African Bodies, Indexes and Measurements

Anthropometry in Colonial Angola

Abstract

This paper suggests a reading on the “anthropological attention” devoted to Africans in anthropometric studies conducted in Angola during the first half of the 20th century. Journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and monographs have provided descriptions, classifications, images, and patterns concerning native peoples under the Portuguese empire, which have been linked, partially or completely, to modes of categorizing, representing, and analyzing the “indígenas” of the colonies. Bodily measurements, physical characters, and biological indexes have contributed to the repertoire of racial and ethnic classifications, as well as perspectives on the place of the “indígena” in the colonial economy. By contextualizing anthropometric practices, their results, and references, this work intends to discuss discourses on the Indigenous bodies elaborated in colonial context.