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Reframing the Aura: Digital Photography in Ancestral Worship
Author(s) -
Müller Katja
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
museum anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.197
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1548-1379
pISSN - 0892-8339
DOI - 10.1111/muan.12131
Subject(s) - performative utterance , digitization , worship , meaning (existential) , interpretation (philosophy) , value (mathematics) , cognitive reframing , aesthetics , shamanism , originality , cultural artifact , sociology , history , anthropology , visual arts , art , epistemology , linguistics , philosophy , psychology , archaeology , theology , qualitative research , machine learning , computer science , computer vision , social psychology
Anthropological archives employ norms of originality and authenticity that digital reproduction may undermine. Digitization offers new prospects for appropriating a shared cultural heritage. The stark contrasts that evolve through multiple re‐readings of anthropological archives call into question hegemonic discourses about the authenticity of the original and its value as historic material. In an Indian case study, digitization forms the basis for a performative interpretation of visual archives. The perceivers foreground ancestral worship and the mnemonic characteristics of the photographs. Reaching beyond intercultural encounters, preservation, and accessibility, they challenge the institutionalized foundations of interpreting and making meaning out of anthropological records.