THROUGH THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER - JUNOD,H.A. AND THE NOTION OF PRIMITIVE

This essay examines the way in which an eminent anthropologist, Henri- Alexandre Junod, constructed a modern vision of Africa at the end of t he nineteenth-century. Junod's lasting achievement was to replace the gothic imagery of darkness and irrationality, through which Victorian writers portrayed Africa, with a scientific, universal system of signi fication. By absorbing Africa into a field of vision dominated by Euro pean norms and conventions, Junod tamed the continent's otherness. Thi s led him to interpret African sculpture and carving as representing a primitive stage in a universal artistic tradition dominated by Europe .