Edward Sheriff Curtis, The Oath—Apsaroke, 1909
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The Oath, by Edward Sheriff Curtis, is one of the photographs of the Apsaroke people published in 1909 in the fourth volume of The North American Indian.
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2020-12-03T08:41:58-08:00
The Oath, by Edward Sheriff Curtis, is one of the photographs of the Apsaroke people published in 1909 in the fourth volume of The North American Indian. The position from which Curtis took the image allows the composition to fully capture the bodies of the Apsaroke native people featured, as well as the animal skull lying beneath them. The inclusion of their full bodies and foreground brings them into the center of the photograph, highlighting their stance, gestures, and traditional dress. This scene describes a ceremonial oath. The limited context and perspective of this photograph, like many other photographs taken by ethnologists at the time, allows many assumptions to be made about the Apsaroke culture. The contrast of the Apsaroke people against the dusty sky calls attention to the object the man on the left is thrusting towards the sky as well as to headdresses all three men wear. Next, the partially clad men on the left are juxtaposed with the man on the far right to draw focus to the garment covering almost the entirety of his body, which resembles a blanket. The pose and composition of this image, with the skull lying at the feet of the Apsaroke subjects, leads to the conjecture that these people are showing some type of dominance over the skull, which is an indexical sign representing the dead animal. Finally, the idea that these men are looking away from Curtis, ignoring him, and that he is not acknowledged as he captured this image, serves as a reminder that Curtis did not have an approach to ethnography as a participant-observer.
