Retratos do Outro: as fotografias antropológicas da Expedição Thayer e da Comissão Geológica do Império do Brazil (1865-1877)

Abstract

During the first half of the 19th century, the photographic machine was used by the scientific speech as a method to produce images able to realize the recovery and the systematization of nature in a better way. Photography was understood as a precise and loyal reproduction of reality which, because of the mechanic process, extracted from the picture every element of subjectivity. This comprehension of photography allowed its absorption in some knowledge fields, especially in the anthropological studies, once its realistic speeches delivered reliability to the scientific research. Concomitantly to the discovery of the optical equipment, it was also envisioned a reformulation in the scientific values, its theory and methodology, mainly after Darwins publication The Origen of Species. It was noted in the photographs of the 19th century the creation of man and nature representations, which could translate the distinct scientific precepts built in that time. The composing elements in every image were thought and constructed as a meaning of creating the documental prove that could confirm the principles defended by the researchers. When analyzing the images produced in two distinct scientific expeditions in a comparative way, it was possible to visualize this shock in a clearer way. The first enterprise to be approached by this research is the Thayer Expedition, a foreign mission guided by the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz, whose attitude in front of black and crossbred people was extremely imperialist and ethnocentric. Yet, the second initiative approached is the Geological Commission of the Brazilian Empire, guided by Charles Frederick Hartt and organized by the National Museum, the main scientific institution in Brazil. It was intended with this Commission, contrary to the first one, to scan the territory and the native population, in a way to provide subsidies to the formation of a nation. Thus, when analyzing photography as a part of the cultural and scientific production of the 19th century, it was intended with this research to reflect about some strategies and choices that the photographers and scientists took when shooting the pictures. In this way, the present paper has an objective of approaching photography as a scientific practice and testimony of the scientific theories in vogue in the 19th century, highlighting through the images its diverse cultural conceptions about mankind.