Kalahari Perspectives: Anthropology, Photography, and the Marshall Family

In June 1951, Raytheon founder Laurence Marshall and his family left Cambridge, Massachusetts to spend over a decade documenting hunter-gatherers in the Kalahari during a series of expeditions sponsored by Harvard’s Peabody Museum. The family’s photos of the Ju/’hoansi and /Gwi peoples—once known pejoratively as the “Bushmen” —heralded a transformation in the ways these Indigenous people had been represented through history.

The Marshall’s experience became a groundbreaking photographic experiment and one of the most important ventures in the anthropology of Africa. Previously, the Ju/’hoansi, also known as the !Kung, had been depicted as primitive, romantic, or exotic, but the Marshall family’s 40,000 still images showed the men, women, and children at work and play, revealing both their culture and humanity.

Kalahari Perspectives: Anthropology, Photography, and the Marshall Family coincides with the 50th anniversary of Documentary Educational Resources, the Watertown-based film company co-founded by Laurence Marshall’s son John, and is one of many Harvard-based events celebrating the anniversary. 

On October 11, a companion film screening and panel discussion of N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman, will feature Ilisa Barbash, Ross McElwee, Michael Ambrosino, Sue Marshall Cabezas, and moderator Alice Apley. N!ai is a documentary about a woman who was a young girl when the Marshall family expeditions began. The film is by John Marshall, who filmed and took many photographs during the expeditions.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website