The Museum will virtually bring to your homes a selection of photographs coming from our archive. Every week you will discover new images.
Eloé from the Rek tribe, 1895.
Unidentified photographer, albumen print on cardboard
In 1896 Lombroso and his colleague Mario Carrara published in the Archivio di psichiatria (the journal of Criminal Anthropology) an article entitled “Contributo all’antropologia dei Dinka” (a contribution on the anthropology of the Dinka) an anthropological and anthropometric study conducted on a group of individuals belonging to the Dinka people, coming from the Central African regions of the “White Nile”.
This picture, inserted in a table together with two other individuals, supports the detailed description of this 25 years old woman called Eloè from the Rek tribe, description that highlights the rounded types scars, similar to those left by the smallpox vaccine, on her cheeks, forehead, around the navel and arms.
The pencil inscription 2/3 dell’originale (2/3 of the original) is an indication for printing the image in the article. On the back of the photograph is also noted in pencil: Eloè donna di 25 anni della tribù dei Rek (Eloè 25 years old woman from the Rek tribe).