Re: photo recognition

Eric Silverman (Abw@AOL.COM)
Tue, 25 Jul 1995 19:03:41 -0400

Recently, I have been conducting fieldwork among the Iatmul, Sepik River,
Papua New Guinea. I have found that Iatmul are able to identify faces in old
b+w photos taken by Mead and Bateson in the 1930s. However, objects--such as
shields, masks, ornamented stools, etc., were more problematic. Iatmul,
especially older Iatmul, were unable to recognize the same object depicted in
different photos from different perspectives. The size of the object was
also troublesome, as was the ability to see the object "in-the-round."

BTW, I believe that the study done on line drawings was in the 1960s/1970s,
by a missionary in Highland New Guinea. I have the reference back in my
University office. If someone would like it AFTER August 23, then do email
to me then.

Eric Silverman
Sociology/Anthropology
DePauw University