To document the undocumentable. Photography in the scientific practice of physical anthropology and race biology
| Date | 12 September 2016 |
| Published date | 12 September 2016 |
| Pages | 813-831 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2015-0116 |
| Author | Ulrika Kjellman |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
To document the undocumentable
Photography in the scientific practice of
physical anthropology and race biology
Ulrika Kjellman
ALM, Uppsala, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to see how the disciplines of physical anthropology
and race biology used photographs as documenting tools when trying to prove the existence
of variations among the human species dependent on race. On a more general level the study
aims to contribute to the discussions on how images work as documents in scientific
practice.
Design/methodology/approach –The primary method ology of this study is a f unctional and
rhetorical analys is of the photograp hic material taken b y the Swedish State In stitute of Racial
Biology between 192 2 and 1958.
Findings –How images work as documents in scientific practice depends on what kind of
documents they are, and what practices they take part in.
Originality/value –By showing how images played an important and substantial role in the
research practices of physical anthropology and race biology, this paper stresses the importance of
taking images as serious influences in scientific practice. The authors stress the need for further
investigations i nto how images work as documents in scien tific contexts.
Keywords Classification , History, Communic ation, Documentat ion, Documents,
Audiovisual media
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Aim, material and method
The establishment of the physical anthropology discipline in the nineteenth century
coincided with the launching of new image reproduction methods, such as
lithography, wood engraving and photography. Photography became an especially
important tool in the research practice of the discipline from the end of the nineteenth
century and forward –especially when physical anthropology merged into newly
established research areas, such as race biology and eugenics. In this paper I will look
into how the disciplines of physical anthropology and race biology used this new
pictorial technique as a documenting tool when trying to prove the existence of
variations among the human species dependent on race. By showing how
photographs were used within these disciplines I also aim to contribute to the
discussion on how images work as documents in scientific practices on a more
general level.
Since disciplines like physical anthropology and race biology wereestablished early in
Sweden, with several renowned researchers active from 1850 to 1980, a fairly large body
of pictorial material was produced within Sweden. From the beginning of the twentieth
century, photographs were often used in the research of the race biology discipline and
several photographical archives remain from this work. The Swedish State Institute for
Racial Biology (SIRB)(1921-1958) collectedand produced vastpictorial material;today the
Uppsala University library holds photographic archive material from the institute with
over 12,000 photographs compiled in folders and albums. The institute also produced
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 72 No. 5, 2016
pp. 813-831
©Emerald Group Publis hing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-09-2015-0116
Received 24 September 2015
Revised4March2016
Accepted 5 March 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
813
Physical
anthropology
and race
biology
publications richly illustrated with photographs. Some of the more important publications
published by the institute were The Swedish Nation in Word and Picture from 1921, The
Racial Characters of the Swedish Nation from 1926 and Svensk raskunskap (Swedish Race
Science) from 1927, and together with the photographs from the archive, the illustrations
from these publications will be used as the main empirical material in this study.
The material will be analysed from a functional and rhetorical perspective to see
how the pictures were used in scientific practice, what they brought to the research
process, and how they met the demands of the scientific community. Important
questions in relation to this overarching purpose are the following:
•How were the pictorial materials used in the research processes?
•How could the photographs be used as scientifically reliable data?
•How did they meet the requirements of objectivity in scientific practice?
Before entering the next section, some ethical considerations must be addressed. Many of
these photographs were produced under humiliating circumstances, and the ethics of
re-publishing them can be question, since the act once again puts these people, portrayed in
the material, in a degrading position. I decided that the urgency to discuss this dark chapter
of European scientific history overshadowed this concern. However, I have avoided
publishing more degrading pictures of children or of people who might still be alive.
Theoretical aspects and previous research
This study relies on understanding scientific pictures as theory loaded, bringing
epistemological assumptions to light. Scientific pictures not only give us knowledge about
the nature they represent, as a reflection of reality, but also of the knowledge situation
creating them, i.e. the knower and the collective way of knowing in that specific situation
(Daston and Galison, 2007, p. 53). This collective way of knowing is perceived as
historically determined, and on a more general level this study connects to the
ideas presented in Foucault’s (1994) The Order of Things, stating that different historical
periods are characterized by different epistemological presumptions, epistemes,
permeating every act and understanding in the scientific practice of the period.
Even if emphasizing the fact that pictures are theory loaded it is also important to
underline the fact that they are less conventional than words. They do have other
capacities than words when representing the natural world. Peirce (1940, p. 115)
stressed this difference of words and pictures by dividing the signs in three main
different categories: index, symbols and icons, where the icon and index have a clear
relation to reality while the symbol, i.e. the word, is altogether arbitrary. The unique
relation of images to reality is also expressed by Berger (1972) when he states that:
“No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such a direct testimony about
the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are
more precise and richer than literature”(p. 10). And when Barthes (2003) examines
the ontology of photographs and their relation to reality he pinpoints that they, apart
from communicating a conventional layer of understanding, also carry messages
without codes, i.e. they give us an unmediated access to reality in a way that no other
media does (p. 120).
But, as stated, even if the aim of the pictures is to say something about nature, they
also say something about the scientific context they are a part of and the
epistemological assumptions permeating this context. Kemp (1990), for instance, states
that images in the scientific context show “a complex interaction of prior knowledge,
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