single culture, usually foreign to the dcscriber. . . . Al t In pological apparatus," but also an endeavor which could be profitable if footage was
heart of ethnography, the initial act making all the rest possible is the act of ins ; /; > sold for use in commercial cinema (lan Dunlop, "Ethnographic Filmmaking in Aus-
tion, the flxing in permanent form of selected aspects of the field of socioculnn.il tralia: The First Seventy Years [1898-1968]," Studies in Visual Communication 9,
meaning. The process moves in stages of revisin and analysis, resulting in the l i n . i l no. i [winter 1983]: n).
presentation, usually in the form of written ethnography." I have found f a c k n r . < \ Walter Baldwin Spencer, "The Argus"( 1902), quoted in Cantrill and Cantrill, 38.
explanation of inscription and presentation to be quite useful (Ira Jacknis, "h.m \ Rudolf Pch, quoted in Paul Spindler, "New Guinea 1904-1906," Science and Film 8,
Boas and Photography," Studies in Visual Communication 10, no. i [1984]: 2- i) no. i (March 1959): u.
40 Mary Ann Doane, "Film and the Masquerade: Theorizing the Female Spectatoi," m \ Kudolf Pch, "Reisen in Neu-Guinea in den fahren 1904-1906," Zeitschrift fr F.lh-
Femmes Fatales: Feminism, Film Theory, Psychoanalysis (New York: R o u i l n l i - . iiologie (1907): 382-400.
1991), 18-19. \.| Spindler, 10-14,-and Pch, 395.
41 Ibid., 19. i , l'ch footage has been edited to produce the film Neu Guinea, 1904-1906, available
42 It is not my aim to survey all of anthropological research film in whatfollows. A >......I .u the Institu fr den wissenschaftlichen Film, Gttingen, Germany.
survey is found in Emilie de Brigard, "The History of Ethnographic Film," in /'MU. i \t: (>nc example is Roben Gardner's DeadBirds (1961), a film which takes as its theme
pies of Visual Anthropology, ed. Paul Hockings (The Hague: Mouton, 1 97 s I, i i i i i lie life of the Dani, an ethnic group centered in highland New Guinea. An opening
and Claudia Springer, "Ethnocentric Circles: A Short History of Ethnograph i i I i ! i u i n i c r t i t l e declares, "The people in the film merely did what they had done before we
The Independent (December 1984): 13-18. i .une and, for those who are not dead, as they do now that we have left."
43 Regnault, "Le role du cinema en ethnographie," 304. \ I IMS film may be seen at the National Film Archives in London, under the title
44 Ibid., 306. 1l-'ilin,"
1 i H res 16-17.
Strait]. See lan Dunlop, 11,- Spindler; and de Brigard, "History of Ethnographic
45 E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mytholo^v. l'ln
losophy, Religin, Language, An and Custom (London, 1871), 2:200-201, q i m i i .1 ni u INi'ii
i l m Guinea, 1904-1906 by Rudolf Pch at the Institu fr den wissenschaftlichen
in Gttingen.
George W. Stocking Jr., "The Ethnographic Sensibility of the 19205 and t h e I h u i l l n I
of the Anthropological Tradition," in Romantic Motives: Essays on Anlhm/n >/< " >. ,l n i ncd in Le de Heusch, The Cinema and Social Science: A Survey of Ethnographic
Sensibility, ed. George W. Stocking Jr., History of Anthropology, vol. (> (M.nli-inii , / / ; < / SociologJcal Films, Reports and Papers in the Social Sciences, vol. 16 (Pars:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 209. IINKSCO, 1962), 18. De Heusch argued that although cinema was ola magic eye, it
46 Martin Taureg, "The Development of Standards for Scientiflc Films in G n u u n I H, 1 1 u i Id l>c ":i marvelous corrector of impressions." And when the subject is gesture, he
nography," Studies in Visual Communication 9, no. i (winter 1983): 22 M HijXi-.sicd, 'i'm "rightly belongs to cinematographic writing" (25).
47 George W. Stocking Jr., "The Ethnographer's Magic: Field work in Brilisli A m l n - i . . . I li.i l.icknis, "The Picturesquc and the Scientfic: Franz Boas's Plan for Anthropologi-
ogy from Tylor to Malinowski," in Observis Observad: sxtivs <>n /'.//i/inrM/i/ili i , i l I i l n m i a k i n g , " Vi.siuil Anthrti/ioloxy i, no. i (1987): 63.
Fieldwork, ed. George W. Stocking Jr., History <>/ Antliropolt>xy, vol i Mtdllfl I |,n kms, "l-'r.mz Boas and l'hotography,"42.
University of Wisconsin Press, 1983), 79. I.iv K n l i y , "Franz Boas and Larly (.'amera Sludy o Mehavior," Kinesis 3, no. i (fall
Walter Baldwin Spencer, Ai'ross Australia ( u j i . ' l , quoted m A i l h i u .nul t i'i.'i 11 << i i l:or ni oic un Diinham and I t u r s i n sce ilie r o i i H u d i n g chaptcr.
I h i l i k r Kiy.iuiill, howcvcr, h c r s l a l r d . u n w.is 11 ir i - x p l a n a i u n o culi mal l o t a l i l les
236 Notes to Chapter Two
Notes to Chapter Two 237
the whole cultureand she argued that an anthropologist must first conduct a cul- 69 See Margaret Mead, An Anthropologist at Work (New York: Avon, 1959): 16, quoted
tural study hefore fllming anything (Asen Balikci, "Visual Anthropology: The Legacy in Balikci, "Visual Anthropology: The Legacy of Margaret Mead."
of Margaret Mead," unpublished paper presented at the annual meeting of the Com- 70 Chiozzi, 18. Since the 19808, Native Americans and Inuit/Alaskan Eskimo in North
mission on Visual Anthropology, 1985; Ira Jacknis, "Margaret Mead and Gregory America have been recontextualizing images from early ethnographic pholography
Bateson in Bali: Their Use of Photography and Film," Cultural Anthropology 3, no. 2 and film in their own film and video productions. See chapters 3 and 4 and ihe
[May 1988]: 160-77; Margaret Mead, "Visual Anthropology in a Discipline of Words," conclusin for discussion of media produclion by indigenous peoples.
in Principies of Visual Anthropology, ed. Paul Hockings [The Hague: Mouton, 1974!, 71 Marcel Mauss, "Les lechniques du corps," in Sociologie et anthropologie (Pars:
3-12). Presses Universilaires de France, 1934), 362-86.
In sound films, the voice of the authoritative anthropologist hecame crucial. Mar- 72 Griaule disapproved of the use of reconstructed scenes unless absolutely necessary,-
garet Mead, for example, became a popular scientific icn herself. A leading figure in he also felt that anthropologists should make seprate films specifically intended for
the popularization of cultural anthropology, Mead used footage shot by herself and the public, and did so himself in Au pays Dogon (1938) and Sous les masques noirs
Gregory Bateson for films and televisin shows dealing with comparative studies o (1938). French ethnographic film is best known today, however, for the work of
personality. Prominent examples include Trance and Dance in Bali (1951), Bathiny, directors like Jean Rouch and Le de Heusch who foreground the subjectivity of film,
Babies in Three Cultures (1951), and First Days in the Life of a New Guinea Baby declaring that true ethnographic film must be participatory, collaborative cinema.
(1951). Although many of Mead's films, oftcn staple films of undergraduate introduc 73 According to Alan Feldman, early Germn anthropology focused on the diffusionist
tory anthropology courses, focus on themes like child-rearing which might be con theories of ihe Kulturkreis school and was less concerned with participant observa-
sidered "women's" themes, her stance is decidedly that of the Scientist, the authoril v tion than with the collecting and categorizing of data concerning cultural traits,
who expounds upon the timeless, stable essences of "primitive cultures." A propn activities, and behaviors. Accordingly, Germn ethnographic films tend to hold the
nent of what was called the Culture and Personality school within U.S. cultm.il subject at a distancc (the camera as a "fourth wall"), with long takes, clear foreground
anthropology, Mead classified cultures psychoanalytically, giving particular aticn and background differentiation, and liltle or no intertitle commentary. The K u l -
don to child-rearing practices, and altitudes toward sex. I discuss Mead in mon turkreis emphasis on material aspeis of cullure and quantitative analysis of cu11 nraI
detail in chapter 5. artifacts may explain in part why Germn ethnographic film tcnds to f rain e dances
64 Flix Regnault, "Films et muses d'ethnographic." and rituals much as dioramas in natural history museum displays to, rathcr t h a n
65 Johannes Fabin, Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Object (New attempting to pentrate cultural life with the intrusive camera movcmcm, cise
York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 92. ups, and point-of-view shots more characteristic of later British ethnographic f i l m
66 James Clifford, "On Collecting Art and Culture," in The Predicament of Culiin, (Alan Feldman, Notes for the Asia Society film festival, "Germany in Asia," Febru.ny
Twentieth-century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: l l . n v . n . l 1989). Also see Le de Heusch, The Cinema and Social Science, 21.
University Press, 1988), 228. /,) Gnther Spannaus, "Vergleich ethnographischer Topfereifilme ais Beispiel fr die
67 Even if ethnographic film has not triumphed in the academy, Regnault's visin "I > wissenschaftliche Auswertung von enzyklopdischem Filmmaterial," Research
museum or archive of film remains apowerful ideal. There are many contcni|>i.n \s which echo Regnault'sI:ilm aspiration:
2, no. 5 in his choreometrics
(1957): 251-55, cited project, t l i r25.
in Taureg, u '.For a list of strict guidelines for
ethnographic filmmakers at the IWF, see Institu fr den wissenschaftlichen Film,
anthropologist Alan Lomax aspired to collect footage of all the dances of tlu- w< .1 l . l "Rules for Documentation in Ethnology and Folklore," Research Film 3, no. 4(1959):
Using the classification system developed by George P. Murdock, who worki-il n u i l . . ?, }K-4O.
Human Relations rea files at Yale University, Lomax outlined seven ru 1 e s I I ' , B.ilikci, "Visual Anthropology," and Feldman.
ing films to be included in archives of comparative movement (Paolo C h i n , v i , "\>< < Kohcrt Proclor, "From Anthropologie lo Rassenkunde in ihe Germn Anlhropologi-
flections on Ethnographic Film with a General Bibliography," Visual Anthran>hn\ i . i l Tradition," in Bones, Bodies, Behavior: Essays on Biological Anthropology, ed.
[1989]: 15, 12-23). Similarly, the Institu fr den wissenschaftlichcn Film <mu l .Vorgc W. Stocking Jr., History of Anthropology, vol. 5 (Madison: University of
to collect and make films with an undying faith in film as objectivc dociiim l Wisconsin Press, 1988), 138-79.
in France, Jean-Dominique Lajoux at the Centre national de la recherc-lu- se i < 1 1 1 1 1 1 . |< n ' Asen Balikci, "Anthropology, Film and ihe Arclic Peoples," Anthropology Today 5,
is working on an archive of movemenls, a collection of films o how pn,|.l. IniA no ?. (April 1989): 9; and Balikci, "Visual Anthropology." The emphasis on func-
around the world eat, sleep, sit, and perform other hasic tasks. tionalist explanation in British social anthropology tended to make British anthro-
68 f. W. Powell, "Twenly-Third Annual Report of ihc Burean o American l i l n i o l " i , pologists less interested in ainassing so-ealledpositivist records, including film, and
Annual Report, Burean of American Ethnology 23 (1901 ?.): x v i . I t l i . i n k l i . i I < I "< i r l . n i v r l y more interested in constructing analytic theories concerning social and
for poinling out this articlc to me. poltica! s l n i c t n i c s .
238 Notes to Chapter Two
Notes to Chapter Three 239
78 M. W. Hilton-Simpson and J. A. Haeseler, like Haddon, Spencer, and Boas, perceived 5 Jacknis, "The Picturesque and the Scientific."
the commercial heneflts of anthropological film, and speciflcally noted the proflt
6 George W. Stocking Jr., Victorian Anthropology (New York: Free Press, 1987), 289.
that could be made in selling footage to commercial interests. They discuss the
7 Christopher Hussey, The Picturesque: Studies in a Point of View (London: Archon
importance of using telephoto lenses in order to take in scenes without the natives' Books, 1967,- orig. publ. 1927), 4, 14.
awareness, and even describe fllming a woman as she is sleeping (M. W. Hilton-
8 Richard Payne Knight, Analytical Inqury into the Principies of Taste (1805), cited in
Simpson and J. A. Haeseler, "Cinema and Ethnology," Discovery 6 [1915]: 318). ibid., 79-80.
79 Anthony R. Michaelis, Research Films in Biology, Anthropology, Psychology, and
9 Sara Suleri, The Rhetoric of English India (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
Medicine (New York: Academic Press, 1955), 199. 1992), 76.
80 Christopher M. Lyman, The Vanishing Race and Other Illusions: Photographs of
10 I thank Jeanne Beausoleil and the excellent staff at the Archives for their generous
Indians by Edward S. Curts (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,
assistance and for providing information on Albert Kahn. See also Jeanne Beausoleil,
1982), 69. Luke Lyon writes that the footage reproduced in T. C. McLuhan's film on
Curtis, The Shadow Catcher (1975), is reproduced incorrectly as a mirror imagc "Au service d'un ideal de comprhension internationale: les oprateurs d'Albert
(Lyon, "History of the Prohibition of Photography of Southwestern Indian Cere- Kahn dans le monde," in Le cinema franeis muet dans le monde, influences recipro-
ques: Symposium de la FIAF (Pars: Cinmathque de Toulouse-msdtut Jean Vigo,
monies," unpublished paper).
1988), 61-69; Jeanne Beausoleil and Catherine Fortassier, "'Les archives de la pla-
81 Most museums have film collections, but the general emphasis is on the use of film
nte' d'Albert Kahn," Prestige de la photographie 3 (December 1977): 40-65,- and
for public education, rather than for research. In 1981, for example, Richard Sorenson
established the Human Studies Film Archives (a collection of travelogues and eth Jeanne Beausoleil, "La plante d'Albert Kahn," Les nouvelles littraires 2658 (12-
19 October 1978): u.
nographic cinema of all genres) at the Smithsonian Institution. Nevcrtheless, mosi
r i Mary Louise Pratt, "Scratches on the Face of the Country,- or, What Mr. Barrow Saw
anthropologists do not choose to study films about the cultures of the peoples pe u
trayed such as those at the HSFA; instead, such facilities are used more often l>v in the Land of the Bushmen," in "Race," Writng, and Difference, ed. Henry Louis
Gates Jr. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 143.
scholars doing research on film history, or the history of visual anthropology.
12 Films in which white women were unclothed were also prevalent in medical .mil
82 For more on recent African American women's photography, see Fatimah Tobirt|
social science films of women classificd as pathological, criminal, or hoinosi-xn.il
Rony, " 'We Must First See Ourselves': Documentary Subversions in Contempoi.n \n Women's Photography," in Personal Narratives: Women / ' / i < > / < >
See Lisa Cartwright's Screening the Body: TracingMedicines Visual (.'IJ///HC ( M u
neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995).
graphers of Color, exhibition catalog (Winston-Salem: Southeastern Center for ( C u
i i Charles Musser concludes that the travel film engenders a particular niodi- o p r n r p
temporary Art, 1993), 11-15.
tion which he calis "separation": just as the passenger on a train walches ilie lam
83 Regnault was one of the first to consider "les techniques du corps," or body i < . I.
iques, as a subject in its own right, and his work paved the way for Marcel M.m-- scape whiz by and experiences it as separation, so does the vicwer expeliente a i l i n .
ideas on the body as the first instrument of culture. This association of a cincm.ii See Charles Musser, "The Travel Genre in 1903-1904: Moving towards l ; ictional
Narrative," in Early Cinema: Space, Fame, Narrative, ed. Thomas Elsaesser (Lon-
interest in temporalizing the body and ethnographythe langage par gentes > M don: British Film Institutc, 1992), 123-32.
tinues today: when someone calis a scene in a commercial film "ethnographic," 1" '"
i I li. B. Tylor, Primitive culture: Researches into the development of mythology, ph-
she is likely referring to a scene in which ordinary gesture and physicnl d u . n l m
losophy, religin, language, art and custom (London, 1871), 2:200201, quoted in
highlighted, a tableau of the picturesque which is suggestive of a prior aiithun n IM
George W. Stocking Jr., "The Ethnographic Sensibility of the 19205 and the Dualism
of the Anthropological Tradition," in Romantic Motives: Essays on Anthropological
3 Gestures of Self-Protection Sensibility, ed. George W. Stocking Jr., History of Anthropology, vol. 6 (Madison:
I Inivcrsity of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 209.
1 George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays (New York: 1 l a m u n i , Hu ti
Irlix Mesguich, quoted in Andr F. Liotard, Samivel, and Jean Thvenot, Cinema
& World, 1950), 8. ll'exploration: cinema au long cours (Pars: P.-A. Chavane, 1950), 28.
2 Flix Regnault, "L'histoire du cinema: son role en anthropologie," Hulli-im: , / un 1
I lolincs's logo of a white silhouette of a white man in a bush hat typified this style of
moires de la Sacete d'anthropologie de Pars 3d tome 7th ser (6 July n>\] i n i n i s t posscsson.
3 Ira Jacknis, "The Picturesque and the Scientific: Franz Boas's Plan loi A n i l i i n | , , , | n n l
I lie niost filmed dance n the United States was the Hopi Snake dance at Walpi,
cal Filmmaking," Visual Anthropology i, no. i (1987): 61.
Ai i.'.(iim, in which the Antelope and Snake societies handlcd and danced with snakes.
4 Ibid. For Boas's discussion of "isolable actions," see Ira lacknis, 'T'i.m. r> i
l ' l n - first film of this dance was made in 1898, possihly by Thomas Edison (Luke
Photography," Studies in Visual CottUOlUiCOtOtt i < > , no. i ( i 1)84): ,]>..
I v o n , " l l i s l o i y o (lie- Prohibition of Photography of Southwestern Indian Cere-
240 Notes to Chapter Three Notes to Chapter Three 241
monies," unpublished paper; and Emilie de Brigard, "The History of Ethnographic 29 In The River of Doubt (1913^4, compiled 1928?), available at the Library of Con-
Film," in Principies of Visual Anthropology, ed. Paul Hockings [The Hague: Mouton, gress, a film of an expedition sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History
1975], captionof pate 7). and the Brazilian government, the Indians are described as "wilder and more primi-
According to Luke Lyon, authorities often clashed with the photographers. In tive than anyone we carne across in frica." The men who paddle for Roosevelt are
1913, for example, Indian agent Leo Crane chased Victor Miller of Pathe's Weekly (a compared to animis: "Men of the forest, lithe as panthers, brawny as bears. They
pictorial news service) through the desert, knowing that Miller's film of Hopi dances swam like waterdogs." In contras!, Roosevelt is hailed as a great hunter, geographcr,
would be used for commercial purposes, rather than "private or historical purposes." and discoverer of an unknown river.
In 1911, Charles Burke, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, banned certain Indian Another example of the exploration genre is Cari Lumholtz's In Borneo, Land of
dances, feeling that they encouraged "savagery." The Native Americans themselves the Headhunters(i<)i6), available at the National Film Archives in London. The film
chose to prohibit photographing of many of their dances, citing exploitation; they focuses on the explorer as hero with scenes of the Dayak population in between. The
also feared that the pictures might be used as evidence against them. Many Native first intertitle declares, "These are the first motion pictures ever taken in Borneo.
Americans of the Southwest would jump in front of the camera, throw sand or rocks, They were secured by Dr. Lumholtz, scientist and explorer, during two years spent
and even break cameras to prevent fllming. among the native tribes." Despite the serious opening, the film adopts a joking style
when it comes to the interaction of Lumholtz and the Dayak. When Lumholtz goes
18 Musser, 117.
19 Both are at the National Film Archives in London. to a village and views some nativos dancing, for example, humor is meant to be
20 Burln Holmes, Burton Holmes: The Man Who Photographed the World, ed. Genoa evoked when he joins in the dancing, accompanying "the most beautiful maiden."
Caldwell (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1977), 23. Other intertitles joke that it may be difficult to see that "this Saputan swimmer is a
21 This is in the collections of the Library of Congress. man" and "Young Murung Dayaks display a monkey-like agility in climbing."
22, One express aim of at least some of Holmes's films was explicitly to promote tourism 30 Herbert Tynes Cowling's Some Tribes of Central frica (1922), another African film
His film The Melting Fot of the Pacific (192 3 ?), f or example, was commissioned by 11 u safari, features many exploitative close-ups of African women's bodies.
World Travel Department of the U.S. Shipping Board to promote tourism in Haw;ii i i, i Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, trans. Richard Howard
23 The Nederlands Filmmuseum in Amsterdam has four recently restored films froin (New York: Hill and Wang, 1981), 77.
this period. The films include works for the Colonial Institute by a man naiuol (2 Nina J. Root, ed., Catalog of the American Museum of Natural History l:i/m Ar-
Lamster, and for Path Frres, and feature court dances in what is today Indom-M.i. chives (New York: American Museum of Natural History Department of Lilirary
the arrival of the Resident (local Dutch colonial officer) at his post, a colonial p n s< > 11 Services, 1987), xv. Almost all of the anthropological museums in the United States
in Batavia (now Jakarta) with scenes of orderly prison life, and rice farming arnony, 11 sponsored lectures which used lantern slides and sometimes film: for example, the
Karo Batak in North Sumatra. Lamster began to make colonial films in 1912, pmli.i University of Archaelogy/Anthropology in Philadelphia showed lantern slides from
bly hiring a French camera operator. The films were used as visual aids at I > the Dixon Wanamaker Expedition and sponsored van Valin's expedition.
tures given by the Colonial Instituto in Amsterdam. I thank the archivists UHJ-.M i 11 Another Great White Hunter filmmaker who made both ethnographic and scripted
Schmeele and Maryke von Kester for this Information. films abroad was Hans Hermann Schomburgk, whose films made in Togo (1913) and
24 Patrick O'Reilly, "Le 'documentaire' ethnographique en Ocanie," in Premit'i < iitii Liberia (1922-23) are available at the Institut fr den wissenschaftlichen Film in
logue slectif international de films ethnographiques sur la regin du I'm i / i . / n . Gottingen, Germany. Schomburgk was part of a small group of white hunters who
(Paris: UNESCO, 1970), 289-90. hecame famous as great explorers/filmmakers. In his film The White Goddess of
25 See Linda Williams, "Film Body: An Implantation of Perversions," in N i i i i i i m , Wangora (1913) starring Meg Gehrts, the story is of a white woman, worshipped by
Apparatus, Ideology: A Film Theory Reader, ed. Phil Rosen (New York: C 'olum! i Africans, who later falls in love and runs off with a white big game hunter. The Togo
University Press, 1986), 507-34. locis were used as extras (Caroline Alexandcr, "The White Goddess of the Wan-
26 This jokeof the married man flirting with native girls only to be hev.klol In In f.ora," New Yorker[S April 1991): 43-76).
spouseoccurs again andagain in the films of this period. See, e.g., "Fatty .mil M.ilili il The anthropologist Baldwin Spencer himself had already done this in lectures; he
at the San Diego Exposition" (Keystone, 1915), in which a white man in Invr w i i l i loiind that film of the Arunta, humorous to white audicnccs, could be used to attract
"South Seas woman" at the fair is beatcn by his wife. proplc to his talks (Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, "The 1901 Cinematography of
27 See Gastn Mlis, Le voyage autour du monde de a !. Males Munulin innn Wallcr Baldwin Spencer," Cantrill's Filrnnotes 37-38 [April 1982]: 26-42, 56). See
Company (July gi2-May 1913) (Pars: Association "Les amis de Gi-oij-.r-. M ! > M a r t n Johnson, Cannibal-I.and: Adventures with a Camera in the NewHebrides
1988), and Patrick Mclnroy, "The American Mlis," Sight and Sound Ini'iniil |Ilusin: Houghton M i f f l i n , 1922), and Pascal James Impcrato and Eleanor M. Imper-
Film Quarterly (autumn 1979): is<) si .110, 'I'licy Marricd Adventurc: 'l'lic Wandering Lives of Martin and Osa ohnson
7,K For a dse ripl ion of RoOStVtlt in A/r/cn srr T/ir Moving ' / r u i c Wotltl, (> s '>< \y |Ncw BruiiswK'k, N.|.: lUilgris U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1992) for more on the Johnsons.
Notes to Chapter Four 243
Notes to Chapter Three the ethnographic exhibition (see chapter i). Franz Boas pioneered the display of ar-
tif acts by culture group instead of by evolutionary schemes, with an emphasis on the
35 Intertitlein the film Simba. . ' "Ufe group," or set of figures in native costume engaged in some sort of work or art
Suleri, 108.
36 Jacob W. Gruber, "Ethnographic Salvage and the Shaping of Anthropology," Ameri- process. But the divide between science and art needed to be clearly drawn. Boas, for
37 example, argued that mannequins should not look too realistic: "No figure, however
can Anthtopologist 172 (1970): 1297.
well it may have been gotten up, will look like man himself. If nothing else, the lack
Ira Jacknis, "The Picturesque and the Scientific," 61.
38 Joseph K. Dixon in Wanamaker Primer on the North American Indian (Philadelphia: of motion will show at once that there is an attempt at copying nature, not nature
39 Wanamaker Originator, rgog), 44, quoted in Susan Applegate Krouse, "Filming the itself. When the figure is absolutely lifelike the lack of motion causes a ghastly
Vanishing Race," in Visual Explorations of the World: Selected Papers /rom the impression such as we notice in wax-figures. For this reason the artistic effect will be
International Conference on Visual Communication, ed. Jay Ruby and Martin Tau- better when we bear in mind this fact and do not attempt too cise an approach to
reg (Aachen: Edition Herodot irn. Rader-Verlag, 1987), 257. Curtis's contemporary nature; that is to say, since there is a line of demarcation between nature and plstic
Joseph Dixon actually wrote a book entitled The Vanishing Race (1913). Like Curts, art, it is better to draw the line consciously than to try to hide it" j Franz Boas, Frederic
Dixon was a white photographer and filmmaker of Native Americans. See Susan Ward Putnam Papers: Correspondence, 7 November 1896, quoted in Ira Jacknis,
Applegate Krouse, "Photographing the Vanishing Race," Visual Anthropology 3, nos. "Franz Boas and Exhibits," 102).
53 Holm and Quimby, 65.
2-3(19901:213-33.
Lois Flury, "A Magnificent Obsession," Pacific Northwest (January-February 1984] 54 Barthes, 115.
40 55 Jay Ruby, "A Reexamination of the Early Career of Robert J. Flaherty," Quarterly
24-43. Review of Film Studies 5, no. 4 (fall 1980): 456.
See chapter 2 for discussion of the film of the Yeibichai ceremony.
41 Mick Gidley, "From the Hopi Snake Dance to 'The Ten Commandments': Edward S
42 Curts as Filmmaker," Studies in Visual Communication 8, no. 3 (summer 1982): 7 i
4 Taxidermy and Romantic Ethnography
7 3. See chapter 2 for discussion on how the Yeibichai dance was performedbackwards.
When rereleased in the 19805, the lm's title was changed to In the Land of the Wni 1 Arthur Calder-Marshall, The Innocent Eye: The Life of Robert f. Flaherty [New York:
43 Harcourt, Brace &. World, r963), 72.
Canoes.
Edward S. Curts, In the Land of the Headhunters: Indian Life and Indian / , < > / r 2 Joseph E. Senungetuk, Give or Take a Century: An Eskimo Chronicle (San Francisco:
44 Indian Historian Press, 1971), 25.
(Yonkers-on-Hudson, N.Y.: World Book, 1915).
Cited in Bill Holm and George Irving Quimby, Edward S. Curts in the Land o! i !>< 3 Asen Balikci, "Anthropology, Film and the Arctic Peoples," Anthropology Today s,
45 War Canoes: A Pioneer Cinematographer in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle: U n i v n no. 2 (April 1989): 7. Among the popular culture tems Nanook spawned wcrc ice
cream bars (in Germany) and a song (Erik Barnouw, Documentary: A History of the
sity of Washington Press, 1980): 113.
Ira Jacknis, "Franz Boas and Photography," 12. See also Jacknis, "Franz Boas .un Non-Fiction Film [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), 43].
46 Exhibits: On the Limitations of the Museum Method of Anthropology," in ( ) l > / < < i 4 Andr F. Liotard, Samivel, and Jean Thvenot, Cinema d'exploration: cinema au long
and Others, ed. George W. Stocking Jr., History of Anthropology, vol. 3 (Madr cours (Paris: P.-A. Chavane, 1950), 43, and Andr Bazin, "The Evolution of the Lan-
guage of Cinema," in What Is Cinema! trans. and ed. Hugh Gray (Berkeley: Univer-
University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 75-111.
For more on Hunt, see Ira Jacknis, "George Hunt, Collector of Indian Specnnrir,. u sity of California Press, 1967), 1:23-40.
47 Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlach, ed. Aldona Jonaitis (New v . , i l Le de Heusch, The Cinema and Social Science: A Survey of Ethnographic and So-
American Museum of Natural History, 1991), 177-224. ciological Films, vol. 16, Reports and Papers in the Social Sciences (Paris: UNESCO,
1962), 37.
Jacknis, "Franz Boas and Photography," 44-47.
48 I am not dismissing the fact that smoke was an important symbol and I m n i )o-Anne Birnie Danzker writes, "Research with Inuit participants in Nanook of the
49 Communication in Native American communitics. However, the qiicst w.n. .ii'i' 1 ' North is in its initial stages. It would appear, however, that none of the leading
ently not a prevalent ritual among the Kwakwaka'wakw at the time, aiTonlm)'. i rliaracters were identified by their actual ames; that Allakariallak's (Nanook's)
community members, and smoke was afittingmotif in Curtis's work w l n c li > n i p u dothing was not indigenous to the regin; that the contrived sequences were highly
sized the picturesque to represent Native Americans as "vanishing peoplr-. " .ising to the Inuit; that the seal hunt was contrived. It is also possible that the
Anonymous, "Ethnology in Action," The Independan ( 1 1 (anuary u n , ) Lis-hunting sequence had been shot in 1914 or 1916 as part of Flaherty's earlier
5 lhns, cithcr in the Ottawa or Belcher Islands" (Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, ed., Robert
quoted in Gidley, 7 5.
Vachel Lindsay, T/ic An of llic Moving ' i r l u r r , rev. ed. (New Yoik: l . i v i - i u ' . l n i . l : l i i l n ' t l v Photographer/Pilmmaker: Tin- liniil 1^10-1922 [Vancouver: Vancouver
51 A i i ( l a l l r r y , i <)Ko|, (r?.). ames spelled w i t h question marks are Danzker's spelling.
111)7?.|), 1 1 4 , as quoted in ( l i d l e y , '70.
- n i l i i i i o| i l i r "bronzc" (n dcsi l l l n - Wc.( A l i n u n
244 Notes to Chapter Four
Notes to Chapter Four 245
7 Bazin, 1:27.
8 Charles Waterton, Essays on Natural History Chiefly Ornithology (London, 1838), in "Desire in Narrative," in Alice Doesn't: Femiaism, Semiotics, Cinema (Bloom-
300-304, quoted in Stephen Bann, The Clothing of Clio: A Study of the Representa- ington: Indiana University Press, 1984), 103-57. De Lauretis writes that Freud's
tion of History in Nineteenth-century Britain and France (Cambridge: Cambridge question of what is femininity "acts precisely as the impulse, the desire that will gen-
University Press, 1984), 17. rate a narrative" (111). In the narratives I am considering, of course, it is not only the
9 Bann, 15. female body which must be slain, but that of the indigenous person, male or female.
10 Donna Haraway, "Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Carden of Edn, New 20 For an excellent summary of the representation of the Inuit and Alaskan Eskmo by
York City, 1908-1936," Social Text: Theory/Culture/Ideology n (winter 1984-85): Euro-Americans, seo Ann Fienup-Riordan, Eskmo Essays: Yup'ik Lives and How We
25. The metaphor of taxidermya form of reprcscntation which is infused with an See Them (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990), 11-23.
acknowledgement of death, but also a desire "to be whole"describes a plethora 21 Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of
of technologies popular at the turn of the century used to represent the human the English Nation in Twelve Volumes, vol. 7 (1589; repr., New York: Augustus M.
body, including photography, film, and wax figures. Vanessa R. Schwartz arges that Kelley, 1969), 305, quoted in ibid., 12. Another example was a newspaper account
wax models of crime victims at the morgue and at the Muse Grevin (such models which explained that Minik Wallace who returned to Smith Sound aftcr many years
were extremely popular in Pars) were important precursors to cinema (Vanessa R. in the United States soon became a "full-fledged 'huskic'" (Kenn Harper, Give Me My
Schwartz, "The Public's Taste for Reality: The Morgue, Wax Museums and Early Father's Body: The Life of Minik the New York Eskimo [Frobisher Bay, N.W.T.: Black-
leadBooks, 1986], 149).
Mass Culture in Fin-de-sicle Pars," paper presented at the Society for Cinema Stud-
ies Conference, New Orleans, La., 11-14 February 1993). 22 J. Garth Taylor, "An Eskimo Abroad, 1880: His Diary and Death," Canadian Geo-
11 Robert Flaherty, quoted in Richard Corliss, "Robert Flaherty: The Man in the Iron graphic 101, no. 5 (October-November 1981): 38-43. Jacobsen's collection of eth-
Myth," in Nonfiction Film Theory and Criticism, ed. Richard Meran Barsam (New nographic artifacts would become the core of the collections at the Berlin Royal
York: E. P. Dutton, 1973), 234. Ethnographic Museum, where Franz Boas later worked. In 1881, Jacobsen collccircl
12 Johannes Fabin, Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Object (New Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) artifacts in the same part of Canad where Boas s i i u l
York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 84-87. ied. In 1883 Boas went to Baffinland himself to collect Inuit artifaets and e x h u m e
bones from graves surreptitiously. In 1886 Jacobsen brought a group o Bella ('ool.i
13 Ibid., 85.
14 I am borrowing here from Naomi Greene's insightful use of Mircea Eliade's dcscrip Indians to Berlin, an event which sparked Boas's own interest iu Northwcsl * 'o.i.-.i
tion of the mythic for her analysis of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films of the 19608. Slu Indians. See Ira Jacknis, "Franz Boas and Exhihts: On the Limita t i us ni i l u - Muse um
quotes Eliade on the sacrifice: "[Every sacrifice] repeats the initial sacrifice and com Methodof Anthropology,"in ObjectsandOthers, ed. Georgc W. Slockinj; |i , lli:ii\f Anthropology, vol
cides with it. . . . And the same holds truc for all repetitions, i.e., all imitations ni
23 Peter Matthiessen, "Survival of theHunter/'A'eu' Vor/cer (24 A p n l i w s ) / s
archetypes; through such imitations, man is projected into the mythical epoih m
which the archetypes were first revealed. Thus we perceive a second aspect of pi 7,4 Harper, 4, 12-33. This book contains many of Minik's letters. M m i k ' s l a i n i l y was
tive ontology: insofar as an act (or an object) acquires a certain reality througli i l i < also studied by anthropologist Alfred Kroeber who would later write paperson Ishi, a
repetition of certain paradigmatic gestures, and acquires it through that alone, i In M Yahi Indian forced to live in a museum. See Theodora Kroeber, Ishi in Two Worlils: A
is an implicit abolition of profane time, of duration, of 'history'; and he wlm n Biography ofthe Last Wild Indian in North America (Berkelcy: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1961).
produces the exemplary gesture thus finds himself transponed into the n i y i l m .il >.s Harper, 99.
epoch in which its revelation took place" (The Myth of the Eternal Return, I I . I N > > Minik Wallace, quoted in ibid., 132.
Willard Trask [London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1955], 35, quoted in Naomi C l i n m
Pier Paolo Pasolini: Cinema as Heresy [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990! > / Thomas W. Kavanaugh, "A Brief Illustrated History of the Manikins, Statues, Lay-
Figures, and Life-Groups Illustrating American Ethnology in the National Museum
167).
15 Siegfried Kracauer, Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Realily ( N e w Y . . . I of Natural History," unpublished paper (16 June 1990). Kavanaugh points out that the
Oxford University Press, 1960), 273. same model was used by the Smithsonian for a Jivaro Indian and a Samoan youth.
JK
Stoeking points out that the anthropologist John Lubbock, in his Origin of Civilisa-
16 Ibid., 273-74.
17 Robert Flaherty, Rccorded BBC Talks, London, 14 June, 25 July, 5 Scplcmln i i < > | > i l ion (1870), suggested that Eskimo did well for themselves considering their environ-
quoted in Jay Ruby, "A Reexamination of the Early Career of Rohert |. 1'l.iln n \ Reviewof Film Studies ment,
5, no. 4but that
(fall they448.
1980): could not achieve progress without civilized ntervention (Stock -
ing, Victorian Anthropology [New York: Free Press, 1987], 154).
Fienup-Riordan/ ifi.
18 Andr Bazin, "The Ontology of the l'hotographic Imagc," in Bazin, i :i).
19 lam refcrring hcre to Teresa de Laurel is'sdeseript ion o the Oedipal lgico! i i . n i . n i i i This charaetcrization is present in anthropological litcrature as well. As recently as
i>)8?., ilu- Frenen anthropologist Jean Mal.umr describcd going lo study the I n n i l ni
2,46 Notes to Chapter Four
Notes to Chapter Four 247
Thule, Greenland, as "a return to the Stone Age" (Jean Malaurie, The Last Kings of
see Lisa Bloom, Gender on Ice: American Ideologies of Polar Expeditions (Min-
Thule, trans. Adenne Foulke [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982], 19, neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).
quoted in ihid., 21). 38
Bernard Saladin d'Anglure, "Inuit of Quebec," in Arctic, ed. David Damas, vol. 5,
31 Balikci, "Anthropology, Film and the Arctic Peoples," 7.
Handbook of North American Indians (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution,
32 These films, Esquimaux Game of Snap-The-Whip, Esquimaux Leap Frog, and Es- 1984), 500.
quimaux Village, are at the Library of Congress. The camera operators were Edwin S. 39
Ibid., 505. This period was also marked by religious movements among the Quebec
Porter and Arthur White. As an example of the representation of the Alaskan Eskimo
Inuit predicting the end of the world (neither missionary activities or these syn-
at the exhihition, consider the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Paciflc Exposition in Seattle, the
cretic, messianic religious movements were represented in Nanook}.
promotional blurb for which reads "These strange people, existing only on the prod- 40
Erik Barnouw, Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film (Oxford: Oxford
ucts of the icy North, half civilized in their nature, knowing no god, having no laws, University Press, 1983), 33.
no government, unable to read or write, with no history of their antecedents, givc 4i
Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, "Robert Flaherty/Photographer," Studies in Visual Com-
continuous performances of skill, marksmanship, canoeing, dancing, singing ail munication 6, no. 2 (summer rgSo): 9.
seal catching never before seen" ("The Alaska-Yukon-Paciflc Exposition of 1909: 42
For an excellent description of Flaherty's activities durng this period, see fo-Anne
Photographs by Frank Howell," Alaska Journal [summer 1984]: 14, quoted in Fienup
Birnie Danzker, ed., Robert Flaherty Photographer/Flmmaker: The Inuit 1910-
Riordan, 16-17). 1922 (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, rg8o), 52-65, and Ruby, "A Reexamination
Films of U.S., British, Italian, Germn, and French origin fcaturing Inuit includc of the Early Career of Robert J. Flaherty."
33
Wellman Polar Expedition: The Nordpol Expedition (Charles Urban Trading Co., 43
Francs Flaherty from her diary of 17 December 1914, quoted in Danzker, "Robert
1906), A Dash to the North Pole (Kineto, 1909), Fungen junger Eisbaren (Hunting f u i Flaherty/Photographer," 22.
Young Polar Bears) (Imperium Film, 1914), Eine Forschungsexpedition durch di u, 44
Peter Pitseolak, People from Our Side: An Inuit Record of Seekooseelak, the Land of
Nrdliche Eismeer nach Grnland (Mefiter, 1911), and Islands of New Zem bla (C;a \
the People of Cape Dorset, Baffin Land: A Life Story with Photographs (Edmonton:
mont, 1913). These films are located at the National Film Archives in London. HurtigPress, 1975), 87-88.
34 This film is available at the Human Studies Film Archives at the National Muscmn 45
Flaherty's use of drawings shows that he learned from the art of the Inuit. Flaherty
of Natural History. For information on the film I consultad the correspondencc ti Ir < >l
also wrote that he made it a practice to show rushes to the actors; indecd, his own
the Human Studies Film Archives.
photographs show that the Inuit he hired performed all aspects of camera work
35 These bones, said to be those of prehistoric Eskimo, were taken to the Wist.u In
(Danzker, Robert Flaherty Photographer /Filmmaker, 53-54).
stitute of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. ,)6
Christraud Geary, "Photographs as Materials for African History: Some Methodolog-
36 Flaherty was said to have admired Jack London in the South Seas by Martin |olm .< m icalConsiderations,"//isoryin frica 13 (1986): 112.
(r9i2), also an expedition film (Richard Barsam, The Vision of Roben Flaherlv I /i. 17 Danzker, ed., Robert Flaherty Photographet/Filmmaker, 57.
Artist as Myth and Filmmaker [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, I9H8|, i c.| ,|K Barsam, 20.
37 For more on Curtis and Flaherty, see Brian Winston, "Before Grierson, bcfoir I I i IM
James R. Kincaid, "Who Gets to Tell Their Stories?" New York Times Book Review,
herty: The Documentary Film in 1914," Sight and Sound 57, no. 4 (autumn I I J I I M | 3 May 1992, 26-27.
277-79, and Bill Holm and George Irving Quimhy, Edward S. Curtis in the I un,I ni Barnouw, 37.
the War Canoes: A Pioneer Cinematographer in the Pacific Northwest (Sean le U n Barsam, 19.
versity of Washington Press, 1980), 30. BothHolm andQuimby believc that r l . i l n u
Barnouw writes that Flaherty's compositions reflect Inuit drawings (44).
whosaw/n the Land of the Headhunters and asked Curtis for advice, was i n l l i u m > >l
Kicciotto Canudo, "Another View of Nanook," in L'usine aux images (Pars, 1927),
by Curtis in his decisin to film only what appeared traditional, i.e., salv.i) 1 . 1 ' ' '
i rans. Harold J. Salemson, quoted in Lewis Jacobs, ed., The Documentary Ttadition
nography. For the complete diary entry of Robert and Francs Flaherty's vi (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979), 20-21.
Curtis see Jay Ruby, "A Reexamination of the Early Career of Robert J. Flahn i \o films of famous expcditions to the South Pole are Frank Hurley's l i l m "I MI
('(irliss, 231. For a more recent study of Robert Flaherty's films see Barsam.
VilhjalmurStcfanssonargued that the Inuit used guns and did not hunt seis through
Ernest Shackleton's 1914-17 polar expedition, South: Sir Ernest Shackli'.tun i '"
i l i e iee, and asserted that the seal in the film was obviously already dead. He also
ous EpicoftheAntarctic ( i 9 r 9 J , a film which focuseson the expedtion m c m l "I
clrrricd the fake igloo and the accompanying intertitle which explained that the igloo
their camp life, as well as their rescue, and Herbert G. Ponting's Wiih ( ' i i n , i i n Si ii)(
i i n i s t he eolder than freezing (Vilhjalmur Stefansson, The Standardisation of Error
to the South Pole (1911-12, British G a u m o n l ) rclcascd laler as 'l'lic (,if,u \ \ l u i i -
{l.oiulon: Kcgan l'anl, 7'rench, Truhncr, 1929), K6 92, quoted in Paul Rotha with the
Silence (1914), a film of Captain Robert l ; alcon Scolt's i-xpi-ilition lo i l u - S m i i l i r..li
.issistiince o Basil Wright, "Nanook and the North," ftiidies in Visual Communica-
loth (ilins are at I he N a t i o n a l T i l n Archives, l.nndon. l'or nion- on p n l a i c s p i < l < linii 6, no. 2 [sumiller ii)Ho|- so).
248 Notes to Chapter Four
57 DeHeusch, 16-28. 75 James Clifford, "On Ethnographic Self-Fashioning: Conrad and Malinowski," in The
58 Ibid., 35. Predicamentof Culture: Twentieth-centuryEthnography, Literature, andAit(Cam-
59 Ibid., 64. bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988), no.
76 Flaherty, The Captain's Chair, 15.
60 Bazin, 27. 77 Ibid., 312.
61 Bronislaw Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific (New York: E. P. Dutton,
19611,25. 78 Francs Flaherty, "Robert Flaherty: Explorer and Film Maker: The Film of Discovery
62 Fabin, 95, 106-7. and Revelation" (mimeographed c. 1958), 14-15, quoted in Jack C. Ellis, The Docu-
63 Flaherty, quoted in Riehard Griffith, The Wotld of Robert Flaherty (New York: Duell, mentary Idea: A Critical History of English-language Documentary Film and Video
Sloan and Pearce, 1953), 36. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1989).
64 If Margaret Mead's image of Polynesian society in her ethnography Corning of Age in 79 Nanook Revisited contains interviews of Inuit from the reas in which Flaherty
Samoa (1928) was offered as a counterpoint to U.S. society which she saw as puritan, filmed and photographed, but it quickly becomes a film about a man portrayed as a
repressive, and patriarchal, Flaherty's image of the Inuit was a foil for a romantic kind of latter-day Flaherty, John Johnson, the white school principal. His voice,
critique of technology and the machine. See George W. Stocking Jr., "The Ethno- discussing the erosin of Inuit vales, dominates the second half of the fllm. Unlike
graphic Sensibility of the 19205 and the Dualism of the Anthropological Tradition," Mary, the wife of one of Flaherty's Inuit sons, who responds to the fllmmakers'
in Romantic Motives: Essays on Anthropological Sensibility, ed. George W. Stocking questions about Flaherty and Nanook with enigmatic nonanswers, Johnson is eager
Jr., History of Anthropology, vol. 6 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), to explain Inuit culture to the camera. The other Inuit Johnson is shown interacting
208-76. with in the course of the fllmhis Inuit hunting partner and an Inuit schoolteacher
65 Balikci, 6. are neither named or interviewed. Nanook Revisited is aptly titled: it becomes a
film dominated by a white point of view.
66 Robert J. Flaherty, in collaboration with Francs Hubbard Flaherty, My Eskimo
Friends: "Nanook of the North" (Carden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page, 1924). Fui 8o Intrinsic to political activism over land sovereignty is the issue of image sovercign (y,
information on Flaherty's work as a prospector and cartographer, see Robert Flaheri y, in the eyes of many indigenous nations. In Hawaii, for example, native Hawaiian, ur
"The Belcher Islands of Hudson Bay: Their Discovery and Exploration," Geograpl kanaka maoli, fllmmakers are producing video with the support of such organi-
ical Review 5, no. 6 (1918): 433-58; and Flaherty, "Two Traverses across Ungav.i zations as Pacific Islanders in Communication. See Haunani-Kay Trask, Frota ti u
Pennsula, Labrador," GeographicalReview6, no. 2 (1918): 116-32. uve Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai'i (Monroe, Maine: Common
67 Charlie Nayoumealuk (sp?) in the documentary Nanook Revisited (directed l>v Courage Press, 1993), and Fatimah Tobing Rony, "Image Sovereignty," Afterinmx''
Claude Massot, 1988) remembers the fllming of Nanook, and that the Inuit callol 21, no. 7 (February 1994): 4-5; for information on Aboriginal Australian broadcast-
Flaherty an Inuit ame meaning, "tall, left-handedman." In Francs Flaherty's .u ing, see Faye Ginsburg, "Indigenous Media: Faustian Contract or Global Village?"
Cultural Anthropology 6 (February 1991): 92-112.
count of the fllming of Elephant Boy, she refers to Flaherty as Borah Sahib or "C'. KM i
White Chief" (Barsam, 131). K i Interview with Charlie Adams, 9 February 1996, by the author.
68 Flaherty, in collaboration with Francs Hubbard Flaherty, 126. 82 Laura U. Marks, "Reconflgured Nationhood: A Partisan History of the Inuit Broad-
69 Ibid., 134. casting Corporation," Afterimage 21, no. 8 (March 1994): 4-7.
70 Ibid., 169. Danzker points out that another section of Flaherty's account in w h i c l i In K 5 See Nancy Baele, "Video Award Winners Make Compelling Series on Inuit Life,"
Ottawa Citizen, 25 May 1994.
explains that Nanook protested the great bother of making a film about himsell ll
almost identical to comments attributed to another man, "Od Atchaweek," m In K.) See Stephen Hendrick and Kathleen Fleming, "Zacharias Kunuk: Video Maker and
discussion of his role in his 1914 fllm by Flaherty, Early Account of the Viliu '' < Inuit Historian," Inuit Art Quarterly (summer 1991): 25-28.
<s Ibid., 26.
"Filmography," ed. Danzker, 57.
71 Another book by Flaherty about a great explorer in the Arctic who is helped l>v i I M
Inuit was conspicuously titled White Master (London: George Routledge ^ .'un s Time and Redemption in the "Racial Film "
1939). n/ the 19205 and 19305
72 Robert J. Flaherty, The Captain's Chair: A Storyof the North (New York: S i - i i l m r i ' i i ,
19381,290. i c ,'corges Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological, trans. Carolyn R. Fawcett
(New York: Zone Boks, 1991), 242.
73 Ibid., 291.
74 Bronislaw Malinowski, A Diary in llic Slncl .S'rmr of ilic 'Irru ( S i a n l o i d . S i . i n l i n . l i I I . G. Wells, '/'/)( Tinte Machine (Grcat Britain, iKy> ; rcpr., New York: Random
I loase, u j g i ) , ( > s .
University Press, 1989; orig. publ. ii)>/), <><).
2 5 o Notesto Chapter Five Notes to Chapter Five 251
4 Johannes Fabin, Time and the Othei: How Anthropology Makes Its Object |New alogue in Elhnography: Marcel Griaule's Inilialion," in The Predicament of Culture:
York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 7. Twentieth-century Ethnography, Literature and Ait (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
5 Ibid., 25. University Press, 1988), 55-91. Both of Griaule's films on the Dogon, Sous les
6 Fredric Jameson, "The Existence of Italy," in Signatutes of the Visible (New York: masques noirs (1938) and Aupays Dogon (1938), are similar to other anlhropological
Routledge, 1991), 186. research films in their emphasis on dancing and other activities like cooking, and on
7 Andr Bazin, "The Ontology of the Photographic Image," in What Is Cinema? ed. the absence of a sense of the individualily of the peoples filmed. Sous les masques
Hugh Gray (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), 1:9. noirs, however, has a fascinating montage of Dogon masked dances edited wilh fast
8 Claude Lvi-Strauss, Tristes Trapiques, trans. John and Doreen Weightman (New cuts, giving the scene a sense of frenzy.
York: Penguin Books, 1992,; orig. publ. Paris: Librairie Pin, 1955), 385, 389. 12 See chapter 3 for more on Franz Boas.
9 "Stark Love andMoana," unsigncd review in Movie Makers (November 1928), in The 13 David H. Mould and Gerry Veeder, "The 'Photographer-Adventurers': Forgotten H-
Documentary Tradition, ed. Lewis Jacobs (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979), 2,7. roes of the Silent Screen," Journal of Popular Film and Televisin 16, no. 3 (1988):
10 Fierre Leprohon, L'exotisme et le cinema (Paris: J. Susse, 1945), i3.InFrance, a whole 124.
series of "cruise" films appeared with tilles reflecting the color coding of the "race" or 14 Ibid., 125. Mould and Veeder explain ihat when the popularity of these films began lo
regin of the people visited. One cruise, La croisire blanche (The White Cruise,- dccrease, ihey were relegated to "lecture halls, schools, libraries" (126).
1923), was an expedition film of Captain Kleinschmidt and his wife in Alaska, Sibe- 15 In his book Grass, Cooper explained ihe importance of cinema to the study of Human
ria, and other parts of the Arctic. In 1929, Len Poirier's La croisire jaune (The Geography, in words reminiscent of Regnaull: "In the study of Human Gcography
Yellow Cruise) was released, a film of the Citron-sponsored motor car expedition the motion picture can and will play an increasingly important part. With the flux
from Lebanon to Indochina. ible means of expression given by the film, it is possible to record the great natural
11 Leprohon, 64. In La croisire noire, frica is feminized (the camera fetishizes the geographical dramas which go on all over the world, wherever Man contcnds ag.imsi
breasts and buttocks of African women), portrayed as a body to be mapped and Nature in ihe strugglc for existence. . . . When man fights for his lile, all i h r w o i l d
crossed over. The image of the uniformed expedition officers motorcading through lookson" (MerianC. Cooper, Grass [New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, nm|, "<)
the deserts, forests, and rivers of colonial frica clearly was meant to make the heari 16 Asen Balikci, "Review of Grass," American Anthropologisl 82, no. i ( H > H < > | - > \n
of any young French child flutter with patriotic pride. The film, praised by Bazin as i? Cooper wrote ihal Haidar Khan had "gorilla arms," anticipatng i l i r use ni s i n i i . n i
poetic, is a glorifying tribute to progress, imperialism, colonial expansin, and tlic tropes in Cooper and Schoedsack's films (Cooper, 88).
motorcar: its stated purpose is to help frica "evolve" toward "humanity, justice, and 18 Mordaunl Hall, review of Grass, New York Times, T I Mardi HJ.'-S, i /
happiness." The automobile voyage quickly becomes a collection of stereolypcil 19 In an interview, Cooper explained that Chang, un l i k e (,'mvs. w.is m u .1 ilm i i m r n i . i i v
views: the audience is offered shots of pith-helmetcd French officers behind i l u but a staged film using nalives as actors (John Stag Hanson, " I lie M.in Wlm K i l l c d
wheels of their cars; panoramic views of landscape, market, and village sceiu-s, KingKong," Movies International i, no. 3 (19661: 2 i).
scenes of African dances, sacred rituals, and warriors; and scenes of Frenchmcn mi 20 Review of Chang, New York Times, 30 April 1927, 2 s.
lecting museum artifacts and hunting wild animis. The various ethnic groups rn 21 Ernesl B. Schoedsack, "The Making of an Epic," American Cini'matographi'r 64
countered are persistently categorized temporally: the Pygmies of the Belgian Coi u'.< > (February 1983): 113.
are said to be in "the most primitive state of human Ufe," and African Muslini-, .m 22 Leprohon, 116.
described as evoking the Crusades and A Thousand and One Nights. La ero/Mr/, 23 Review of Chang, New York Times, 30 April 1927, 25.
noire is a tightly organized voyage through time and through frica: if it is pori i v, II 4 Gcorge W. Stocking Jr., "The Elhnographic Sensibility of ihe 19205 and the Dualism
Bazin claims, then it is a poetry which celbrales primarily the greatness o IT.IIH i of the Anthropological Tradilion," in Romantic Motives: Essays on Anthropological
mission civilisatrice, and ihe exoticism of her colonial subjects as generali/.rd i ni Sensibility, ed. George W. Stocking Jr., History of Anthropology, vol. 6 (Madison:
tural types (Andr Bazin, "Cinema and Exploration," in What Is Cinema* i i , |l Universily of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 245.
Another French expedilion film, Marc Allgrel and Andr Gide's Voyag' <ui .'< myi < Erik Barnouw, Documentary: A History of the Non-ftction Film (Oxford: Oxford
scenes de la vie indigne en Afriqve equatoriale (1926), also is a travelogue h ij',1 > I ir I u University Press, 1983), 47.
ing exoticism and the colonial imperative. John Gricrson, "Flaherty's Poelic Moana," in The Documentary Tradition, ed. Lewis
One of the most famous French anihropological expeditions was t l u - Mr.'.mu Jacobs (New York: W. W. Norlon, 1979), 25-26. Il was not only films that were
Dakar-Djibouti, begun in 1931, in which Marccl Griaule and other anthropolon! i promoting this romantic image of the sexy Soulh Seas, however, as Mead's work
spent iwenty-one months collecting malcriis and documents for tlic Tu n i . ,. mythologizing the relativcly sexually uninhibiled Samoan lo sel in relief ihe prob-
Ethnognphic Museum. A discussion of Griaule'semphasis on documentation i . n In > Icins of the repressed adolescent of the United Stales unmistakably attests.
than on p a r t i c i p a n ) ohscrvation may be tound in james Clifford, "l'nwci . u n i " Trances llubliard I-'lalicrty, "The Camcra's Eye," in SpelIbOUOd in nurkiiess: A His-
Notes to Chapter Five 253
252, Notes to Chapter Five _
nence grise. In this film, many of the issues which Johannes Fabin discusses about
tory of the Silent Film, ed. George C. Pratt (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, how anthropology creates a Primitive Other are revealed. For cxample, the pos-
1966; repr., Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1973), 346. sessiveness of the anthropologists toward "his or her village" is explained by Mead.
2,8 Research anthropologists such as Hilton-Simpson and ). A. Haeseler also recom She describes to Rouch how she went to a congress of anthropologists in 1924, and
mended using longlenses to allow for better voyeurism; see chapter 2. how everyone there talked about "my people," and how she wanted "my people" too.
29 Robert Flaherty, "Filming Real People," Movie Makers (December 1934), in 7'fir Visually, this possessive past is displayed in the "Pacific Whole," the modular model
Documentaiy Tiadition, ed. Lewis Jacobs (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979), 97-98. villages that can be put on coasters for easy filming. Pointing to one she cxplains,
30 Nanook and Moana were later hailed as "the classics of the ethnographic and so "This is my village." Mead's comments underline Regnault's ideal, which was to
ciological film" (Le de Heusch, The Cinema and Social Science: A Survey of Elli solve the vanishing races problem through archives of film and artifacts. With her
nographic and Sociolgica] Films, vol. 16, Reports and Papers in the Social Sciences studies of personality and psychology, Mead went further, using anthropology to
[Paris: UNESCO, 1961], 39). study "culture at a distance" and "national character," e.g., the Balinese are schizo-
phrcnic, etc. One particularly popular instance of this kind of anthropology was Ruth
31 Grierson, % 5.
32 Some of my discussion of The Silent Enemy is based on Information presented at .1 Benedict's study of the Japanese character in The Chrysanthemum and the Sword
panel discussion, "Early Cinema Imagines Native Americans," held at New Yoil (1946).
University, 31 January 1992. The panelists included Elizabeth Weatherford, A m v 4 <>
In the United States, Goona Goona was not shown in first-run houses, but in theaters
Heller, Dennis Doros, Clinton Elliott, and Rosebud Yellow Robe Frantz. Sec a I MI known as "artics," and other "subsequent run" houses. The film did well in Europe.
Donald B. Smith, Long Lance: The True Stoiy of an impostar (Lincoln: Universit v > 'I See the review of Goona Goona by Andr Roosevelt and Armand Denis in Variety
Nebraska Press, 1982); Kevin Brownlow, The War, The West, and the Wilderm-:: (17 September 1932). Another film on Bali as "the last escape from tired machine
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979); and Elizabeth Weatherford with Emilia Scubn i civilizations," as the New York Times reviewer put it, was Isle of Paradise directcd by
Native Americans on Film and Video (New York: Museum of the American Inili.m/ Charles Trego ("Island of Bali Shown on Screen," New York Times, 21 July i i) p.: i s).
,|6 In a Hays Office memorndum of 7 June 1950, the Production Code Administr.il ion
Heye Foundation, 1981).
33 Weatherford put forth this insightful observation in the panel discussion ment o u .1 described how it had eliminated footage from Tab of barebreasted w u m r n , mide
children, and a section of a dance considercd sexually suggestive, lu-causc n n l i k c
inn. 32.
34 SeeBunny McBride, "APenobscot in Paris," Down East: The Magazineof Maiti*- \t.. Moana, seen as an unscripted instructional film, Tab was thoughi to he si.ij'cil
"This picturc carries a seal which was granted after extcnsivc i n i s , r l i m i n . i l ni);
no. i (1989): 61-64, 80-84.
breast shotsfrom it. The picture was shot in the South Sea Islands and, UOUghoUt .1
35 Fabin, 19-30.
great portion of it, there were native women with exposed brcasts. It w.is cOQlidercd
36 Ibid.
37 It was also a film which Flaherty worked on briefly on location in Tahiti in i <.>>. / / u that this particular film did not come within the requirement ot the I lodcon ' n a l i v c s
(Barsam, 47). For a survey of films set in the Pacific Islands, see Diane Mei Lin M.u I in their native habitat,' because it is an entertainmem film with notliing o t l i e
"The Reel Hawaii," in Moving the Image: Independent Asan Pacific Amerir,m A i, 'travelogue flavor' to it, which scems required by the spirit oi the Codc provisin on
da Arts, ed. Russell Leong (Los Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies Ce 111 r i u >. I this matter. It also appeared as though the director of the picturc had not shot it
Visual Communications, 1991), 109-17. See also Ingrid Heermann, Myth<>\ indiscriminately but had very carefully selected the young girls for his cast with
SdseeTraum und Realitat (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1987). ohviously handsome breasts. For these basic reasons, the cuts were required when
38 Tessel Pollman, "Margaret Mead's Balinese," Indonesia 49 (April 1990): 10. the picturc was presented here for a certifcate" (File on Tab, Hays Office files,
Aeademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library, Los Angeles).
39 Ibid., 1-35.
40 Prof. Dr. Ide Gde Ing. Bagus, quoted in ibid., 15. I / C Miarles Jameux, F. W. Murnau (Paris: Classiques du cinema, 1965), 81-90.
41 I Made Kaler, quoted in ibid., 20. I M As Lvi-Strauss himself said, "the primary function of written communication is to
42 I Made Kaler, quoted in ibid., 17. lacilitate slavery" (Lvi-Strauss, 299).
43 Meadwrote, "One of our most successful films was made when weordcird .1 )'.mn|, i l>) l'ollman, 4,- Margaret J. Wiener, Visible and Invisible Realms: Power, Magic, and
play in the daytime that ordinarily performed only late at night. . . . Tin- m.in wlm Colonial Conquest in Bali (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 4, 269.
made the arrangements decided to substitutc young bcautiful wonicn l e u i l i < \ H!. Wiener has written a very interesting study of a similar puputan in 1908 which
ered od women who performed at night" (Margaret Mead, llackbcnv Wuih i AI\ Years |New York: William Mnrrow,
occurred 1972),
at the 252 ofs vKlungkung.
capital
v i Andr Bazin, "Cinema and Exploration," 1:154-55. Bazin States that in certain
44 Pullman, 34. One of the best portraits of Mead is (can Kouch's l'orlnin ni .1 l'fli II i'.cmrs, and he refers explieitly to films portraying indigcnous peoples, the actors
(1978). We see t h e cldcrly Margarct Mead represented as intivpid r x p l n i n . u n i > < i themsclves can spoil l i k e t r u i t : "Little Rari [sc] of Tab, they say, ended up as a
.....ih.-i w:ilkinr. alxmt i l n - A m e r i c a n Muse-u ni ni Natural I l i s i o i y as .1 M U "I
254 Notes to Chapter Five
prostitute in Poland, and we all know what happens to children raiscd to stardom by ^ Chapter
Notes to ^juapier S,
Mx 2SS
their first film. . . . Indispensable as are the factors of inexperience and nal vet,
Nineteenth-century
1984), 22. Hriain and France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
obviously they cannot survive repetition" (Andr Bazin, "An Aesthetic of Reality:
7 Ibid., 23.
Neorealism [Cinematic Realism and the Italian School of Liberation]," in What Is
Cinema!, 2:24).
8 Georges Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathologcal, trans. Carolyn R. Fawcett
The perceived fresh innocence of the indigenous actor is thus essential to the (New York: Zone Books, 1991), 243.
Ethnographic genre. Since the native person acting for the flrst time is installed in a
9 Bronislaw Malinowski, A IJary in the Strict Sense of the Term (Stanford: Stanford
flction in which, whatever script he or she follows, he or she will be taken to be University Press, 1989,- orig. publ. 1967), 69.
"real," playing him- or herself; he or she, according to Bazin's logic, does not "survive 10 Noel Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror (New York: Routledge, 1990), 31-34.
repetition." Like a child, the indigenous actor is used for his or her freshness, but at 11 George W. Stocking Jr., Victorian Anthropology (New York: Free Press, 1987), xv.
best, only once, for the "real" cannot be marketed in a star system.
12 See chapter i for Broca's analogy of the anthropological subject to the patient. Boas
51 Leprohon, 25.
advised his student Margaret Mead that the anthropological method is to set "the
52 Bazin, "Cinema andExploration," 1:154-55.
individual against the (cultural) background"a method which he compared to "the
53 See Andr F. Liotard, Samivel, and Jean Thvenot, Cinema d'exploration, cinema a\i
method that is used by medical men in their analysis of individual cases on which is
long cours (Paris: P.-A. Chavane, 1950), 52-64; Andr Bazin, "Cinema and Explora
built up the general picture of the pathological cases that they want to describe." See
tion," i: 154-55.
Margaret Mead Papers at the Library of Congress, Franz Boas to Margaret Mead,
54 Liotard et al., 57.
15 February 1926, quoted in George W. Stocking Jr., "The Ethnographic Sensibility of
55 Donna Haraway, "The Promises of Monsters: A Regenerative Politics for Inapprop i
the 19208 and the Dualism of the Anthropological Tradition," in Romantic Motives:
ate/d Others," in Cultural Studies, ed. Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and I'mil.i Essays on Anthropological Sensibility, ed. George W. Stocking Jr., Hstory of Anthro-
Treichler (New York: Routledge, 1992), 314. pology, vol. 6 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 243.
13 Wilson Martnez, "Critical Studies and Visual Anthropology: Aberrant vs. Antici-
6 King Kong and the Monster pated Readings of Ethnographic Film," CVA Review (spring 1990): 34-47,- Asen Ba-
in Ethnographic Cinema (April "Anthropology,
likci, 1989): 4-ro. Film and the Arctic Peoples," Anthropology Today 5, no. i
1 Quoted in Tristan Renaud, "King-Kong: le roi est n," Cinema 218 (February i u / / ) 14 Jorge Preloran, "Documenting the Human Condition," in Principies of Visual An
44- thropology, ed. PaulHockings (TheHague: Mouton, t975), 105.
2 Much of the above information on Ota Benga was communicated to me by U ni u 1 1 15 William B. Cohn, The French Encounter with Aficans: White Response to Klacks,
Bieder. See also Phillips Verner Bradford and Harvey Blume, Ota Benga: The l'\m i30-1880 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980), 234.
in the Zoo (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992). I thank Robert Bieder for l i i s i l e l l m , 16 Claude Lvi-Strauss, Tristes Trapiques, trans. John and Doreen Weightman (Paris:
me about Ota Benga. Librairie Pin, 1955,- repr., New York: Penguin Books, 1981), 371.
3 J. P. Telotte, "The Movies as Monster: Seeingin King Kong," Georgia Review ,\, un < I17
N Stephen Neale, Genre (London: British Film Institute, 1980), 21.
(summer 1988): 390. Carroll, Philosophy of Horror, 99.
<; Neale, 22.
4 Fierre Leprohon writesthat cinema ofexoticism "participe ala fois de l a s e i r n c i . i .In
rev. . . . Sa valeur documentairc cst lmcnt de connaissance; sa poOsir CM . i l m i . m
i As Gregg Mitman points out, Komodo dragn behavior is made into spectacle in
de rev" (participates at the same time in science and in dream. . . . Its donmii i i i < n y
museum dioramas through the combination of two distinct behavioral traits, both of
valu is the element of knowledge,- its poetry is the food of dream) (Pi n I < |iinlini| which appear in Burden's film: the Komodo dragon's dominant head posture and the
L'exotisme et le cinema [Paris: J. Susse, 1945], 1213). Ingagi (1930), .1 i IMHHI devouring motion of its jaws (Gregg Mitman, "Cinematic Nature: Hollywood Tech-
documentary hoax, used footage from an od Lady McKenzic c x p e d i i i o n h l i nology, Popular Culture, and the Science of Animal Behavior, 1925-1940," paper
featured the sacriflce of an African woman to a gorilla, a scene stagcd hv .u 1 1 < < presented at the Society for Cinema Studies Conference, New Orleans, La., 10-
blackfaceat the Selig Zoo (Gcrald Peary, "Missing Links: The Junglc ( >i 1.1:111 "I Ml| I 1 1 February 1993). Burden, who also later produced The Silent Enemy, founded Ma-
Kong," in The Girlin theHary Paw, cd. Ronalcl Gottcsman and I l.-in v ( . c . I n l . l | i i. .. r i ne Studios, Inc., in 1935, another pioneer venture (at least insofar as public specta-
York: Avon Books, 19761,41-42). i'lc is concerned). It was later renamcd Marineland.
5 Andr F. Liotard, Samivel, indican Thvenot, C.ini'niti d'fxploralion. < i / i n n . i ,m fniif j ( '.mol, I'hilosnphv of Horror, \.
cours (Paris: P.-A. Chavane, i y so), 61.
American Musciini of N a t u r a l I listory Folder on the Burden East Indies Expedition
6 Stephen Bann, The. Clothing <>l ('lio: A S t t i t l v o llif kL'prcsi'ntalion "I "' no. |. ()rigin.-il I )orumental ion.
I >nin;l.is Hu del I, / >iiiy\<m l.i.'iiiilsnl Ktnui>l- ''''''
256 Notes to Chapter Six
Notes to Chapter Six 257
Dutch East Indies (New York, London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1927), 103. Indonesian
women are portrayed as animal-like, sexy, naughty "creatures" (56, 170-71). See also Ranchero is carried to safety by Trader Horn. Trader Horn exploits Ranchero as a
Burden, "The Quest for the Dragn of Komodo," Natural History 27, no. i (fanuary- servantcalling him half-bulldog, half-watchful motherand has him perform such
February 1927]: 3-18; "Stalking the Dragn Lizard on the Island of Komodo," Na- menial chores as taking out chiggers from Trader Horn's toenails. When Ranchero
tional Geographic Magazine (August 1927): 216-32. dies, however, Trader Horn eradles him in his arms. This closeness is reminiscent of
24 See Dragn Lizards of Komodo, 40, 180-81, for Burden's characterization of Chu. Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe: Crusoe makes very little mention of his own wife,
25 Ibid., 112. but devotos pages to the physical appearance of Friday, and goes out of his way to
26 Rudy Behlmer, Foreword to The Girl in the Hairy Paw, ed. Ronald Gottesman and stress that Friday is not really black. (I am indebted to Robert Stam for this insight on
Robinson Crusoe.)
Harry Geduld (New York: Avon Books, 1976), 10.
27 Burden, Dragn Lizards of Komodo, 90-92. 47 Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrativo Cinema," in Nanative, Apparatus,
28 Behlmer, 10. Ideology: A Film Theory Readei, ed. Phil Rosen (New York: Columbia Universty
Press, 1986), 203.
29 I thank Greg Mitman for this insight.
30 Burden, Dragn Lizards of Komodo, 160, 53. 48 The hierarchy of observers watching Ann being filmed reinforces the subordnate
31 Ibid., 57. positon of Charlie: he is the lowest person on the ladder watching. Similarly, when
32 Claude Beylie, "La chasse du Comte Zaroff: la bte humaine," L'Avant-scne 295-96 Charlie muses about whether or not Denham might be willing to take his picture,
(1-15 November 1982): 4-5. another sailor replies, "Them cameras cost money. Shouldn't think he'd risk it." In
33 Thierry Kuntzel, "The Film-Work, 2," Camera Obscura 5 (spring 1980): 22. light of the fact that, more often than not, Chinese characters were played by whites
34 Ibid., 14. in Hollywood, this seemingly offhand comment is telling. "China" was a uscful
35 I thank Hazel V. Carby for bringing Island of Lost Souls to my attention. marker of time and difference, but not an image to be entrusted to Chnese-American
hands.
36 Zaroff and Moreau, however, are not without their "real life" counterparts: in t l n
nineteenth century, the grave-robbing medical doctor/anthropologist Robert Kno\ 49 King Kong opened at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles and sharod (he b i l
known for his motto, "Man's gift is to destroy, not to crate," was forced to loavr withanact withaprophesizingfortune-teller: GinChow, Chinese philoBOphci ("Gm
Chow at Chinese," Los Angeles Times, i April 1933).
Edinburgh because his dissections offended the local populace (Stocking, 64). so Wray, 017.
37 Telotte, 395.
38 Carroll, Philosophy of Horror, 145. S i Leprohon wrote, "Devant l'Asie, on a l'impression d'un mur. On dcconviv un monde
39 Ibid., 182-93, 157. ferm, impenetrable" (Before Asia, one has the impression of , w.ill. ( ) n o discovns .1
closed world, impenetrable) (74).
40 Orville Goldner and George E. Turner, eds., The Making of King Kong: Thc SI<H\ a Film Classic (South Brunswick, N.J.: A. S. Barnes, 1975), 8o.
s?, David N. Rosen, "Race, Sex and Rebellion," Jump Cut 6 (March April i y / s ) : M m,
and Snead, 53-69.
41 Noel Carroll, "King-Kong: Ape and Essence," in Planks of Reason: Essays un < ' ' s i Snead, 64-66.
Horror Film, ed. Barry Keith Grant (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1984), n.X
42 James Snead, "Spectatorship and Capture in King Kong: The Guilty Look," ('.un, ,il s ,| The bewilderment Indonesians present to the categories of race is prcsent oven today,
Quarterly 33, no. i (spring 1991): 58. as may be seen by the fact that V. S. Naipaul refers to Batak writer Sitor Sitomorang as
43 Stocking, Victorian Anthropology, 229-30. a "Chinese-Negrito" and as "tribal," but never as Batak. See V. S. Naipaul, Among the
44 Fay Wray, "How Fay Met Kong, or thc Scream That Shook thc World," /Vci\/ Helievers: An Islamc fourney (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981), 305-17.
Times, 21 September 1969, 017. s \n also played a Chinese in The Mysterious Di. Fu Manchu, a Nubian in The
45 Merian C. Cooper, as quoted in George Turner, "Hunting 'The Most I >.ni);< mu Mummy, a Polynesian in MobyDick, a Persian prince in The Thief of Baghdad, and a
Game,'" American Cinematographer 68 (September 1987): 41-42. Cuban zombie in The Ghost Breakers (Goldner and Turner, 84). For more on fohn-
46 Likemost films of thegenre, however, TraderHorn dcpicts Africans as s n v i l . Inull son's company, the Lincoln Motion Picture Company which Johnson ran with his
evil cannibals, and bait for hungry crocodiles. Van Dyke uses thc irnnor.i.ii'ln ni lirothcr George, see Donald Bogle, Toras, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks:
anthropology to good effect in this film: wc see African "nativos" pouiulni)'. ' ' A u Interpietive History of Blacks in American Films (New York: Continuum Pub-
lislnng, 1991), 103, iro.
reconstruction of a "nativo village," and, in a scene n which Trailc-r I leu Imnl
unfriendly Africans, the camera frames thc Africans in anthropologk'al In .ni l".i \i. Michclc Wallaee, "Variations on Negation and the Heresyof Black Feminist Creativ-
panning from head to head. Thc homocrotic elomonts aro pronoumnl i l n I mil n y," in Invisibity Rlues: From Pop to Theory (London: Verso, 1990), 213-40.
bctwcen TraderHorn and tne Arican "gunboy/'asTradcr I lorn r.ills i l u ...I. m u i i l l s ' I 'cuma \, "The l'romisos of Monsters: A Regenorative Politics for Inappropri-
Ranchero, is cise, and as thoy aro tryingtocsr.apc t h o "angry savay.rs," i l n u i i . i l r / < l ()tliors," in Cultural Sliiilif, ed. Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula
[Yeichler (New York: Routledge, 199?.), }(> y.
258 Notes to Chapter Six Notes to Chapter Six 259
58 Quoted in Gottesman and Geduld, "Introduction," 22. Indeed, King Kong has become a sort of national monster fetish, everywhere re-
59 Harold Hellenbrand, "Bigger Thomas Reconsidered: 'Native Son/ Film and 'King produced and adored: King Kong ames a ride in the MGM tourist park as well as a
Kong,'" Journal of American Culture 6, no. i (1983): 88. Hellenbrandbelieves that recent sculpture on the Empire State Building. Kong is its own pcrfect Ethnographic
Native Son by Richard Wright is a meditation on the film King Kong and racial simulacrum, or, as Jean Baudrillard would say, an instance of the "hyperreal" (Jean
Baudrillard, "The Precession of Simulacra," in Simulations, trans. Paul Foss, Paul
stereotyping.
60 See, e.g., Human Apes from the Orient (American Mutoscope and Biograph, 1906), ai Patton, and Philip Beitchman [New York: Semiotext(e), 1983], 25).
JeanLvy, "King-Kong," Minotaure 5 (1934): 5.
the Lihrary of Congress.
73 Ibid.
61 Peary, "Missing Links," 39-40.
62 See, e.g., D. W. Griffith's Man's Gnesis (1912) for an example of a Grifith prehistorii 74 Theodor W. Adorno, "Looking Back on Surrealism," in The Idea of the Modern in
film, or Broken Blossoms (1919) as an example of a Griffith racial melodrama. Literature and the Arts, ed. Irving Howe, trans. S. P. Dunn and Ethel Dunn (New
63 Jay Ruby, "A Reexamination of the Early Career of Robert J. Flaherty," Quartcrlv York: Horizon Press, 1967), 220-24.
ReviewofFilm Studies 5, no. 4 (fall 1980): 454. Emmett J. Scott's TheBirthof a Rucr 75 Perhaps another reason for the attention paid to King Kong by the surrealists is the
(1918) was an African American responso to TheBirth of a Nation (Bogle, 102-3). film's status as a lowbrow Hollywood production. The same sensibility led foseph
64 Jean Boullet, "Willis O'Brien, or the Birth of a Film from Design to Still," in The (,'n I Cornell to make Rose Hohart (1936), a film constructed from snippets of footage
in the Hairy Paw, ed. Ronald Gottesman and Harry Geduld (New York: Avon Books, taken from the exotic Hollywood film East of Borneo (1931), and led Michel Leiris to
praise Fox Follies (1929) as a spectacle which did not have "the slightest hint of an
1976), 107-10.
65 At the time King Kong was made, O'Brien was already famous for dinosaur films l i l ' < aesthetic," a film which was "all popular, wonderfully cheap" (Michel Leiris, "Fox
The Dinosaur and the Missing Link (1916) and The Lost World (1925), as wcll .r, Movietone Follies of 1929," Documents i, no. 7 [December 1929], repr., October 6o
for his 1930 semidocumentary film about evolution, Creation (Joseph E. Samlnv [spring 1992], trans. Dominic Faccini: 43-46). As Ado Kyrou recommends in l,c
"O'Brien and Monsters from the Id," in The Scope of the FantasticCulture, Hiay.iii surralisme au cinema, "The best and most exciting films [are] the films shown in
phy, Themes, Children's Literature: Selected Essays from the First Interna! mu,I local fleapits, films which seem to have no place in the history of cinema.... Lea rn t o
Conference on the Fantastic in Literature and Film, ed. Robert A. Collins .un go see the 'worst' films,- they are sometimes sublime" (cited in f. Hoberman, "Hail
HowardD. Pearce [Westport, Conn.: GreenwoodPress, 1985], 11:207-9). Movies," in Vulgar Modernism [Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 19911, i \).
66 Claude Ollier, "A King in New York," in The Girl in the Hairy Paw, ed. K n i u l . l To praise a film like King Kong was to defy good taste, to embrace the common, and
Gottesman and Harry Geduld, trans. Roy Huss and T. J. Ross (New York: A \ H to experience the sublime and oneiric in popular culture rather than in high art
venues.
Books, 1976), 115.
Lvy, 5. Joseph E. Sandcrs saw Kong as "a monster from the Id" (214). William Grimes
67 Carroll, "King-Kong: Ape andEssence," 217.
68 Ibid., 219-20. Carroll, as well as Terry Heller and Gerald Peary, arge that i l u | i m r l > sees the film as a metaphor for "repressed sexual drive." See William Grimes, "Buried
o King Kong is a metaphor for the capitalist, "eat orbe caten" consumcrist irom mu Themes: Psychoanalyzing Movies," New York Times, 23 December r99i, Cu.
Peary also sees Kong as a metaphor for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a represen!.u i,, James Clifford, "On Ethnographic Surrealism," in The Predicament of Culture:
of the then newly elected president as a destructive forc (Terry Heller, 77ir / V / M ' / I I Twentieth-century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
of Terror: An Aesthetics of the Tale of Terror [Urbana: University of l l l i i i m s l'im*, University Press, 1988), 119.
19871,46; and Gerald Peary, "The Historicity of King Kong," JumpCut 4 | N o v i m i " . Ibid., 120.
"King Kong," Films in Review (June 1975): 61. Cooper was anti-Communist and a
December 1974]: n-ia).
69 fudith Mayne arges that the savage forc of the environment Kong r i r . u r s I* | war fanatic; he later became the president of Pan American Airlines. For King Kong,
metaphor for an image of Manhattan as chaotically destructive. Seo " 'Kmr, K n n r u , . I Cooper and Schoedsack arranged to borrow four planes from the U.S. Navy, and
the Ideology of Spectacle," Quarterly Review of Film Studiex i, no ,| ( N m . mi.. > twenty-cight different scenes in the film include footage of actual aircraft maneu-
vers. See Lawrence Suid, "King Kong and the Military," American Classic Screen
1976): 373-87.
70 The "entertainment of violated boundaries" occurs when elements c i > i r . t n n i . ! i ()uly-August 1977): 14-16.
inherent oppositesnature and society, the Primitive and the Modem .m i n - t i |ohn Sccleye, "Mohy-Kong," College Literature 17, no. i (1990): 39.
posed. Haraway writes that the Kayap with the camera is no longcr "an f i n e See carlier discussion in this chapterat n. 30.
contradiction," if one no longer conceives of the world as a polari/.ed i r . i l m U i l.otluop Stoddard, The Revolt aganst Civilization: The Menace of the Under Man
nature and society. She contines, "Where there is no nature o s o i - i r t v , i l n i ' l III (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923), 5-6.
pleasure, no entertainment to be had in represen! i ng the violation <>l i l n l u m m U i l " i ll is jntcrcstmg to note that the term so reminiscent of King Kongthe "Viet Cong"
between them" (Haraway, '/'/ l'ntinini-s <>l Monstrrx, \. w.is ni i i i v r n l e d liy the Vietname.se theniselves, but by the Kand Corporation.
26o Notes to Chapter Six Notes to Conclusin 261
84 See Baudrillard, "The Precession of Simulacra," 1-80. people have had contacts with other outsule groups for centuries. Like Nanook of the
85 Elizabeth Alexander, The Venus Hottentot, The Callaloo Poetry Series, vol. 9, ni North, The Hunters gives center stage to the importance of the all-male hunt. Bill
Charles H. Rowell (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990), 6-7. Nichols has called this macho, Ernest \e preoccupation in the works
86 Another writer who explores the voice of the African American woman exploited liy of Flaherty, Rouch, and others the "bullfight syndrome" (Bill Nichols, Ideology and
anthropology is Toni Morrison, whose protagonist in Beloved (New York: Sigm-l, the Image: Social Representation in the Cinema and Other Media [Bloomington:
1991), is physically studied by anthropologists as a slave. Another writer who li.r. Indiana University Press, 1981], 275). Marshall himself, however, later repudiated
explored the subjectivities of the person being flmed or studied by whites witlinu The Hunters when he became aware that the film and related commercial films such
their permission is Toni Cade Bambara in her wonderful short story "Blues Ain'i u as Jamie Uys's The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) were being used by the South African
Mocking Bird," in Carilla, My Love (New York: 1961; repr., Vintage Books, i ys i ) andNamibiangovernments to justify the land dispossession of fu/'hoansipeople. As
127-36, which describes the response of a black family to being fllmed by docunu-n Tsamkxao#Oma, a Ju/'hoansi man, has explained, there are two kinds of cinema:
tary filmmakers without their permission. "[One shows the fu/'hoansi as] people like other people, who have things to do and
87 Reactions to the shows were often troubled and confused, relates Fusco. At Irvim plans to make. This kind helps us. The other kind shows us as if we were animis,
some people thought they were "real" Aborigines and became upset, or were troulilnl and plays right into the hands of people who want to take our land" (Megan Biesele,
at the sight of humans in a cage. Also, many brought little gifts and food to thcm ( K u 11 "Reclaiming a Cultural Legacy: The Ju/'hoansi of Namibia," Aperture 119 [1990]:
Sawchuk, "Unleashing the Demons of History: An Interview with Coco Fusco .iml 50). Marshall attempted to correct the myths that he himself helped propgate in The
Guillermo Gmez-Pea," Parachute 67 [September 1992): 24). Hunters in his later film N!ai, The Story of a IKung Woman (1978), believcd to be
Fusco relates that in Europe "people's behavior regressed": in England, somr I n among the first ethnographic films to portray indigenous peoples as historical beings
glishmen made gorilla noises to them, in Spain many spectators were verbally ;y,y. i I living in the present, and in his advocacy videos for the Ju/'hoansi which protest
sive, and Latin American tourists worried about the "negative images" o I . . M I H their relegation to "homelands" (reservations), the taking of their lands, their lack of
America that they were portraying (C. Carr, "Is It Real or Is I t . . . ? Identity and 11 political rights, and their great poverty and despair (Toby Alice Volkman, "The
Eye of the Beholder," LA Weekly($ July-9 July 1992). Hunter-gatherer Myth in Southern frica: Preserving Nature or Culture?" Cultural
8 8 Gmez-Pea, quoted in Sawchuk, 2 5. Survival 10, no. 2 (1986): 25-32).
Some have argued that Sol Worth and John Adair's project in the igos to study films
Conclusin made by Navajos initiated this trend, but Worth and Adair's "experiment" was in
keeping with the classic anthropological method of using visual media to understand
1 The Passion of Remembrance is the titlc of a 1986 film by Isaac Julien and M. ..... indigenous thought, just as Mead, for example, had earlier used stills from Flaherty's
Blackwood who were part of the black British film collective Sankofa. This l i l i Moana to try to elicit information from Samoans in her 19205 fieldwork (Margaret
one of many recent media works which have exploded "race" as a fixed, slablr ' . Mead, Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years [New York: William Morrow, 1972], 154).
gory, creating new vocabularies for confronting the politics of race and i d r n u \ as gender, sexuality, and desire.
There is no acknowlcdgement of the political and ethical necessity of image sov-
ereignty.
2 James Baldwin and Margaret Mead, A Rap on Race (New York: Dell, 197 1 ), i K(I Timothy Asch, who made ethnographic films among the Yanomami in the 19608
3 Ibid., 157. and 19705, has recently written that it never occurred to him to give the camera to
4 Ibid., 174. the Yanomami when he first began to make ethnographic films, but he has since
5 Ibid., 187. reflected that films and video by the Yanomami would provide more accurate records
6 Ibid., 190. of contemporary Yanomami life. Interestingly, Asch asserts that ethnographic films
7 Frantz Fann, Black Skin White Masks: The Experiences of a Black Man in i Wl hy indigenous peoples are likely to be of greater scientific valu than films by anthro-
World, trans. Charles Lam Markmann (New York: Grove Press, 1967), 1 1 2. pologists (Timothy Asch et al., "The Story We Now Want to Hear Is Not Ours to Tell:
8 Baldwin and Mead, 208. Kelinquishing Control over Representation: Toward Sharing Visual Communication
9 See, e.g., David MacDougall, "Beyond Observational Cinema," in l'ntit i>li- . ni Skills with the Yanomami," Visual Anthropology Review?, no. 2 [fall 1991): 102-6).
sual Anthropology, ed. PaulHockings (New York: Mouton, 1975), 109-24. U I|ay Ruby, "Exposing Yourself: Reflexivity, Anthropology and Film," Semitica 30,
10 The effects of anthropology's "crisis" are reflected in the career trajccimv " I > i l > nos. 1-2 (1980): 15.1-79.
nographic filmmaker John Marshall. Marshall's classic The Hunte.ru ( i ' > s ' ' l '! I I W.ml Churchill, Fantasiesofthe Master Race: Literature, Cinema and the Coloniza-
the Ju/'hoansi peopleof Nyae Nyae in southern frica (categorizcd as " l i i r . l i n i i nuii itfAnicricin Indiana, ed. M. Annette Jaimes (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage
happy, isolated, pastoralist hunter-gatherers, and ignores ilu- l.icl t h a t t l n - |n, : l l'icss, 1992), 2,4 s 46.
2,6a Notes to Conclusin
Notes to Conclusin 263
14 Ibid., 246.
36 Quoted from Sally McDougall, "Author Plans to Upbraid Own Race," New York
15 Phyllis Rose discusses a number o the different interpretations of Baker in Jazz World Telegram, 6 February 1935.
Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time (New York: Vintage Books, 1989).
37 At one point in her notes Belo compares a young African American man "in trance"
16 "Candide," quoted in Josephine Baker and Jo Bouillon, Josephine, trans. Mariana
with the Balinese. (Jane Belo, "Notes on a Meeting on Sunday night at the Sanctified
Fitzpatrick (New York: ParagonHouse, 1988), 55.
Elected Church, Beaufort, April 7, 1940," manuscript in the Margaret Mead Collec-
17 Ibid., 88, 101. tion, Manuscript Divisin, Library of Congress, 9 April 1940).
18 Baker was even nominated the Queen of the Colonial Exposition in 1931, a nomina-
38 Among the recordings made were the study of religious ecstasy patterns among a
tion from which she had to withdraw because she was not French. In one act, Baker
Baptist congregation in Beaufort; the recording of songs at Yamacraw Village in Sa-
crooned to a white Arctic explorcr, "Sail with me on a snow-white ship / To un-
vannah, Georgia to study how pornography in song and story developed; and singing
discovered seas" (ibid., 108). Baker also performed at the Folies-Bergre as the "native
by fish cannery workers on an island near Beaufort as well as a Baptist church in Sa-
woman" Fatou who falls in love with a white colonialist (Rose, 23).
vannah for comparison with the Commandment Keeper Church in Beaufort. (Letter
19 Baker and Bouillon, 84.
of March 20, 1975 from Norman Chalfln to Joyce Aschenbrenner in the Margaret
20 Ibid., 55. Mead Collection, Manuscript Divisin, Library of Congress.)
21 Janet Flanner, Pars Was Yesterday: 1925-1939 (New York: Viking, 1972), 72-73,
39 Zora Neale Hurston, "Rtualistic Expression From the Lips of the Communicants of
quoted in Rose, 151-52.
the Seventh Day Church of God, Beaufort, South Carolina," manuscript in the Mar-
22 Homi Bhabha, "The Other Question: Difference, Discrimination and the Discoursc
garet Mead Collection, Manuscript Divisin, Library of Congress. See also Zora
of Colonialism," in Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures, ed.
Neale Hurston, The Sanctified Church: The Folklore Writings of Zora Neale Hurs-
Russell Ferguson et al. (New York and Cambridge, Mass.: New Museum of Conten ton, (Berkeley: Turtle Island, 1981).
porary Art and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990), 85.
40 Zora Neale Hurston, "Ritualistic Expression From the Lips of the Comrminicanls o
23 Ibid., 84.
the Seventh Day Church of God, Beaufort, South Carolina," manuscript in i lie M.H
24 Remarque, quoted in Baker and Bouillon, 86. garet Mead Collection, Manuscript Divisin, Library of Congress.
25 Michele Wallace, "Modernism, Postmodernism and the Problem of the Visual ni
41 Zora Neale Hurston, untitled manuscript in the Margaret Mead Collct:lion, M.mu
Afro-American Culture," in Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cu I script Divisin, Library of Congress.
tures, ed. Russell Ferguson et al. (New York and Cambridge, Mass.: New Museum o 42 Ibid.
Contemporary Art and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990), 45. 43 Ibid.
26 Zora Nealc Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography (Urbana: The U n
44 Interview of Zora Neale Hurston by Alan Lomax as quoted in l l i - i n r n w . i v , <*
versity of Illinois Press, 1984), 174.
45 Zora Neale Hurston, letter to Jane Belo, May 2, 1940. Manusrnpl m i l i c Maij;.nci
27 Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (New York: Harper Perennial, 1990), i. Mead Collection, Manuscript Divisin, Library of Congress.
28 Hazel V. Carby, "The Politics of Fiction, Anthropology, and the Folk: Zora Nr.il. 46 Interview with Norman Chalfen, 14 September 1995, by the auilior.
Hurston," in NewEssays on The.iiEyes Were Watching God, ed. Michael A w k w . n . l
47 Zora Neale Hurston, "Ritualistic Expression From the Lips of the Communicants of
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 79.
the Seventh Day Church of God, Beaufort, South Carolina," manuscript in the Mar-
29 On Boas's study of isolable body movements using film, see Jay Ruby, "Fraiv/ Hu.r. garet Mead Collection, Manuscript Divisin, Library of Congress.
and Early Camera Study of Behavior," Kinesis 3, no. i (fall 1980): 6-11, 16.
48 These films of 1940 appear to be Hurston's last. In 1944, Hurston was not successful
30 Elaine S. Charnov, "Zora Neale Hurston: A Pioneer in Visual Anthropology," ||'.i|" i
in her attempt to request from Jane Belo the use of a motion picture camera for her
given at the Second Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival o the Arts and H m 11. i n 1 1 1
trip to Honduras. In her letter to Belo, she wrote, "Together we can do something that
Eatonville, Florida, 1991). I am indebted to Charnov for introducmg me to i l i r . \\\f work.
will make Dr. Margaret Meade's sc] 'SAMOA' look like the report of the W.C.T.U."
Letter from Zora Neale Hurston to Jane Belo, October i, 1944, Margaret Mead Col-
31 Robert E. Hemenway, Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography (Urbana .un i In lection, Manuscript Divisin, Library of Congress.
cago: University of Illinois Press, 1977), i n , 118. .|u Hurston, Mules and Men, 2.
32 Ibid., 120-22.
su Like Hurston, Dunham violated the boundaries of Primitive versus Civilized in her
33 Ibid., 122.
work and in her persona. In 1935-36, Dunham was encouraged by her mentor, an-
34 Ibid., 116.
thropologist and former Boas student Melville Herskovits at the University of Chi-
35 Ibid., 115, as quoted from Zora Neale Hurston to Langston Hughcs, A p n l
cago, to take photographs and films of Afro-Caribbean dance. Dunham's films are
(James Weldon Johnson Collection, Yalr) ; "The Florida Expedition" | i v | >
s t r i e t l y rescarch films in the Boasian tradition: her films of dances, shot from a
American Philosophical Society Library).
distincc, were meant toprovide positivist records of the motor hehaviorof particular
264 Notes to Conclusin
cultural groups. There is little in her film work to suggest the kind of deconstructive
self-reflexivity at times present in Hurston's films. However, as a dancer, choreogra-
pher, scholar, and teacher of both dance and anthropology, Dunham has provided, as h- BIBLIOCRAPHY
Hurston did through her innovative writings, a space for a new kind of ethnography,
one which she has termed "dance anthropology." Yet, as Joyce Aschenbrenner points
out, Dunham could not escape the racializing criticism of white media critics. She
was stereotyped like Josephine Baker as the sexy African queen. But some also re-
ferred to her as a combination of Margaret Mead and Mae West, an impersonator of a
female impersonator (Joyce Aschenbrenner, Katherine Dunham: Reflections on the
Social and Political Contexts of Afro-American Dance, Dance Research Annual 12
[New York: Congress on Research in Dance, 1981], 58). Dunham herself was per-
ceived by dominant society as a "primitive," and her own work was labeled "primi
tive" dance (Aschenbrenner, 49-50). I am indebted to VV Clark, who lectured on "Le pied prhensile chez les alienes et les criminis." La natura 1065 (28 October 1893):
Katherine Dunham's films at Yale University on 4 October 1989, for drawing my 339-
attention to this body of work. "Un village ngre au Champ de Mars." L'iHusra'on 2729 (15 June 1895): 508.
51 Zora Neale Hurston, "What White Publishers Won't Print," in / Lave Myself Whcn I Abu-Lughod, Lila. "Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography?" Women e> Performance: A
Am Laughing . . . And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive, c-d Journal of Feminist Theory 5, no. i, Issue #9 (1990): 7-27.
Alice Walker (Od Westbury, N.Y.: Fetninist Press, 1979), 170. Trinh T. Minh-ha h;r. Adorno, Theodor W. "Looking Back on Surrealism." In The Idea of the Modern m I.HCKI
an interesting essay on Zora Neale Hurston. See "Outside in Inside out," in Qi/r-, ture and the Arts, cd. Irving Howe, 220-24. New York: Horizon Press, i 967.
tions of Third Cinema, ed. Jim Fines and Paul Willeman (London: British Film In Alexander, Caroline. "The White Goddess of the Wangora."New Yorkcr (u A p u l H><H )
stitute, 1989), 133-49. 43-76.
52 Hurston, Mules and Men, 245-46. See also Barbara Johnson, "Thresholds of Dille i Alexander, Edward V. MuseumsinMotion: An Introduction tothe Hi \ioiv <nnl l-uii, innr.
ence: Structures of Address in Zora Neale Hurston," in "Race," Writing, and Ditlfi ofMuseums. Nashville: American Association for State and Local I l i s t n y, m / ' i
ence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 317-28. I agree with Johnsun'-. Alexander, Elizabeth. The Venus Hottentot. CallalooPoetry Series, al. ( ' l i . u l r s I I Kowc II
reading of the conclusin of Mules and Men as a sly, deconstructive positioninr, ni Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990.
Hurston as anthropologist and as woman of color. Ames, Michael.Mu.seums, the Public, and Anthropology: A .S'/i//v /u / / i r AnthfOpology ni
5 3 Conversation with Mugambi, 13 June 1995. Anthropology. Vancouver: University of Britisb Columhia l'rcss, i ijHi,
54 See Sol Worth and John Adair, Through Navajo Eyes: An Exploration in Film (.'un Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on f / i r ()ny.iii un S/in'<iil <>/
munication and Anthropology (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 197 '), i s / Nationalism, London: Verso, 1983.
6o. The awkwardness of the Tsosie sisters reveis thegaps causedby cultural ilr.i n|> Armes, Roy. Third World Filmmaking and the West. Bcrkclcy: IJm'vcrsiiy o California
tion, an awkwardness which anticipates Navajo filmmaker Arlene Bowiu.in' 1 . l i l i " Press, 1987.
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"King Kong Lives Again." New York Times, 17 August 1986, 10:3.
"Museum Shreds Nude Photos of Former Students at Yale." New York Times, 29 January
1995, 14-
Review of Chang, New York Times, 30 April 1927, 25.
Review of Goona Goona. Variety, 17 September 1932,18:4. INDEX
Review of Grass. NewYork Times, 31 March 1925, 17.
Review of IslandofLost Souls. Afro-American, i March 1933.
Review of King Kong. Afro-American, 27 April 1933.
Review of King Kong. Journal and Cuide, 3 fue 1933, 13.
Review of King Kong. London Times, 1933.
Review of King Kong. NewYork Times, 2 March 1933, 12:1.
Review o King Kong. Newsweek i (n March 1933): 27.
Review of King Kong. The Pittsburgh Courier, 6 May 1933.
Review of Roosevelt in frica. The Moving Picture World 6:528-29.
"Thrills in Store." Los Angeles Times, 14 March 1933. Abraham, 105
Abu-Lughod, Lila, 12 78; and film, 46-48, 66-71, 211-12 (see
Accused/Blowtorch/Padlock (1986), 216 also Cinema, ethographic; Film, eth-
Adair, John, 211 nographic); and Zora Neale Hurston,
Adams, Charlie, 123 198, 203-208; and fear of hybridty, 27,
Adorno, Theodor W., 185 187,- and medical imagery, 29, 31-35, 46;
frica, as one pole of an oppositional para- and museums, 63; and notion of vanish-
digm, 24 ing native, 90-91; and romantic primi-
African American(s): Josephine Baker as, tivism, roo,- and idea of redemption,
199-203; Hurston's research, 203-11; 131,- views of race, 27 (see also Race(s)) ;
Other, 18o and seeing, 79,- through spectacle, 36-
African(s), 4-5, 14, 21-26, 28, 41-42, 65, 43; treatment of time, 10, 144. Sen nls
83-90, 129-30,189, 216; and chrono- Boas; Ethnographic, the; Mead;
Museum(s)
photography, 48-59
Akeley, Cari E., 87, 102 Anthropometry, 225-26 n. 42
Alexander, Elizabeth, 189-90 Archive(s): of films, 48, 62-63, 67-71, 79-
Allakariallak, 101-4 90, 236 n. 67,- ideology of, 67-71
Allegret, Marc, 200 Archives delaplante, 8o, 82, 195
American Museum of Natural History, Argonauts ofthe Western Pacific (1922),
14, 117
86-87, 94-95, 98, 102, 157, 164, 210,
213 Art: "Art Science," 92; ethnographic real-
American Museum of Unnatural History, ism, 243 n. 52; historical evidence of pa-
210 thologies, 33,- representation and race,
Animality, 28, 114-15, 137 39, 203, 227 n. 53
Anthropographie, 33 Arunta, 65
Asch, Timothy, 196-97
Anthropologist, as redeemer, 138. See also
Bateson; Boas; Hurston,- Mead; Stocking Asia, in cinematic imagination, 175-76
Anthropology, 6-7, 10, 12-13, 24, 26, 28- Authenticity: and E. S. Curtis, 91,- and the
30,61-64, 161, 196 98; crisis in, 197; ethnographic present, 68; of Grass, 135;
Culture>nd PenotulitySchool, 147; and work of Zora Nealc Hurston, 2oy ;
"King Kong Lives Again." New York Times, 17 August 1986, 10:3.
"Museum Shreds Nude Photos of Former Students at Yale." New York Times, 29 January
1995, 14.
Reviewof Chang. NewYork Times, 3oApril 1927, 25.
INDEX
Review of Goona Goona. Variety, 17 September 1932, 18:4.
Review of Grass. NewYork Times, 31 March 1925, 17.
Review of Island ofLost Souls. Afro-American, i March 1933.
Review oKingKong. Afro-American, 27 April 1933.
Review of King Kong. fournal and Guide, 3 June 1933, 13.
Review of King Kong. London Times, 1933.
Review of King Kong. NewYork Times, 2 March 1933, 12:1.
Review o King Kong. Newsweek i (n March 1933): 27.
Review of King Kong. The Pittsburgh Courier, 6 May 1933.
Review of Roosevelt in frica. The Moving Picture World 6:528-29.
Abraham, 105
"Thrills in Store." Los Angeles Times, 14 March 1933. 78; and film, 46-48, 66-71, 211-12 (see
Abu-Lughod, Lila, 12
Accused/Blowtoich/Padlock(9&6}, 216 also Cinema, ethographic; Film, eth-
Adair, John, 211 nographic); and Zora Neale Hurston,
Adams, Charlie, 123 198, 203-208; and fear of hybridity, 27,
Adorno, TheodorW., 185 187; and medical imagery, 29, 31-15, 46,-
frica, as onepole oan oppositionalpara- andmuseums, 63; and notion of v a n i s l i
digm, 24 ingnative, 90-91; and romantic p n m i
African American(s): Josephine Baker as, tivism, loo,- and idea of rcik-mp ion,
199-203,- Hurston's research, 203-11; 131; viewsof race, 27 [ser nl\u K.u r(s)) ;
Other, 18o andseeing, 79; through SJHX l.u Ir, i(>
African(s), 4-5, 14, 21-26, 28, 41-42, 65, 43; treatment o time, m, i.|.| ,s'<Vf/\<>
Boas; Ethnognipliic, lhc ; Mc.nl,
83-90, 129-30, 189, 216; and chrono-
Museum(.s)
photography, 48-59
Akeley, Cari E., 87, 102 Anthropoinelry, ? z s ?<> "- I.'
Alexander, Elizabeth, 189-90 Archivc(s): of f i l m s , ,|S, <->t. ( > ! , < ' / / i , / i >
Allakariallak, 101-4 90, 236 n. 67,- IdeolQgy o, 67 / i
Allegret, Marc, 200 Archives de la planclc, Ko, 82, i ys
American Museum of Natural History, Argonauts oflhc Western l'nci/ic (1922),
14, 117
86-87, 94-9S, 98,102, 157, 164, 210,
213 Art: "Art Science," 92,- ethnographic real-
American Museum of Unnatural History, ism, 243 n. 52; historical evidencc of pa-
210 thologies, 33; representation and race,
39, 203, 227 n. 53
Animality, 28, 114-15, 137
Arunta, 65
Anthropographie, 33
Asch, Timothy, 196-97
Anthropologist, as redeemer, 138. See also
Bateson; Boas,- Hurston,- Mead; Stocking Asa, in cinematic magination, 175-76
Anthropology, 6-7, 10, 12-13, 24/ 26, 28- Authenticity: and E. S. Curts, 91; and the
30, 61-64, !6i, 196-98; crisis in, 197; ethnographic present, 68; of Grass, 135;
Culture and Personality School, 147; and work of Zora Neale Hurston, 209;
and decolonizatinn, 197; ail thc eth- indigcnous people cmhodying, u;s; of
nographic-, u)6; cthnographization of, Inuit video, 124-26; and Kn,v Kong. i 8 M ,
in Nutiook of I/ir N o i i / i . im m<>, i i i,
F Index 2,91
290 Index
Authenticity (cont.) Braun, Marta, 47 monsters, 189; early-twentieth-century, Comte, Charles, 21, 22, 48-49
116-17, 123-24, 126; politics of, 92, Bride ofKong, 17, 177-78 9; andpositivist science, 46-47, 63; and Congo (1995), 197
95,97 Brng 'Em Back Alive (1932), 171 idea of redemption, 131; Regnault's Consciousness, double, 4
Autochromes, 81 Broca, Paul, 25-27, 30, 162 views, 46-47, 62; and the return gaze, 43; Contamination, 144-45, J 49
Broken Blossoms (1919), 176 successor to exhibitions, 108; as taxi- Cooper, Merian C., 133-37, I 58-59, 165,
Baartman, Saartjie, 17, 189, 226 n. 45 Brunhes, Jean, 8o dermy, 88,102; as teratology, 160. See 172
Bagus, Dr. Ide Gde Ing., 146 Buck, Frank, 171 also Cinema, ethnographic; Film Costner, Kevin, 5, 197
Baker, Josephine, 198-203, 215 Buffon, Comte, 7 Cinema, ethnographic, 6-9, 12; usingar- Craniology, 27, 30
Baktiari, 133-35 Burden, Katherine, 164-65 tifice to convey truth, 116; its context, Criticism, film, 12
Baldwin, James, 193-94, 218 Burden, W. Douglas, 164-65, 187 24; recent examples, 220 n. 16; golden Croisire noire, La (1926), 132-33
Bali, 145-48 Bureau of American Ethnology, 68 age, 153; and horror film, 163; observa- Culture and Personality School, 147
Balibar, Etienne, 32 Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 182 tional, 196; locus of the race of history, Culture(s): southern black, 206-11 indig-
Balikci, Asen, 99, 108, 116, 120, 133 170,- and self-referentiality, 171,- themes, enous surviving under colonialism, 91,
Bann, Stephen, 101 Cambridge Anthropological Expeditions, 16; and visualization, 184,- compared 98; living, 206-7; as presented on film,
Barsam, Richard, 114 64 with zoos, 154. See also Cinema,- Film 43, 66-67,- pur and authentic, 68
Batak, 3-4 Camera, as rifle, 165 "Cinema of Exploration, The," 16 Curts, Edward Sheriff, 14, 70, 90-98,
Bateson, Gregory, 67, 71, 145-47 Camp de Thiaroye (1987), 73, 215 Cinmatographe, 47 214
Bazin, Andr, 16, 131-32, 153 Cannibalism, fascinating, 9-13, 15, 24, c>i>, Cinmatoscope, 47 Cuvier, Georges, 17, 189
Bear Claw, Dean Curts, 213 183, 190, 217 Grele Dance (1898), 83
Beautiful Bermuda (1921), 84 Cannibals ofthe South Seas (1917), 89, Civilization: as goal of race of history, 170,- Dahomeyan Ethnographic Exposition
Belo, Jane, 206, 208 152 in King Kong, 165, 186; in Trader Horn, (i893),39-40
Benga, Ota, 157-58, 189, 213 Canudo, Ricciotto, 115 173 Dance, as spectacle, 65-66
Benjamn, Walter, 9-10, 46, 58-59 Captain's Chair, The(i9?,8), 121-22 Civilized, the, 3,213. See also Modern, the Dances with Wolves(i<)<)o), <,, 197 yN
Brenger-Fraud, L. J. B., 27 Captured byAborigines (1913), 8 5 Clansman, The (1905), 180 D'Anglure, Bernard Saladin, i 10
Bhabha, Homi, 201-02 Carby, Hazel V., 204 Clemente, Steve, 177 Danzker, Jo-Anne Birnie, 110
Binarisms, 84 Carelli, Vincent, 197 Clifford, James, 68, 118, 186 Darwinian link, Kong as, 179
Birth of a Nation, The, 11-12, 180 Carroll, Noel, 169-70, 182 Close-up, the, 212 Darwinism, Social, 182
Black Skin, WhiteMasks, 5, 16 Cartwright, Lisa, 232 n. 25 Collage, a technique in King Kong, 182 Death: of Inuit, 106, 109; in Nanook, 115-
Blonde Venus (1932), 172-73, 183 Carver, H. P., 141-42 Colonial Exposition (1931), 62 16, 131; and vanishing races, 8o, 86-88,
Boas, Franz, 66-67, 69; compared to Cur- Censorship, 148, 212, 253 n. 46 Colonialism: in America, 143; colonializa- 9i,97
tis, 93-94; and treatment of Eskimos, Centaur, image of, 167 tion ongoing, 198; and contamination, Decolonization, 197
104-05; and Zora Neale Hurston, 203- Ciang(i927), 15, 133, 135-37, ' S-1, ' 19 144-45; DutchinBali, 146-47/153; and Degeneration, 28
7, 209; comments on Nanook ofthe Charnov, Elaine, 205 exploitation, 91; film and colonializa- DeHeusch, Le, 100, 116-17, 122
North, 77-78 "Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kw;il< u n I tion, 72, 84, 217; French, 56, 72-73,- and De Mortillct, Gabriel, 28
Bcklin, Arnold, 181 Potlatch," 98 guilt, 131; and Mead, 146; denied in Denis, Armand, 145, 148
Body(ies): anthropological interest in, 27- "China Girl," 232 n. 25 Moana, 141,- and Orwell, 42-43; and Deren, Maya, 210
28; Josephine Baker as, 199; cinema of Chippewa, 141-42 stereotyping, 202; in Tahiti, 144-45; and Dinosaurs, 180-82
the, ni; Ethnographic, 62, 72; French, Christ, imagcryin The Silent l'.ni'tin i i i travelogues, 85,- and writing, 152. See Disappeaiing World, 70
58-62; landscaped, 79, 82; andMa- See also Rcdcmption also Imperialism Discourse of the self, 12-13
sayesva's film technique, 212-13, 215- Chronophotography, i 3 - i s, ?.', M, I H ' i Corning of Age in Samoa, 138 Disneyland, 184
16; of Native(s), 195; and racialization, 195-96 Commandment Keeper Church, 203, 206-9 Distance, viewer from image, 62
71, 215; and Regnault's work, 25-26, 49 Church, African American, ;,<>/ n Comment en marche, 59. See also Marche Dixon, Joseph K., 92
Boundaries, performer/observer, 39-41, Churchill, Ward, I M / en flexin Doane, Mary Ann, 62
169-70; violations of, 1 5 5 , 165-66, 200 Cinema: dcfined, K y ; hogiiiiiniv. "I ". " Committee for the Research into Demen- "Docteur Regnault marche," 61
(see alan Hybridity) contfollingmcflning, 90; And cfcatii ' tia Praccox, 146 Documentaircs romances, K S
2y2 Index
Nanook of the North (1922), 11-16, 93, Normality, defined, 160-61 Poe, Edgar Alian, 179 ''"'i' l( -'t-l. l'.l, ,.,,,,
"""''"I A - V . I M . , , , h , | ( ...........
99-105, 109-126, 130, 132-33, 138, 153, North American Iridian, The, 90, 92 Poirier, Len, 132, 153
160, 178, 186, 195-96, 214; analysis of Northwest Coast Indians, 95 Poisey, David, 124 123 '"' '"'' .......... Khdl .....
scenes, 111 -16; authenticity of, 116, Nowkawalk, Moses, 12324 Political physics, 144-45, 153, 155, i8K "^Porii.....[.),, ,vn .........
123-24; Boas's comments, 77-78; Heart Nunaqpa/Going Inland (1991), 124-26 Pollman, Tessel, 146 l l r y t yi x > l "Ky-M. >,..,, ......... ,. ,.
ofWhiteness, 121; history banished, Polygenist doctrine, 27 ^I^gnauh'svu.ws,,, J ,
no, 115-16; inaccuracies of the film, Objectification, 5. See also Other; Self-
vanishing \' , ' <i i,. "*, '> 'i.|. I I D ,
Portrait o/a Friead (1978), 194
1 ' (/ ' 4 ' , is.|, i i ) s
123; landscapein, ni, 114-15; com- alienation Postmodern, the, 188
Kacialism, i 6 H <n> , H n
pared with Moana, 139-41; and Objectivity, 210-11 Posture, 33-34
participant-observation, 116-19; seal O'Brien, Willis, 181-82 Pratt, Mary Louise, 82 Rcklltlon,8,7i r3,iiS;Humon'i
hunt, 114 VCWS, 210-,,, , , , 1 ( M ; . | l l l | l n | s
Observer/Observed, 216-17 Preloran, Jorge, 162
Nanook Revisited (1988), 122-23 recognition, 32
Ojibwa Indians, 141-42 Primitive, the, 10, 71, 78, 112, 132, 141,
Narrativo, implied, 25 Ollier, Claude, 181 ,.^
153, 195,-and Josephine Baker, 199-203;
Nation, nineteenth-century discourses on, Ontological realism, 117 body, 28; as a film genre, 12,- Other, 160, 3^-35; ofW.Dougl a s B u r den,, 65-66-
26 Oriental, 5 mfilm,8 4 ,i62, I 7 ^ 8 o . M a r g a r e t
253 n. 44 [see also Other); as patholog-
National Geographic, 7, 10 Mead'sviews, I93;ZouZouasfetishof
Origin ofthe Species, The (1859), 2>, r 3 ical, 27, 32-33; Zou Zou a sign of, 202. 202
Native American(s), 68; photographed by "Ornament as Crime," 38 See also Primitive/Modern; Primi- Rango (1931), i 5 / I37
Curts, 90-98; in Dances with Wolves, Orwell, George, 42, 87 tive(s); Savage, the
197-98; filmingby, 211-14,- surviving Other, the, 4-6, 10-11, 13,- African Amen Primtive/Modern, 144, 151-53, 194, 196, Reconstruction, cultural 93-94
European encroachment, 91. See also canas, 180,-coexistence with, T 9 i ; c t h 198 Redemptton: anthropolOgist's ro]e m 8.
Chippewa; Inuit; Navajo nographic, 17, 28 (see also Ethnographic and "racialf i l m s / 'I 3 I _ 3 2 / I 4 J ^ '
Primitive(s), 7, 126, 139; Zora Neale
Native Tribes of Central Australia, The the); in Hollywood films, 177-78; posi Regna U lt,Flix-Louis, 4/I3 ^ l6/2I 3O
Hurston as, 205; Inuit as, 99-100,- Irish
(19121,64 colonial, 15,- and surrealism, 186; as as, 223 n. 22; Nanook as, io4;ln tme- 77-79, 195, "5;andchronoPhotogra-
Native(s), x, 5-6, 86-88; as authentic, 43; third eye, 217; vales concerning, 24 less picturesques, 13 Phy, 48-63, and themesof ethnographic
cinematic types, 177-78; devoted, 120- Ousmane, Sembne, 73 Primitiveness, 24 film, 63; ideas of race, 39-40,- vlews on
2i; in evolutionary past, 194-96 (see Primitivism: art movement, 138, 186; and , 49, 56-58; and scientific in-
also Evolution); returned gaze, 42-43; Pan-American Exposition (1901), mH .
King Kong, 186; romantic, 100, 137
implicit violence toward, 86-88; in King Paradise, the lost, 147 Princess Tana Tam (1935), 203 teratolog y , I 6o,.worksdcscribed2 9
Kong, 176-78; "native villages," 36-40, Reinhardt, Max, 202
Paris Ethnographic Exposition ( i H y s ) .SVr Propaganda, travelogues as, 85
Religions, 207 See tilvn u i
43; vanishing, 91. See also Primitivc(s),- Exposition Ethnogrtphique Puputan, 153 ' c a y ' s "K(.-dempti(ni ; Spir-
ituality
Racc(s), vanishing,- Savagc(s) Participant observation, r i 6 11) Purity and Danger (1966), 161
Remarque, Liricl, Mara, I(,,.
298 Index
ISBN ^a-o-flE3-iam]-ft
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