Word: dewachi
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Dates: during 2004-2004
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Coming to America as an Iraqi native, Al-Dewachi was surprised at how the West romanticized the lifestyle of the Marsh Arabs as a sort of “primitive Venice.” “In Iraq, ‘Ma’dan’ was a cultural slur, implying ignorance, etc.” he says. “In medical school, the Marshlands were described as an area of disease, full of malaria...
However, Al-Dewachi is quick to point out, concern for the plight of the Ma’dan “comes and goes in news and in the consciousness of the people...
Field’s anthropometric undertaking illustrates the basic fear of the foreigner. Al-Dewachi stresses the difficulty Field might have had in finding willing individuals. “At first there is curiosity, but then it becomes anger at this foreigner,” he says. He emphasizes the importance of Field’s Iraqi translator, who also acted as a liaison between the two peoples...
Having lived in America both before and after 9/11, Al-Dewachi says he has seen firsthand the changing nature of such consciousness. Photographed, fingerprinted and screened by the Immigration Naturalization Service, Al-Dewachi speaks of this exhibit as a way to mediate this form of racial science and profiling. “Racial science still exists and is alive and present,” he says, “only today it is undertaken in the name of security and not science...
...Dewachi, the images in his first exhibit tell a fascinating story of both a lost culture and an early form of anthropology. This duality will be echoed in subsequent displays. Gerardi hopes to showcase a series of four exhibits a year, each displaying part of the Peabody’s huge photographic collection. The collection could even be said to trace the history of anthropology itself, as the Peabody is one of the oldest anthropological museums in the world...