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Article ID: CBB001201583

Photographic Uncertainties: Between Evidence and Reassurance (2014)

History and Anthropology
Volume: 25
Pages: 171--188

DOI: 10.1080/02757206.2014.882834

Publication Date: 2014
Edition Details: Part of the special issue: “Anthropology, Collecting and Colonial Governmentalities”.
Language: English

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Photographs Photography Collections Collectors and collecting Anthropology Geography Government sponsored science Science and government Information technology Great Britain, colonies 19th century

This paper examines the mid-nineteenth century photographic collecting practices in the Colonial Office (CO) in London. Following methodologies laid down by Stoler and Joyce, the paper excavates the epistemic procedures through which photography and its role in colonial governance operated between the late 1860s and 1875. I focus my analysis on the production of, and response to, two CO despatches, which were circulated in November 1869 requesting photographs. But what was the work expected of these photographs, what were they meant to do? What was their relationship with anthropology and geography? The paper argues that in the praxis of central government, the role of photographic evidence was more uncertain and confused than instrumental interpretative models have assumed. I shall argue that in many cases photographs were not evidence in any dynamic sense in information provision, but rather functioned as tools of reassurance.

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Article Bennett, Tony; Dibley, Ben; Harrison, Rodney (2014) Introduction: Anthropology, Collecting and Colonial Governmentalities. History and Anthropology (p. 137). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001201583/

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