Vision, Race, and Modernity

Through an intensive examination of photographs and engravings from European, Peruvian and US archives, this text explores the role visual images and technologies have played in shaping modern understandings of race. The book traces the subtle shifts that occurred in European and South American depictions of Andean Indians from the late-18th to the early-20th century and explains how these shifts led to the modern concept of "racial difference". Whilst Andean peoples were always thought of as different by their European describers, it was not until the early-19th century that European artists and scientists became interested in developing a unique visual and typological language for describing their physical features. The author suggests that this "scientific" or "biological" discourse of race cannot be understood outside a modern visual economy.