Just recently I was complaining about people making references to ‘tribes’ without knowing anything actually about them. Here is a twist on the idea of the importance of informing the public about the specifics of life in places other than their own: “Anthrophoto.com”:http://www.anthrophoto.com/. Started by the “Devores”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irven_DeVore it is a website with a huge searchable database of images.
On the one hand, the site’s insistence on accuracy is admirable:
Anthro-Photo provides clients with the images provided by scientists from long term field studies. Begun thirty years ago with a small group of anthropologists, biologists and archeologists from Harvard University, Anthro-Photo has expanded to include many world famous scientists who provide historically accurate images with captions that are science based, not “guessed at” by the photographer. Our pictures aren’t “set up” or taken at a tourist demonstration of what the cultures used to do. Our photographers were there, they lived in the field, they are the authorities on the cultures and animals they photographed… Anthro-Photo is owned and run by Anthropologists and Biologists. We have been illustrating textbooks and magazines for thirty years. We stand behind our photographs with not only accurate captions, but the scientific knowledge that allows us to know what you are looking for before you do. Unlike “McStock Agencies” we specialize in certain topics, which enables us to drill down into our stock to provide the image you need to illustrate a concept. We are reachable for personal help, not just an unanswered voice mail or email. We take the time to get it right, and will contact our photographers for more information when needed.
On the other hand, the site’s framing of what anthropologists do (be white people talking to poor brown people) and who ‘humans’ are (colorfully (un)attired brown people) makes you want to sigh. There are no pictures in the ‘Europe’ category and the ‘Australia’ category has no white Australians. Africa is highly represented, but this probably has more to do with the field locations of the people who started the company. And of course I wonder whether the people in the picture know how these images are being used. But I don’t think these issues detract from the overall goal of the project too much.
Apparently this is a for-profit company, but all of these images appear to be downloadable — perhaps the high-res ones cost money, or they are generous in fair-use rights for teaching. At any rate they have a great collection of pictures from ethnographically ‘classic’ areas, so assuming that they don’t object this place is a god-send for spicing up your power points.
I think we also need to be careful here when we assume someone doesn’t know anything about them. Or that it appears that they don’t. It might just be they aren’t talking about the thing you mean as tribes. Usually when i talk about tribes… i mean the description aristotle gives in the politics and the organizational unit described in the constitution of athens. you probably mean something entirely different though overlapping. sometimes i also say tribes and refer to tribe.net, which is a different reference again… just saying… no one holds the definitive ‘own’ on any concept, granted… if you have anthropologists not knowing what a tribe is… well, that might not be a bad thing.