Picturing a Colonial Past: The African Photographs of Isaac Schapera - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226114120 ISBN 13: 9780226114125

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2007

Synopsis

This volume presents for the first time the selected photographs of the renowned British anthropologist Isaac Schapera (1905–2003). Taken between 1929 and 1934, largely during his earliest work among the Kgatla peoples of Bechuanaland (now Botswana), the 136 images in this selection reveal an emotional engagement and aesthetic impulse that Schapera seldom expressed in his writings. Covering a broad spectrum of daily activities, they include depictions of everything from pot making, thatching, and cattle herding to village architecture, vernacular medicine, and rainmaking ceremonies. Visually fascinating and of exceptional quality, these images capture the uniqueness of an African people in a particular time and place. They are contexualized and their significance explained in Jean and John Comaroff’s insightful introduction, while Adam Kuper’s illuminating biographical sketch of Schapera provides new insight into the life of the photographer. Picturing a Colonial Past reveals not only a rare side of old Botswana, but also of one of the most famous anthropologist who worked there.

About this title

About the Author

Jean Comaroff is the Bernard E. and Ellen C. Sunny Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology and director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory at the University of Chicago. John L. Comaroff is the Harold W. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago and a senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation. Both are also honorary professors at the University of Cape Town. Deborah James is reader in the Department of Anthropology and member of the Center for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics.

Review

“Isaac Schapera’s photographs magnificently capture everyday life among the Kgatla at a period of great social change through a seemingly artless focus on artifacts and architecture, dress and deportment. In their introduction, Jean and John Comaroff—Schapera’s most outstanding successors—provide a scintillating and thought-provoking portrait of Schapera as ethnographer and photographer. This splendid volume will be a most valuable resource to anthropologists and historians and a source of illumination and enjoyment to readers interested in southern Africa.”

(Shula Marks, School of Oriental and African Studies 2006-12-20)

“These spectacular photographs reveal a much more complex Schapera than his writings allow and provide a more complete and aesthetically charming supplement to his work. The combination of clear, insightful, and entertaining scholarship—written by some of the foremost anthropologists of the region—and stunning photographs makes this a highly original and important book with a wide appeal. Readers will gain a better understanding of the history of anthropology as well as visual anthropology and African studies.”

(Robert Gordon, University of Vermont 2007-01-08)

"Picturing a Colonial Past is profoundly respectful and elegiac. . . The Comaroffs write a superb essay on the photographs; Kuper . . . writes a superb article about Schapera's life and career. The photographs have been tracked down, identified, re-captioned, and beautifully presented. Everything about the book breathes scholarship and commitment." (Terence Ranger International History Review)

"This is a wonderful book for lovers of Southern African cultures, as well as for students of classic ethnography and visual culture. . . . There is much value in the aesthetic beauty of these photographs, reminding us that cultures reassert their values in a wide range of contexts." (Nancy Howell and David Lee Journal of Anthropological Research)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0226114120
• ISBN 13: 9780226114125
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 234
• Editor: Comaroff John L., Comaroff Jean, James Deborah