Photography and the “natives”: Examining the hidden curriculum of photographs in introductory anthropology texts

Although most introductory anthropology textbooks are filled with photographic images, a reflexive discussion of the purpose of placing photographs within the books is lacking. Since texts’ images are a powerful and pervasive means of communication, anthropologists and students alike need to critically examine messages that the photographs and their captions may convey. In this article, I examine two genres of textbook photographs that can elucidate the use of photographs in general within introductory anthropology texts. Both sets of images depict processes and uses of photography that are of interest to anthropologists. One set shows “natives” looking at Polaroid photographs of themselves; the other set depicts “natives” using photographic equipment for their own purposes. While both image genres can be deconstructed for specific details about image‐making and anthropological subjects, they also constitute part of a “hidden curriculum” of placing photographs in introductory texts. Beneath the ostensibly descriptive purposes of depicting two ways indigenous people interact with the Western technology of photography, the photographs are used iconographically to convey a bias toward visual observation as the superior method for acquiring knowledge and understanding. The Western principle that equates understanding with visual observation is one that remains largely unexamined and unconsciously held by both the creators and readers of introductory anthropology texts.