Imagining the Nagas: Pictorial Ethnography of Hans-Eberhard Kauffmann and Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf

When the British colonial power in the nineteenth century extended its influence to the mountainous borderland between India and Burma, it brought about an era of fundamental cultural changes for the native Naga tribes. The guns of the conquerors were followed by the dogmas of the missionaries, as well as the drawing pens and cameras of the documentarians. Their pictures and artifacts soon found their way onto the tables of parlors and into Europe's museums.

The spectacular material culture...