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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Under Alpine Eyes: Constructing Landscape and Society in Late Pre-Colonial South-East Africa
Author:Harries, PatrickISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Paideuma
Volume:43
Pages:171-191
Language:English
Geographic term:Southern Africa
Subjects:images
anthropology
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/40341736
Abstract:The Swiss missionary Henri-Alexandre Junod, who arrived in Lourenço Marques in 1889, would become a pioneer figure in African anthropology. This article explains the shift in Junod's thinking from racism to empathy by examining the relationship between the ways in which he and others saw the landscape and the local population. The author suggests that when the missionaries arrived in South-East Africa they lacked the visual conventions to 'see', or make sense of, either the landscape or the indigenous population. But as they took cognitive control of the land they were able to establish, particularly through the modern discipline of anthropology, a cognitive control over the people amongst whom they lived and worked. The article starts by looking at the Swiss context in which the missionaries' attitudes towards landscape emerged. It then turns to the ways in which this learned practice of viewing influenced their perception and representation of landscape in Africa. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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