From the erotics of anthropological representation to the tickle of portraiture. Portraits in and out of the archive: What do names have to do with it?

This paper uses visual material (the specific case of photographic portraiture) to raise general issues about anthropological representation.  I connect the emotional investments that humans make in observation to the pleasures of doing anthropology. Representation, understanding and power are interconnected and this is pleasurable. Knowing how something works enables control. Control gives power, and power as part of the human psyche is itself erotic. Humans find power erotic (Freud talks of “scopophilia). Power requires understanding and this, in turn, needs representation. Portraiture exemplifies the issues. Sitters pose, posture themselves in ways Goffman describes for the everyday self. Pose and representation are inescapable, as are forms of anthropological understanding. The sense of power or control given by putting a name to a face is the erotic charge of anthropology.

Please note that this seminar is a change from the one originally advertised.

Pitt Rivers Museum Research Seminar in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology, Hilary 2024

Fridays, 12pm-1.30pm

In person at the Pitt Rivers Museum Lecture Theatre.

Convened by Chihab El Khachab and Chris Morton