This book tells a fascinating series of stories about the travelling of visual representations across time and place . . . The core of the argument is that images acquire a life of their own, as they are recontextualized by different people . . . the truthfulness of images derives not from their documentary accuracy but from their conformity to the rules of ethnographic representation. Mason reviews such discrepancies as meticulously as a forensic pathologist.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
This is an example of an aspect of the new anthropology: The study of kinship has been replaced by, among other things, the study of images. The images in question in this elegantly produced book are not by, but of, non-Europeans. And it is not so much their nature as their historical peregrinations that are of interest. The material is fascinating and the book well illustrated . . .
The Key Reporter
Mason wears his theoretical awareness lightly, yet deploys an intelligent and sophisticated use of recent thinking about meaning and signification. Under his patient scrutiny seemingly slight or undistinguished images are opened up to intertextual analysis. In doing so he challenges those anthropologists and historians who might choose to use any of this material for illustrative purpose. As Mason shows, what these images illustrate is rarely their ostensible subject, but much more frequently that subject's appropriation by European culture.
Journal of the History of Collections