In 1959 nam professor Anceaux, een bekend Nederlands taalkundige, deel aan de laatste Nederlandse expeditie naar het binnenland van Nieuw-Guinea. Anceaux gaf zijn bril aan een Papoea. Expeditieleider Brongersma maakte daar een foto van. Deze foto op de omslag van dit boek, kan opgevat worden als een symbool voor de westerse blik op andere culturen, maar ook hoe die anderen soms geamuseerd terugkeken. Vanaf het vroegste begin van de fotografie heeft het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde te Leiden foto's van mensen en culturen uit de hele wereld verzameld. Ze zijn lang verborgen gebleven in de archieven. In dit boek is nu eindelijk een brede selectie uit de verzameling te zien: zeldzame beelden van niet meer bestaande of inmiddels grondig veranderde culturen. In bondige hoofdstukken schetst auteur en samensteller Linda Roodenburg, bijgestaan door vier gastauteurs, de omstandigheden waarin de opnamen gemaakt zijn. De koloniale verhoudingen, het antropologisch onderzoek, het exploiteren van exotische aantrekkingskracht, en de veranderende kijk op 'vreemde' volken. De tientallen paginagrote afbeeldingen spreken eigenlijk ook al voor zich zelf.

In linguistics, one of the main areas of modern research involves the capabilities and possibilities of there being a "lingua cosmica," a LINCOS, a universal language that could be used to communicate with non-human intelligences. This book touches on the area of the development and use of a "lingua universalis" for interstellar communication, but it also presents concepts that cover a broad area of linguistics. Chomsky's paradigm on universal properties of natural languages, for a long time a leading general theory of natural languages, includes the strong assumption that humans are born with some kind of universals stored in their brains. Are there universals of this kind of language used by intelligent beings and societies elsewhere in the universe? We do not know whether such languages exist. It seems to be impossible to determine, simply because the universe is too large for an exhaustive search. Even verification will be hard to obtain, without quite a bit of luck. This book uses astrolinguistic principles in message construction and is helpful in clarifying and giving perspective to discussions on existential questions such as these.

Photographic subjects examines photography at royal celebrations during the reign of Queens Wilhelmina (1898–1948) and Juliana (1948–80), a period spanning the zenith and fall of Dutch rule in Indonesia. It is the first monograph in English on the Dutch monarchy and the Netherlands’ modern empire in the age of mass and amateur photography. Photographs forged imperial networks, negotiated relations of recognition and subjecthood between Indonesians and Dutch authorities, and informed cultural modes of citizenship at a time of accelerated colonial expansion and major social change in the East Indies/Indonesia. This book advances methods in the uses of photographs for social and cultural history, reveals the entanglement of Dutch and Indonesian histories in the twentieth century, and provides a new interpretation of Queens Wilhelmina and Juliana as imperial monarchs.

From monocles to pince-nez and goggle-eyes, a cultural and technological history of glasses in fact and fiction. This book examines those who wore glasses through history, art, and literature, from the green emerald through which Emperor Nero watched gladiator fights to Benjamin Franklin’s homemade bifocals, and from Marilyn Monroe’s cat-eye glasses to the famed four-eyes of Emma Bovary and Harry Potter. Spectacles are objects that seem commonplace, but In the Blink of an Eye shows that because they fundamentally changed people’s lives, glasses were the wellspring of a quiet social, cultural, and economic revolution. Indeed, one can argue that modernity itself began with the paradigm shift that transformed poor eyesight from a severely limiting disease—treated with pomades and tinctures—into a minor impairment that can be remedied with mechanisms constructed from lenses and wire.

Traces the history of eyeglasses through seven centuries, from the first riveted spectacles made up of two single magnifying lenses to the fashionable eyewear of the 1960s.