eth·nog·ra·phy
n: the study and systematic recording of human creatures

eth·nol·o·gy
n: a science that deals with the division of human beings into races and their origin, distribution, relations, and characteristics

The adopted voice of the project:
(a.k.a. NOT Clare's real voice!)
Ethnographers seeks to describe and document all forms of human behavior, paying particular attention to the many uncivilized races and tribes of the world, whose primitive nature is of interest to inquiring scientific minds.

Through the study of primitive cultures, the Western world can better understand our origins and appreciate our modern advancements. An entire catalogue of facts of human development from the lowest to the highest can be developed in the pursuit of complete scientific knowledge.

Honorable references include:
The Uncivilized Races of Men, Rev. J.G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S. (1872)
Indigenous Races of the Earth, J.C. Nott, M.D., and Geo. R. Gliddon (1857)
The Twenty-Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology: 1905-1906, Washington Government Printing Office (1911)
Land of the War Canoes (film), Edward Curtis (1914)

The problems with this voice:
(THIS is what Clare thinks!)
Turn of the twentieth century studies of indigenous cultures are often criticized for depriving their subjects of a voice. In the name of "Science," cultures were documented by Western outsiders who presented "facts" which were strongly colored—knowingly or not—by the observers' cultural biases. What was simply a different way of life was portrayed as strange and exotic—something to record before it vanished under the spread of Western culture.

Ethnologists took extensive measurements of skulls, bones, and various other body dimensions in an attempt to determine racial differences—differences which were generally taken as scientific proof of non-whites' inferiority to whites.

Titles such as Wild Tribes of Borneo, The Uncivilized Races of Men, The Bakalai: Their Roving and Unsettled Habits, and The Balondo: Peculiar Gate; Maneko and Her Strange Costume reflect the scientists' voyeuristic attitudes and preconceived judgments about normalcy. "Peculiar," "strange," and "curious" were common terms used by a white voice of scientific authority to describe a colored, voiceless Other.

Entire cultures were portrayed as though they were flocks of tropical birds with especially colorful plumage. Their status as voiceless oddities allowed their annihilation by Western expansion to be seen as simply a regretable byproduct of white destiny rather than a moral outrage against human beings.