In 1959, the renowned Dutch linguist Professor Anceaux went on the last Dutch expedition to the interior of Dutch New Guinea. Anceaux gave his glasses to one of the Papuans. Expedition leader Brongersma made a photograph of the event. On the front cover of this book, the photograph is not only symbolic of the Western view of other cultures, but also of how amusing our culture sometimes seemed to them.
No sooner was photography invented, than the National Museum for Ethnology began collecting photographs of people and cultures from all over the world. Up until recently they had been hidden away in the archives. Now at last a varied selection from the collection can be seen in this book, rare pictures of cultures that have since changed completely or disappeared altogether. The historical background to the collection is concisely described by the author and editor Linda Roodenburg, assisted by four invited contributors. They look at the colonial system, anthropological research, how the attraction of exotic cultures has been exploited, and the way our attitude towards 'alien' cultures has changed over the years. The numerous full-page photographs also really speak for themselves.