The Echo of Things: The Lives of Photographs in the Solomon IslandsThe Echo of Things is a compelling ethnographic study of what photography means to the people of Roviana Lagoon in the western Solomon Islands. Christopher Wright examines the contemporary uses of photography and expectations of the medium in Roviana, as well as people's reactions to photographs made by colonial powers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For Roviana people, photographs are unique objects; they are not reproducible, as they are in Euro-American understandings of the medium. Their status as singular objects contributes to their ability to channel ancestral power, and that ability is a key to understanding the links between photography, memory, and history in Roviana. Filled with the voices of Roviana people, The Echo of Things is both a nuanced study of the lives of photographs in a particular cultural setting and a provocative inquiry into our own understandings of photography. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
Chapter 1 Tie VakaThe Men of the Boat | 19 |
Chapter 2 A Devils Engine | 59 |
Chapter 3 Photographic Resurrection | 111 |
Chapter 4 Histories | 163 |
Epilogue | 191 |
Notes | 195 |
| 205 | |
| 217 | |
Other editions - View all
The Echo of Things: The Lives of Photographs in the Solomon Islands Christopher Wright No preview available - 2013 |
The Echo of Things: The Lives of Photographs in the Solomon Islands Christopher Wright No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
albums ancestors archival argued Aswani bakiha banara Batchen beku British camera cannibalism carved Chris Christian colonial concerned connection contemporary Roviana courtesy of royal culture Davis Dunde Dureau efficacy Elkington encounter Euro Euro-American European Faletau Faletau Leve father feature figure Fiji Gizo Goldie graph headhunting hmS Royalist Hocart Honiara Inqava Interview John Bates thurston Josephine kastom kinds magic Malaitan maqomaqo Marovo Lagoon memory Methodist mission mimetic Munda Museum Nusa Roviana Nusa Zonga objects paele people’s photocopy photograph taken photographs in Roviana Pijin pikisa practices prints Punai raids refer relation representations reveals ritual Roviana Lagoon royal anthropological institute royal geographical society Royal Navy Rubiana sense shadow shell valuables shrines Simbo skull houses Solomon Islands Somerville soul spirits stories studio stael talk tion tomoko took traders Tuk’s UK rNaS University of Auckland Vella Lavella viana village visual Voli western Solomon Islands Wheatley Williamson Woodford