Recreating First Contact

Expeditions, Anthropology, and Popular Culture

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Film, History & Criticism, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology, History
Cover of the book Recreating First Contact by , Smithsonian
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: ISBN: 9781935623243
Publisher: Smithsonian Publication: November 6, 2013
Imprint: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press Language: English
Author:
ISBN: 9781935623243
Publisher: Smithsonian
Publication: November 6, 2013
Imprint: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press
Language: English

Recreating First Contact explores themes related to the proliferation of adventure travel which emerged during the early twentieth century and that were legitimized by their associations with popular views of anthropology. During this period, new transport and recording technologies, particularly the airplane and automobile and small, portable, still and motion-picture cameras, were utilized by a variety of expeditions to document the last untouched places of the globe and bring them home to eager audiences. These expeditions were frequently presented as first contact encounters and enchanted popular imagination. The various narratives encoded in the articles, books, films, exhibitions and lecture tours that these expeditions generated fed into pre-existing stereotypes about racial and technological difference, and helped to create them anew in popular culture. Through an unpacking of expeditions and their popular wakes, the essays (12 chapters, a preface, introduction and afterward) trace the complex but obscured relationships between anthropology, adventure travel and the cinematic imagination that the 1920s and 1930s engendered and how their myths have endured. The book further explores the effects - both positive and negative - of such expeditions on the discipline of anthropology itself. However, in doing so, this volume examines these impacts from a variety of national perspectives and thus through these different vantage points creates a more nuanced perspective on how expeditions were at once a global phenomenon but also culturally ordered.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Recreating First Contact explores themes related to the proliferation of adventure travel which emerged during the early twentieth century and that were legitimized by their associations with popular views of anthropology. During this period, new transport and recording technologies, particularly the airplane and automobile and small, portable, still and motion-picture cameras, were utilized by a variety of expeditions to document the last untouched places of the globe and bring them home to eager audiences. These expeditions were frequently presented as first contact encounters and enchanted popular imagination. The various narratives encoded in the articles, books, films, exhibitions and lecture tours that these expeditions generated fed into pre-existing stereotypes about racial and technological difference, and helped to create them anew in popular culture. Through an unpacking of expeditions and their popular wakes, the essays (12 chapters, a preface, introduction and afterward) trace the complex but obscured relationships between anthropology, adventure travel and the cinematic imagination that the 1920s and 1930s engendered and how their myths have endured. The book further explores the effects - both positive and negative - of such expeditions on the discipline of anthropology itself. However, in doing so, this volume examines these impacts from a variety of national perspectives and thus through these different vantage points creates a more nuanced perspective on how expeditions were at once a global phenomenon but also culturally ordered.

More books from Smithsonian

Cover of the book Sweet Home Café Cookbook by
Cover of the book The Story of Science: Newton at the Center by
Cover of the book When Thunder Rolled by
Cover of the book A History of Life in 100 Fossils by
Cover of the book Snakes in Question, Second Edition by
Cover of the book Fighter Pilot's Heaven by
Cover of the book The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of Northern Eurasia by
Cover of the book Monitoring Biodiversity by
Cover of the book Measuring and Monitoring Biological Diversity by
Cover of the book Bananas by
Cover of the book Living Santería by
Cover of the book Ethnicity, Hunter-Gatherers, and the "Other" by
Cover of the book American Endurance by
Cover of the book Smithsonian American Women by
Cover of the book The Smithsonian Book of Presidential Trivia by
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy