(view table of contents)

Images of the Bushman—from the innocent hero of the hit movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy, to “vermin” eradicated by the colonists, to the superhuman trackers conscripted by the South African Defense Forces, and the living embodiment of prehistory for the academic—shape our perceptions rather than the actuality. Looking at this interplay between imagery, history, and policy, Robert Gordon focuses not on the Bushman but on the colonizers’ image of them and the consequences of that image for the people assumed to be Bushmen.To understand the image of the Bushmen, we must place them into the context from which they were abstracted. The Bushman Myth, then, is a study of not only history but also of the sociology of knowledge as well as of the relationship between perceived role and economic class. Lavishly illustrated with archival and recent photographs, the book attempts to convey the extent to which we as Westerners have participated in the creation of the “Bushman” identity. This book with its poignant example of the Bushmen brings us face to face with the complexities and deceptions of our constructions of the “Other.”

Product Description: New goods are at the heart of economic progress. The eleven essays in this volume include historical treatments of new goods and their diffusion; practical exercises in measurement addressed to recent and ongoing innovations; and real-world methods of devising quantitative adjustments for quality change...read more

Product Description: Book by Gordon, Robert J., Meggitt, Mervyn J.

Product Description: ALERT: Before you purchase, check with your instructor or review your course syllabus to ensure that you select the correct ISBN. Several versions of Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products exist for each title, including customized versions for individual schools, and registrations are not transferable...read more

Product Description: Book by Robert J. Gordon

Product Description: Macroeconomics, Student Value Edition

Product Description: African research played a major role in transforming the discipline of anthropology in the twentieth century. Ethnographic studies, in turn, had significant effects on the way imperial powers in Africa approached subject peoples. Ordering Africa provides the first comparative history of these processes...read more

The Denver African Expedition went to Africa in 1925 to "seek the cradle of Humanity." The explorers claimed to have found the "Missing Link" in the Heikum bushmen of the Kalahari - and they proceeded to market this image. As Robert J. Gordon shows in Picturing Bushmen, the impact of the expedition lay not simply in its slick merchandising of bushmen images but also in the fact that the pictures were exotic and aesthetically pleasing. The Denver Expedition played a key role in romanticizing bushmen. Indeed, its image of bushmen has permeated Western mass culture. Before the expedition, bushmen commonly had been presented on postcards as impoverished savages. In its wake, the bushmen of South Africa have inspired not only commercial advertisements, but art exhibitions and novels. Although Rob Gordon is an anthropologist, this study ranges into questions of film theory, history, and popular culture. It offers a new perspective on coffee-table books, ethnology, and the nature of research on those labeled "others." While suggesting how "ethnographic photographs" might be appreciated, Picturing Bushmen is also a subtle analysis of the perennial issues that haunt field workers - especially what and how they "see" and how their perception is influenced by the mundane in their own societies. (view table of contents)

(view table of contents)

(view table of contents)

A reader for cultural anthropology courses consisting of articles that are global, both in authorship and perspective. The articles focus on contemporary global concerns and place an emphasis on gender issues throughout. (view table of contents)