Kalles Kaviar @ Volkshaus

Kalles Kaviar @ Volkshaus
Originally uploaded by Stürmifüdle.

So no more french philosophers that already have a slight smell of decay. I'm reading Malinowski's "Diary in the strict sense".
Malinowski was one of the founding fathers of social anthropology, especially of a school of thought called functionalism. He created the still employed method of participant observation on long field trips when he went to the Trobriand Islands, close to Papua New Guinea.

What does this have to do with anything? While I was researching the camera models that he used to take pictures of all the "niggers" (in that time, also a term for any non-white population), I stumbled upon this.

Turns out the camera equipement from the beginning of the last century was the basis for some very well known fiction about science, including oversized fat slugs, yeti-lookalikes, judo-style outfits and something called "lightsabers". And then I found out that the blasters were just customized Mauser pistols, nicknamed "broomhandles", which happen to have been the weapon of choice of a chap called "Lawrence of Arabia". Now didn't he ride around the desert on some weird looking fury animal, just like that guy called Skywalker?