Abstract

Within a visualist paradigm, gaze is a central device that authenticates and validates the modes of representation of the other, meeting at the same time the need for scientific accuracy and the desire linked to discovery and exotic revelations of so-called primitive cultures. The relationship between anthropology and visuality is here analysed through gender representations and their implications on time. Starting from the suggestion of gaze as time machine (Fabian 1983), and using Benjamin's notion of "exhibition value", I discuss how the image of women as otherness conveys a peculiar relationship with time and modernity.