Different Truths

Throughout history, native peoples around the world have looked for ways to prevent and treat illness. This book illustrates such traditions through a selection of colonial postcards from the early 20th century. These cards are a rich source of visual information about native health and healing, which has been largely overlooked. The book also investigates the meanings of these images for those who produced and collected them. It makes clear that colonial postcards reveal as much about the collectors as it does about the subjects. It also cautions that pictorial postcards may be less truthful than they seem to be, because photographers and publishers regularly interfered with their mise-en-scene, production and descriptions. The book accompanies an exhibition in the Tropenmuseum.