Reediana

Return to the Land of the Head Hunters: Edward S. Curtis, the Kwakwaka’wakw, and the Making of Modern Cinema
(Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2014)

Coedited by Aaron Glass ’94

Aaron Glass

罗依

Like most of his contemporaries, Curtis assumed he was recording something on the brink of vanishing entirely. To be fair, many Kwakwaka’wakw of his day would also be surprised if they could see, today, the extent to which their traditions have survived the juggernaut of missionization, economic exploitation, boarding schools, and criminalization of their central potlatch ceremonies. Curtis also seemed confident he could capture an untainted, pure, precolonial way of life—even as he staged scenes, swapped costumes back and forth, and took pains to keep trappings of modernity like European-style buildings and ships out of shot.

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—Christopher F. Roth ’90