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/ Man with scarification patterns, Congo, ca. 1900-1915

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Title
Man with scarification patterns, Congo, ca. 1900-1915
Creator
Unknown
Date Created and/or Issued
1900/1915
Publication Information
University of Southern California. Libraries
Contributing Institution
University of Southern California Digital Library
Collection
International Mission Photography Archive, ca.1860-ca.1960
Rights Information
Centre for the Study of World Christianity
Contact the repository for details.
The University of Edinburgh School of Divinity, New College, Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LX, United Kingdom
divinity-CSWC@ed.ac.uk
http://www.cswc.div.ed.ac.uk/collections/
Description
Black and white lantern slide showing a man with scarification designs on his chest, face and lips. Scarification was a common form of body modification in Africa that conveyed meaning on the body through the inflication and controlled healing of wounds to form particular marks. For men, this could often be a test of endurance, carry symbolic meaning or be a sign of cultural belonging. Christian missionaries disapproved of the practice, since it was believed to distort a natural body, made in God's image. During the 1800s and 1900, images of scarification were distributed in Europe, and came to be seen as a sign of the exotic. This slide comes from a collection generated by missionaries working for the Congo Balolo Mission, a mission begun in 1889 under the supervision of the East London Training Institute for Home and Foreign Missions that developed into the interdenominational evangelical mission Regions Beyond Missionary Union after 1900.
Format
lantern slides 8.2 x 8.2cm
lantern slides
photographs
Identifier
IMP-CSCNWW33-OS10-18.tif
http://doi.org/10.25549/impa-c123-78043
http://thumbnails.digitallibrary.usc.edu/IMP-CSCNWW33-OS10-18.jpg
Subject
Congo Balolo Mission
Indigenous peoples
Ethnic groups
Scarification (body marking)
Men
Portraits
Time Period
1900/1915
Place
Africa
Congo
Source
CSCNWW33/OS10/18 [File]
Relation
International Mission Photography Archive, ca.1860-ca.1960
Photographs from the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, U.K., ca.1900-ca.1940s
Regions Beyond Missionary Union. Congo Lantern Slides (CSCNWW33/OS10)

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