Visual Anthropology contributions to the Analysis of Reading Materials on Indigenous Peoples.Or how to Reduce the Risks of an ‘Insular’ Study of School Textbooks

Abstract: This article presents a methodology for the analysis of readings on indigenous peoples in schoolbooks in Argentina (1885-1940). In this paper, I argue about the importance of re-constructing the socio-historic context of text production, I describe methodological procedures and I explain the multidisciplinary nature of the research undertaken. I present contributions of history and anthropology and delve into visual anthropology as the studies on ethnographic photography of the late 19th century and early 20th century provide interpretative clues for the pictures of indigenous people reproduced in textbooks. Visual anthropology resources have proved to be one of the most fruitful ways of understanding textbooks as parts of a wider social universe, in which they make sense.

Keywords:
reading books; indigenous peoples; production conditions; methodological procedures