Rouwrituelen bij de oorspronkelijke bevolking van Florida 1721

This print, made by Bernard Picart, probably in the early 1700s, purports to show mourning rituals of the Indigenous people of Florida. The image is an engraving, a printmaking technique in which lines are incised into a metal plate, which is then inked and pressed onto paper. The sharp, precise lines of the engraving lend a sense of ethnographic accuracy, yet the scene is filtered through a European lens. Look closely and you can see the cultural assumptions at play, particularly in the depiction of mourning rituals. The act of laying hair upon graves, rendered so meticulously through engraving, is presented as an exotic curiosity. Ultimately, the print serves less as a true record and more as a projection of European notions about the "New World." It’s a reminder that even the most seemingly objective documents are shaped by the social and cultural context in which they are made. So, it’s really a form of cultural commentary, in disguise.