Their Manner of Carrying their Children 1590

Curator: This is Theodor de Bry’s engraving, "Their Manner of Carrying their Children." Look closely at the fine lines and details. Editor: It feels…staged. The figures are stiff, almost like mannequins in an exotic display. Curator: De Bry never actually visited the Americas. His images were based on others’ accounts, shaping European perceptions of indigenous peoples. Editor: So, this is about the *idea* of indigeneity, filtered through European tools and materials. What did it mean to reduce a culture to a single image? Curator: It served colonial agendas, didn't it? This image reinforces the idea of the "other," justifying European expansion. Editor: I see the labor involved in the engraving, the craft. But it's labor used to perpetuate a fiction, a manufactured image of another culture. Curator: Exactly. De Bry’s work highlights the power of images in shaping historical narratives and justifying power imbalances. Editor: Food for thought. It makes you reconsider the whole role of image-making in the colonial project.