Erika Eichhorn (later Bourguignon) came to Haiti to conduct anthropological dissertation research as a student of Professor M. J. Herkovits of Northwestern University, under a grant of the Carnegie Corporation and the Graduate School at Northwestern University.
Commentary on the Haitian photographs is largely based on her field notes.
A Note on Language and Orthography:
In the period when these photographs were taken, Haiti’s official language was French, a language not known by the great majority of the population, who spoke Creole. The vocabulary of Creole is largely based on French but its grammar is primarily of African origin. There was no standardized spelling of Creole, although members of the French-speaking elite used personal, French derived spelling of various types. In the 1940s, Methodist Bishop H. O. McConnell and the American linguist and literacy pioneer F. C. Laubach developed a phonetic system of spelling which was used at first primarily for Bible translations. This later became the basis of a standardized phonetic system, adopted by the Government and that is used in Haitian schools. Decisions about orthography and the choice of the Creole dialect to be used as its basis were highly controversial (B. Schieffelin and R. C. Doucet, 1994).
Both French and Creole (Kreyol) spellings are used in the present texts. In 1948, schools taught Creole-speaking children in French. The difficulty of dealing with French orthography for Creole speakers is illustrated by the document provided by the drum-makers son in Furcy (see Furcy text).
For a description of Haiti in 1947–48 and its implication for the Paul Bourguignon’s later work, see: Erika Bourguignon: Haiti and the Art of Paul-Henri Bourguignon, Research in African Literatures 2004. vol.35 (2):173–188.
Continued
Page last revised: July 31, 2007
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