I know this doesn’t exactly have everything to do with “Reproduction and Visual Technologies,” but all I could think about was how Indians didn’t like photography because they believed that a picture stole their souls. I did a little research and here’s what I found. Enjoy…
There are many cultures today that still refuse to be photographed from Native Americans to the Aborigines of Australia. Practitioners of Voodoo believe in "sympathetic magic". Sympathetic magic principles state a powerful link exists between entities that are similar in appearance or come into contact with each other. Items such as photographs, nail clippings, hair and other objects can be used to create an "image" of another person. This "image" can then be used to cast a curse or spell. There are still some practitioners of Voodoo who are cautious of photographs, because they are powerful items capable of harm.
For other cultures, this belief stemmed from the belief if the power of mirrors. The superstition of seven years of bad luck from breaking a mirror comes from this belief that mirrors have the power to steal souls. A mirror contains the soul and breaking it causes damage to the soul. In ancient times, mirrors were used for scrying, predicting the future. For the Mayans, mirrors were a portal to the Otherworld, allowing ancestors and gods to pass between the two planes. The soul is believed to be composed of thirteen parts, photography damages or even removes some of these components. A shaman was necessary to restore a person’s soul.
There’s a little food for thought the next time you put up a new Facebook album…
Here are the websites that I checked out:
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00DnuX
www.thirteen.org/americanmasters/curtis/photography_about.html
http://www.weddingphotographydirectory.com/wedding-photo/for-wedding-photographers/bleeding-edge-column/art-of-stealing-souls.aspx
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