| Abstract [eng] |
The object of the master thesis – to representation of the North East India tribes, puting the emphasis on nagas and mizo tribes in colonial period ethnographic photography. By using interdisciplinary methods and an analysis of modern postcolonial discourse, the archive of visual ethnographic material that has been accumulated in colonial period is researched, in which the genesis of the photographs can be seen from exotic interest for a tribe to a mediated selfrepresentation. Through a dichotomic difference of biography and autobiography the intersection of problematic cultural, political and social issues is critically aknowledged, which shows the power of the colonial ethnograpy and the limitations in representing North East Indian identity. The purpose of the thesis – to analyse the archive of the North East Indian visual ethnograpy and to reveal the diversity of motives, which created the social space of the region. That is why at first I will study the theoretical changes of identity creation and representation, I will present a discursive review of the North East Indian region and analyse the archive of the tribes through a classifiction of the photos according to a theme. After the analysis it turned out that the identity is closely related to openness of the tribal society to the outside world: it is a paradox that the tribes of the nagas, being open to the influence of colonialism, became stereotypical natives, while closed tribes of mizo created a modern identity. The thesis reveals the aspect of North East Indian sociocultural space which has been only scarcely researched before. It offers a perspective for further development of the theme in a sociological perspective and can become a strong argument to carry out discursive ethnographic reaseraches in the region. |
