Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

ethical issues are explored throughout this
While
this section looks in more detail at the
chapter,
how Indigenous Peoples are represented in
•
culture
where the line between appreciation and
•
is in relation to Indigenous
appropriation
how we navigate the tension between the
•
not to know and the responsibility to
right
knowledge with voluntarily isolated
share
peoples.
tribal
Nelson’s project on Indigenous Peoples,
Jimmy
They Pass Away”, serves as a case study
“Before
the complex political and knowledge concerns
on
arise when non-Indigenous individuals tell
that
story of Indigenous Peoples and knowledge.
the
political implications of aesthetic decisions are
The
in Chapter 10. “Before They Pass Away”
explored
to similar aesthetic and political concerns.
connects
photographs are widely acclaimed
Nelson’s
beautiful compositions that appear to
as
their subjects. “I wanted to put them
celebrate
a pedestal like they’ve never been seen
on
says Nelson (2014), and contrasts
before”
aesthetic with the “impoverished” and
his
aesthetic used by NGOs and
“patronizing”
organizations to raise funds for their work.
other
unabashedly acknowledges choosing to
Nelson
“the most beautiful people on the
photograph
(2014), leaving out Indigenous Peoples
planet”
did not meet his criteria for authenticity.
that
trying to put these people in the same context
I’m
somebody like Kate Moss … Our society, for
as
reason, has decided she is important and
whatever
to be photographed in a high-concept way;
deserves
the “authenticity” of a different culture
Critiquing
the outside is problematic for a number
from
obvious reasons. In our particular historical
of
outsiders may be conditioned to expect
moment,
exoticized orientalist aesthetic. Photographers
an
complicit in perpetuating that aesthetic if
are
are not especially careful to guard against it.
they
the photographs are stunning, they may
While
inadvertently degrading because they show
be
subjects isolated from progress, science
their
all the other facets of modern life. They
and
the fact that their subjects may watch
obscure
wear denim jeans and use social media
Netflix,
the camera is not pointed their way. And
when
can prompt the incorrect assumption that
they
featured communities have been that way
the
as if their cultures are not constantly
forever,
and adapting to the world around them
adjusting
everyone else’s. Cultures, unlike artefacts
like
are preserved and shown in museums
that
galleries, adapt, collide, meld together and
and
change over time. Anthropologist Julia
certainly
is simply not true that tribal people have been
It
for thousands of years’; they have been
‘unchanged
constantly, as we have. It is clear that for
evolving
their attraction and purity is rooted in their
Nelson,
from the future, and their containment
exclusion
the past— so that is the only reality he presents
to
his photos. By omitting their interactions with
in
‘modern world’ that they are a part of, and
the
the myth that they are dying out,
perpetuating
work freezes tribal peoples in the past and
Nelson’s
other problematic assumption has to do
The
narrative and language, both of which
with
reflect and reinforce beliefs, attitudes
powerfully
assumptions, as we see in Chapter 4. The
and
“Before They Pass Away” invokes an
title
passing, a natural consequence of
inevitable
IV. Ethics
IV. Ethics
I V. E T H I C S
questions of:
knowledge
IV.1 The ethics and politics of
representation
Lagoutte makes the following argument.
eectively denies them a place in this world.
(Lagoutte 2014)
I’ve tried to do the same here.
history and progress that such cultures are lost,
(Nelson quoted in Merrill 2014)
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