Ethnographic Showcases, 1870-1930

Author(s): Raymond Corbey

Source: Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Aug., 1993), pp. 338-369
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/656317 .
Accessed: 14/05/2011 12:35

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Blackwell Publishing and American Anthropological Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to Cultural Anthropology.

http://www.jstor.org
 Ethnographic Showcases, 1870-1930
Raymond Corbey
Departmentof Philosophy
TilburgUniversity

I1n'y a ni bourg,ni hameau,ni maisons6par6edansl'ile;Zamda vouluquetoutesles

possessionsd'uneprovincefussentr6uniesdansune memeenceinteafinque l'oeil
vigilantducommandant de la villepats'etendreavecmoinsdepeinesurtousles sujets
de la contree
-D. A. F. de Sade, Aline et Valcour

"Tosee is to know"-this mottowas attachedto the anthropologicalexhibitsof the

World'sColumbianExpositionof 1893, one of the many worldfairs duringthe era
of imperialismand colonialism (Rydell 1984:44). At these gigantic exhibitions,
staged by the principalcolonial powers, the world was collected and displayed.
Natives from a wide rangeof colonized culturesquickly became a standardpartof
most manifestationsof this kind. Togetherwith their artifacts,houses, and even
complete villages, so-called savages or primitiveswere made availablefor visual
inspectionby millions of strollingand staringWesterncitizens. Comparableplaces
of spectacle such as zoos, botanicalgardens, circuses, temporaryor permanent
exhibitions staged by missionary societies and museums of naturalhistory, all
exhibited other races and/or other species and testified to the imperialism of
19th-centurynation-states.
In this articleI will puttheseethnographicexhibitsintothewidercontextof the
collecting,measuring,classifying,picturing,filing, andnarratingof colonial Others
duringthe heyday of colonialism.All these modes of dealing with the exotic, with
colonial otherness,functionedin a contextof Europeanhegemony,testifyingto the
successful imperialistexpansionof 19th-centurynation-statesand to the intricate
connectionsthat developedbetween scientific and political practices.Of course, I
cannotbypassthe historicalchangesandnationaldifferencesin exhibitionaryprac-
tices in the periodunderstudy-the last decadesof the 19thandthe first decadesof
the 20th century-but I will concentrateon the similarities,which in my view are
predominant,arguingthatit is possibleto have a wide rangeof seemingly divergent
modes of dealing with the Otherwithin one single analyticfield.

CulturalAnthropology8(3):338-369. Copyright? 1993, AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation.

338
 ETHNOGRAPHIC SHOWCASES 339

The World on Show

Worldfairs or internationalexpositions (expositionuniverselle, Weltausstel-
lung) were very large-scalehappeningsthatcombinedfeaturesof tradeand indus-
trial fairs, carnival, music festivals, political manifestations,museums, and art
galleries. But primarilythey were "pilgrimagesites of commodity fetishism," as
WalterBenjamin(1984:441) put it ratherpointedly.From 1851 onward,when the
first internationalexposition took place in London, an enormousvarietyof indus-
trial and technologicalproductswere exhibited, including steam machines, lawn
mowers,elevators,photographiccameras,mechanizedweaving looms, andhouse-
hold appliances.In addition,colonial raw materialsand productswere displayed,
along with archaeologicalartifacts.Variousarchitecturalstyles were presented,and
after 1885 the artsbecame a recurrenttheme. The idea was to show progressin all
fields-not only in industry,trade,and transportation,but also in the arts,the sci-
ences, and culture.Meanwhile,there was no mentionof poverty,sickness and op-
pression,or social and internationalconflicts.
Worldfairs have been comparedto gigantic potlatches,joyous ritualdisplays
of richnessand power, where possessions were given away and even destroyedin
greatnumbersin orderto gain prestigeand to outdoothers,as occurredamong the
Kwakiutl and other Indian cultures of the North American Northwest Coast
(Benedict 1983:7ff). In bothcases-world fairsandpotlatches-ritualized compe-
tition, gainingprestige, and keeping up reciprocitybetweenpartiesof comparable
caliberplayed importantroles. Both kinds of manifestationswere large-scale,ex-
pensive festivalsthat-having social, economic,political,juridical,moral,andaes-
thetic aspects-displayed the characterof a fait social total in the sense of M.
Mauss, andbothregulatedrelationshipsbetweenrival groups (such as nationsand
large cities). Economic interestswent handin handwith culturalones, and nation-
alistic ambitionswere apparentwith the internationalcharacterof the fairs, where
each countrybuiltits own monumentalpavilion in its particularnationalstyle. The
architecturewas meant to impress;it could never be large, imposing, or unusual
enough:the CrystalPlace (London),the Eiffel Tower(Paris),the Atomium(Brus-
sels). The first world fair,the GreatExhibitionof the Worksof Industryof all Na-
tions, in the CrystalPalacein Londonin 1851, attracted6 million visitors;the world
fairin Parisin 1878, 16 million; the 1900 Parisfair,still beforethe eraof the cinema
and television, 50 million.
So-called colonial exhibitions-such as the ColonialandIndianExhibitionin
Londonin 1886, the BritishEmpireExhibitionin 1924-25, or the ExpositionColo-
niale in Parisin 1931-were even more closely associatedwith the idea and ideal
of empire.But even for the 1851 GreatExhibition,the Society of Arts had fanati-
cally developed scenarios for, as one of its spokesmen put it, "promotingand
spreadingChristianity,civilization and commerce among peoples still steeped in
barbarityand idolatry-in terms of quantitynearly half of humanity"(quoted in
Halter 1971:314). Worldfairs quickly became inseparablefrom imperialismand
nationalism.For the British Exhibition at Wembley in 1924, a historicalpageant
was stagedwith fifteen thousandparticipantsthattook threedays to pass (Benedict
340 CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY

1983:47).Withthis gigantic spectacle,accompaniedby music andtexts writtenfor

the occasion, and structuredlike a heroic epos governedby a fundamentalopposi-
tionbetweenthecivilized andthe barbaric,theEnglishpeople, self-consciouslyand
full of pride, presentedand representedtheir newly created world empire. Such
manifestationsare of interestin the presentcontext, not only because colonial na-
tives had a role to play too, butalso becausethey expressthe civilizatoryidiom that
formed the basis of contemporaryviews of "primitives,"tied up with imperialist
ideology and social Darwinism.
In covering the GreatExhibition,the GermannewspaperAllgemeineZeitung
stressedthe prevalent"spiritof encyclopaedism"(Haltern1971:352).In the course
of theirdevelopment,the encyclopedic characterof world exhibits-an explicitly
statedgoal-became increasinglyprominent.Thehistoryof subjectslike thehome,
labor,andtransportationwas shown, while anequallypanoramicvarietyof cultures
was displayed.An inventoryand census of the whole world and the whole history
of humankindwas constructedin a way reminiscentof medieval maps of the
world-mappae mundi,offeringan encyclopedicsurveyof the world as creation-
or of cabinetsof curiosityduringthe Renaissance.Duringthe sameperiod,journals
like the FrenchLe Tourdu Monde, with their synoptic and panoptic illustrations
usuallycopiedfromphotographs,hada comparablefunction,as didphotographyas
such, not least as put to use at the world fairs (Favrod 1989; Lederbogen 1986;
Theye 1989).
In all cultures,political andreligiouselites tendto accumulateandflaunttheir
rareandpreciousobjects from farawayplaces in orderto gain prestige and to dis-
play theirknowledgeability.Everyone from Renaissanceprinces and cardinalsto
Chinese emperorsowned collections of exotic animals,objects, and even people.
Something similar happened at world fairs, where not individual collectors but
states,metropoles,andtheirelites were involved.MaryHelms offers the analogyof
the tribal shaman'smedicine pouch holding a collection of strange objects. The
more rareand exotic these objects, the more effective they were and the more they
contributedto the shaman'sprestige andpower.

The emperor'szoo and botanicalgardens,like the shaman'spouch, containedbits and

pieces of the animatecosmos, power-fillednaturalwonders,examples of the rare,the
curious,the strange,andthe precious-all expressionsof the unusualand the different
attestingto the forces of the dynamicuniversethatby definitionlies outside the (again
by definition)controlled,socialized, civilized heartland.[Helms 1988:166]

In each of these cases, a microcosm sampledand presentedthe macrocosm.

The worldfaircan also be readas a microcosm,createdby the PrometheanWestern
middle classes, with their unlimitedtrust in Enlightenmentideas and the rational
constructibilityof the world-a world made after their own image, to European
standards.Here, naturewas of only secondaryimportance,appearingonly in the
shapeof cultivatedcrops and paintedbackdrops;here, everythinghad been fabri-
cated by man. Marx and Engels referredto the GreatExhibitionas "a pantheonin
modernRome"where the bourgeoisie class of this world "exhibitswith self-con-
 ETHNOGRAPHIC SHOWCASES 341

gratulatorypridethe gods it has createdfor itself' (quotedin Haltern1971:314).In

high euphoria,the bourgeoisiecelebratedprogress,the attainmentof worldpower,
and the creationof Westernmiddle-classcultureby its own efforts-which, in its
own eyes, was the purpose to which world history (and indeed cosmic evolution)
had been directedfrom its earliest beginnings.Progress and civilization were the
key concepts behind these large-scalerepresentationsof middle-class Selves and
savage Others.Anotherprominentthemewas the Enlightenmentideal of universal
brotherhood,connected with the Christianideals of peace and love.
Worldfairs,as CarolBreckenridge(1989:196) remarks,were partof a unitary,
though not necessarily uniform,landscapeof discourse and practice,providing a
cultural technology for situating metropole and colony within a single analytic
field, thus creatingan imaginedecumene.The fairs told the story of mankind,the
very same narrativethat accompaniedand legitimized colonial expansion. In this
epic, staged by themselves, white, rational,civilized Europeancitizens cast them-
selves in the role of the hero.

Savages on Show
Placedalongsideall kindsof objectsandproducts,colonial nativesquicklybe-
came a standardpartof worldfairs,for the educationand entertainmentof Western
citizens. Not only the citizens themselvesbut also the natives figuredas categories
in Westernrepresentationsof Self, as charactersin the story of the ascent to civili-
zation, depicted as the inevitable triumphof higher races over lower ones and as
progressthroughscience and imperialconquest.Often ethnologists were aheadof
their times concerninginterpretationsof other cultures,but CharlesRau, for one,
who createdthe ethnologicalexhibits at the PhiladelphiaCentennialExhibitionin
1876 on behalf of the SmithsonianInstitution,statedthat

theextremelownessof ourremoteancestorscannotbe a sourceof humiliation;

on the
we shouldgloryin ourhavingadvancedso farabovethem,andrecognizethe
contrary,
greattruththatprogressis thelawthatgovernsthedevelopmentof mankind.[Quoted
in Rydell1984:24]

Two years later,the Parisworldfairof 1878 was the first one in which manypeople
from non-Westerncultureswere exhibited,in specially constructedpavilions and
"native villages" (Village indigene). The display of 400 natives from the French
colonies Indochina,Senegal, and Tahitimet with huge success, as did the exhibits
of indigenous peoples from Java, Samoa, Dahomey, Egypt, and North America
itself at the World'sColumbianExpositionin 1893.
Native villages were a standardpartof worldfairsfrom 1878 onward.Equally
popularwere the "foreignstreets"suchas the"Ruede Caire."Aroundthe turnof the
century, the InternationalAnthropologicalExhibit Company commercially ex-
ploited exhibitionsof non-Westernpeople in the United States in several settings,
including world fairs. At the Dutch "InternationaleKoloniale en Uitvoerhandel
Tentoonstelling"at Amsterdamin 1883, natives from the Dutch East Indies and
342 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

WestIndies were shown.The GreaterBritainExhibitionof 1899 includeda "Kaffir

Kraal-A Vivid Representationof Life in the Wilds of the DarkContinent,"an ex-
hibit featuringAfricananimalsand 174 nativesfrom several SouthAfricanpeoples
broughtundercontrolonly shortlybefore. They were divided into four native vil-
lages, showing theircrafts,performing"wardances,"andridingon ponies. Among
them were San, who characteristicallywere exhibited as partof the naturalhistory
of Africa, togetherwith baboons (MacKenzie 1984:104). Often the Europeanim-
presariostraveledfrom one world fair to anotherwith the same groupof people-
the Senegalese who constitutedthe well-known"Senegalesevillage"(Figure1), for
example-and had themperformat other venues and on other occasions as well.
A brochurecommentingon the "VillagefromDahomey"at the ImperialInter-
nationalExhibitionof 1909 stressedthe violent brutalityof indigenousAfrica,es-
pecially Dahomey with its "bloodthirstypotentates" and woman warriors or
"Amazons"who wereone of themainattractionsof thevillage; it praisedtheFrench
interventionin 1892 with the following words:

Orderanddecency,tradeandcivilizationhavetakenthe placeof ruleby fearof the

sword.Francehasplacedits handon theblackestspotin WestAfrica,andwipedout
someof theredstainthatmadeDahomeya bywordin theworld.... Today... (the)
daysof savageryarepassingaway.[Quotedin MacKenzie1984:116]

F'igure1
"SenegaleseVillage" in the Brussels world fair of 1910, the setting of physical
confrontation of European citizens with exotic Africans, for amusement and
edification.Over the entry-a semioticallyhighly charged thresholdbetweentwo
worlds,one primitiveand one civilized-religion, trades,songs,dances,tam-tam,and
a haremare announced.Postcard,collectionof P. Faber,Amsterdam.
 ETHNOGRAPHIC SHOWCASES 343

It was light against dark, order against violence, and a European nation as the
bringerof civilization.The exhibited"Amazons"-d epicted as both barbarousand
alluring, true personifications of the Dark Continent-performed throughout
Europe. When they appearedin the MoskauerPanoptikumin Frankfurtin 1899,
they were introducedas "wild females"-wilde Weiber.A group of women from
Samoa (Figure 2), however, was described by the press and in brochuresas a
breathtakinglybeautiful,alwayscheery,eroticallypermissive,andlazy people from
the paradisiacalPacific Ocean (Plakate 1880-1914:257). North AmericanIndians
were similarlyidealized and romanticized.
The 1909 world fair thatfeaturedthe Amazons also included a native village
of nomadicKalmuksfrom CentralAsia, broughtunderthe control of the Russian
empireshortlybefore. At the BerlinerGewerbe-Ausstellungof 1896, which led to
the foundationof the Deutsches Kolonialmuseum,over a hundrednatives fromthe
Germancolonies werepresent,each groupin its own carefullyimitatedculturaland
naturalsetting.They had to call "hurrah"at set times in praiseof emperorandReich
(G. Schneider 1982:167). Governmentswere keenly aware of the opportunityto
publicizetheircolonial policies andto manipulatepublicattitudestowardthe newly
acquiredterritories.German,Dutch, and Irish villages, among others, with native
people in traditionalclothing were also (re)presentedat the worldfairs as partof the

Figure2
A directconsequenceof Germancolonialexpansion."Ournew fellow-countrymen."
Schautruppefrom Samoa performingin the BerlinerTiergartenin 1900 or 1901.
Cabinet photograph, Marquardt Brothers, collection of the Museum voor
Volkenkunde,Rotterdam.
344 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

nationalexhibits,stagedin this case, however,by the exhibitedpeoples themselves,

not theircolonizers.
It seems to have been quiteusualfor visitorsto throwmoney to the performing
natives andfor the natives to beg for it. The exhibitedpeoples' behaviorandmove-
ment was strictlycontrolled.They were presentedas "different"and forced to be-
have that way. At most-though not all-manifestations, it was unthinkablethat
they shouldmingle spontaneouslywith the visitors,andusuallytherewere few pos-
sibilities for contactbetween parties.The living exhibits had to stay within a pre-
cisely circumscribedpartof the exhibitionspace,whichrepresentedtheirworld;the
boundarybetween this world and thatof the citizens visiting and inspectingthem
(Figure3), betweenwildness andcivility,natureandculture,hadto be respectedun-
conditionally.All signs of acculturationwere avoidedas long as the nativeswere on
show. One of my colleagues who grew up in postwar Berlin told me of his
astonishmentwhen,as a boy,he came acrossanAfricanmanwhomhe had seen only
hoursbefore in native attireat Castan'sPanoptikum,now in Europeanclothes on a
tramcar,smoking a cigarette.Primitivitywas staged in minutedetail.
The desirabilityof "civilizing"NorthAmericanIndianpeoples was an impor-
tant theme at the St. Louis fair, as it was at other world fairs in the United States.
Their"dull-mindedand self-centeredtribalexistence"had to be replacedby "[the]
active and constructive and broadmindedlife of moder humanity" (Francis
1913:529, quotedin Benedict 1983:50).The impositionof culturalassimilation,as
?I

Figure3
An imperialencounter."AfricanVillage:Womeneatingtheir meal,"scrutinizedby
visitorsto the colonialexpositionat Antwerpin 1930.The gaze of the visitorsis not
returned.Postcard,collectionof S. Wachlin.
 ETHNOGRAPHIC SHOWCASES 345

typical of internalcolonialism in the UnitedStatesas it was of Frenchcolonialism,

was less importantin the Englishcolonial regime.English visitors of Frenchworld
fairs and colonial exhibitions, therefore,often expressedtheir astonishmentwhen
confrontedwith indigenouspeople in Europeanclothing.In St. Louis, the living ex-
hibits were typically organizedon a scale from civilized to barbaric.The lower a
people or race was deemed to be, the furtherremoved it was from the "Indian
school"thatmarkedone pole of the scale, thatof civilization.PhilippineIgorotsand
African Pygmies were situatednear the pole of barbarityat the other end of the
scale.' At the World'sColumbianExpositionof 1893 in Chicago,the oppositionbe-
tweenwild andcivilized andthedesirabilityof civilizing peoples thatwere still wild
was expressedby showing an old Indianin shabbytraditionalclothing next to his
son in a neat new suit (Benedict 1983:49 ff.).

Hagenbeck's Volkerschau
Persons from non-Westernculturesappearednot only at world and colonial
exhibitions,butalso at specialethnographicshows called Volkerschauin Germany,
where this type of manifestationhad proliferatedsince 1874. In that year Carl
Hagenbeck,a dealerin wild animalsin Hamburgandlaterdirectorof a zoo anda cir-
cus, began exhibiting Samen-Lapps-as "purelynaturalpeople" (reine Natur-
menschen,Lehmann1955) in severalGermancities, togetherwith theirtents,tools,
weapons,andotherpossessions, as well as reindeer(Figure4). In 1876, he sent one
of his collaboratorsto EgyptianSudanin orderto bring back Nubians and indige-
nous animals.This groupof savageswith theirwild personalities,as Hagenbeckde-
scribesthemin his autobiography(Hagenbeck1909),was scrutinizedby over thirty
thousandGerman visitors on the first day of their appearancein Breslau. Sub-
sequently,the Nubianswere exhibitedin otherEuropeancities, includingParisand
London.
When this venturebecame a success, Hagenbeckextended his profitableac-
tivities to includeNorthAmericanIndians,Inuit,people fromIndia,andZulus (Zu-
lukaffern).He and other entrepreneursalso exhibited Sudanese, Bushmen, and
Somalinegerknabenridingon ostriches;later,Dinka,Maasai,andAshantiwere re-
cruitedin Africaand broughtto Europe(cf. Thode-Arora1989:168-178). The sup-
ply of nativesclosely followed thecolonialconquests.Tuareg,for instance,were on
exhibit in Pariswithin monthsof the Frenchcaptureof Timbuktuin 1894, and na-
tives from Madagascarappeareda year afterthe Frenchoccupationof thatisland
(W. Schneider1977:101). The new genre quickly caughton, and ethnographicex-
hibits stayedvery popularwell into the presentcentury.Hagenbeckpresentedthem
to the middle classes with the stated intention of promoting the Bildung-the
knowledgeand culturea civilized personshouldpossess-and stimulatingthe Ger-
man people's nationalistic zest for colonial expansion. Often the members of
Naturvolker("naturalpeoples"), more closely associated with living naturethan
with civilization, were exhibited in local zoos behind bars or wire fences; fair-
groundsand public parksserved as settings, too. In France,the ParisJardind'Ac-
climatation,createdin 1859 for the studyandpopularizationof exotic animalsand
346 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Figure 4
Nomadic Samen or "Laplanders" with reindeers, sleighs, and tents, probably in the
zoo of Halle, Germany, c. 1927. Photograph, collection of the Museum voor
Volkenkunde, Rotterdam.

plants, became a popularsetting for ethnological exhibits similar to the German

ones.
For decades, the Germanpress wrote aboutthe appearance,behavior,andna-
tureof the foreign visitorsin a very negativetone, expressingdisgust andcontempt
for them. The generalreactionof the public visiting the exhibitions seems to have
been the same; but nearthe turnof the century,press coverage began to changefor
the better,and more attentionwas given to ethnographicdetail. Anotherreasonfor
negative reactions to black Africans in particular,apart from deeply ingrained
stereotypesof barbarityand primitivity,was the stubbornand often bloody resis-
tance of several African peoples towardthe Europeanexpansion in Africa, which
was covered extensively by the Europeanpress. In the eyes of many Germans,a
black Africanwas some sortof savagemonster.Franceconsciously played on such
fears in the French-Germanwar of 1870-71 by puttingblack tirailleursindigenes
trainedin Algeria to use againstGermantroops (Goldmann1985:258). In general,
the more an indigenous people resisted colonization, the more ferocity its repre-
sentativeshad to display when staged.
Fearwas butone of themixed feelings Germancitizens experiencedwhen vis-
iting ethnologicalexhibitions.Anotherreactionwas sexual fascinationandcurios-
ity, as is clear from contemporarypress coverage and from preserved posters.
Admirationof the supposedlygreat sexual potency of the scarcely clothed primi-
 ETHNOGRAPHIC SHOWCASES 347

tives competed with depreciationbecause of their alleged bestial lust (Goldmann

1985:263-264; Thode-Arora1989:115-119). Disgust alternatedwith exaltedatten-
tion, wonder,andenchantmentwhenWesterncitizens were confrontedwith pictur-
esque scenes from savage life.
In the Netherlands,too, ethnologicalexhibits took place. In the year 1900, for
instance, the Groote AchanteesKaravanen("LargeAshanti Caravans")attracted
much attentionin Amsterdam,Rotterdam,The Hague, Utrecht,andNijmegen.The
Ashanti,usually shown at the Jardind'Acclimatationin Paris,now touredthe rest
of WesternEurope.2In the Netherlands,they were describedon a posteras "oldna-
tives from the Gold Coasts of Africa... Warriors,Fetish, Priests, Snake-charmer,
Women,Girls and Children.The most uncommonhumanrace thathas ever been
seen in Europe.Most interestingfor everyone."(MunicipalArchives, Rotterdam).
A few years earlier,De Boschmannenofwilden vanAfrika("TheBushmenor sav-
ages of Africa"),as the titleof theaccompanyingbrochurereads,wereon tour.Judg-
ing from theirappearance,this brochurestates,"theyshow more similarityto Apes
thanto people.... Notwithstandingtheirferocity these Bushmenarenearlyharm-
less, and even the most fearfulpersoncan approachand feel all over them with the
greatest confidence" (MunicipalArchives, Rotterdam).The suggestion that they
could be touchedindicateshow close the attitudetowardthese people was to the at-
titude toward animals. That the exhibited people were similar-metonymically,
metaphorically,qua appearanceandbehavior-to animals,especially apes, was in-
deed a common perception,fed by contemporaryscientific theory.In recent dec-
ades, in contrast,Bushmen once again came to play a positive role in Western
imagination,similarto the one they played in the 18th century-that of noble sav-
ages, spontaneouslyandinnocentlyenjoyinga pure,natural,paradisiacalexistence.
The natives performedin severalroles. The Americanfirm WilliamFoote &
Co. African AmericanCharactersexploited a show with African-Americans-as
the letterheadof the firm stated-appearing as "Savages,Slaves, SoldiersandCiti-
zens" (Thode-Arora 1989:41). Crafts, hunting techniques, rituals, dances, and
songs were among the activities staged, as well as stereotypical"authentic"per-
formanceslike warfare,cannibalisticacts,andhead-hunting.At the 1904 Louisiana
PurchaseExpositionin St. Louis, Igorotsfrom the Philippinescould be seen eating
dog meat,a food tabooin the West,while AfricanPygmies illustrateddecapitation.
The above-mentionedDahomey"Amazons,"heavily armed,simulatedfights.Abo-
rigines from Queensland,Australia,presentedas AustralNeger, on exhibit at the
FrankfurtZoo and elsewhere in May 1885, were describedon postersas cannibals
and bloodthirstymonsters-"wirklich blutdiirstige Ungeheuer"(Figure 5). An-
otherposter,printedfor theirappearancein England,continueda Europeaniconog-
raphicaltraditionreachingbackto De Bry's late 16th-centuryGrandsVoyagesand
earlier,by depictingthemengagedin a ferociouscannibalritual,with the following
text:

MaleandfemaleAustralian / R.A. Cunningham,

cannibals Director/Thefirstandonly
obtainedcolonyof thesestrange,savage,disfiguredandmostbrutalraceeverlured
fromtheremoteinterior
wilds,wheretheyindulgeinceaselessbloodyfeudsandforays,
348 CULTURALANTHROPOLOGY

Figure 5
A troupe of Aborigines from Queensland, Australia. Exploited by the ruthless A. R.
Cunningham, they arrived in Germany in 1883, probably from England, where they
performed at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, a popular venue for ethnological exhibits.
This picture was bought in Berlin in 1884. In 1896, only three individuals out of eight
were still alive. Cabinet photograph, Negretti and Zambra, London, collection of the
Museum voor Volkenkunde, Rotterdam.

to feast uponeach other'sflesh / The very lowest orderof mankind,and beyond

conceptionmostcuriousto lookupon.[Plakate1880-1914:228]

How did the exhibitedindividualsthemselves,often more or less coerced into

participation,experienceandcope withthe exhibits?Manyhad to battlewithhome-
sickness, emotional confusion, difficulties of adjustmentto the Europeanclimate
and food, and vicious infections. Often they actively resisted the roles that were
forcedon them,for instanceby runningaway,andthey could be put backin harness
only by force. Now and then bad treatmentled to court cases. In the Zeitschriffiir
Ethnologie of 1880, Rudolf Virchow,the prominentanthropologistand politician,
describesin detailhow an Inuitwoman whose measurementshe wished to takelit-
erally ran into the walls of the room in total panic (quoted by Thode-Arora
1989:129-130), an incident that was by no means exceptional. The percentageof
those who died soon aftertheirarrivalin Europewas considerable.When the afore-
mentionedgroup of Aborigines (Figure5) arrivedin Germanyin 1883, therewere
eight of them;in May 1885, when they appearedin the FrankfurtZoo, five were still
alive; in October 1896, when they were examinedby membersof the BerlinerGe-
sellschaft fur Anthropologie,Ethnologieund Urgeschichte,there were only three
 ETHNOGRAPHIC
SHOWCASES
349

Figure6
Some membersof two Inuit families,on exhibit in 1880 at Berlin,Frankfurt,and
severalotherGermancities.In January1881,bothfamiliessuccumbedto an infectious
disease.The diaryof one of the malemembersof the groupis one of the fewpreserved
testimoniesfrom the perspectiveof the exhibited individuals(Taylor 1981). This
withtheprintedtext"Hagenbeck's
carte-de-visite, Thierpark,Hamburg/Photographie
von J. M. Jacobsen,St. Pauli"on its reverse,was boughtduringthe monthof October
1880 in Berlin by a Dutch visitor. Collectionof the Museum voor Volkenkunde,
Rotterdam.

survivorsof the originalgroup.The membersof two Inuitfamilies fromLabrador,

on exhibit in severalGermancities duringthe year 1880 with theirdogs andkayaks
(Figure6), all succumbedto an infectionin January1881 (Plakate1880-1914:236).
At the cemeteryof Tervuren,Belgium, close to the site of the 1897 colonial exhibi-
tion, a numberof Africanslie buriedwho were partof the "KongoleseVillage"and
rowed canoes on theTervurenponds.In some cases, however,the exhibitednatives
were paidvery well, treatedwith warmthandcare,andofferedsightseeingtoursand
dinnerswith local prominents.
How the individualson display-confronted with an alien world, unfamiliar
food, strangecustoms,anda differentclimate-experienced andhandledtheirsitu-
ation is an importantquestion.The relativescarcityof sources concerningtheirin-
tentions and feelings should not lead us to underestimatetheir subjectivityor to
leave it understudied.Who were they? How did they thinkandfeel? How did they
negotiate theiridentities?How did they creatively exploit the roles they were cast
350 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

into to realize theirintentionsand express theirreactions?3How did these roles in-

fluence theirconceptionsof themselves and of the Westernpeople they met?How,
for instance,did PenobscotIndianFrankLoring(alias Chief Big Thunder),Micmac
IndianJeremyBartlett(alias Doctor Lone Cloud), and Maliseet IndianHenryPer-
ley (alias Red Eagle) feel abouttheirroles as itinerantNative Americanperformers
(Prins 1991)?4
The diaryof one of the males from the InuittroupetouringGermanyhas been
preserved(Taylor1981). Muchis knownaboutJefke,a blackAfricanboy on exhibit
at the Antwerp(Belgium)Zoo, as well as aboutOtaBenga, a Pygmy boy displayed
in a cage with a chimpanzeeand laterwith an orangutanat the Bronx Zoo (Bieder
1991;BradfordandBlume, in press).Less is known aboutKlikko,"TheWildDanc-
ing Bushman,"a Khoi-San performingin London around 1913 (Parsons 1988).
Mitchell (1988, 1989) quotes reactionsof Egyptian scholars visiting the "Rue de
Caire"at the ParisExpositionuniverselleof 1889. How did Black Elk conceive of
his appearancesin Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (Figure 7; see Neihardt 1988;
Rice 1991), or MaryAlice Nelson (alias Molly SpottedElk), a PenobscotIndian,of
her danceperformancesin Paris,whereshe thrilledthe public with her floor-length
eagle featherheaddress(McBride 1989)?5What was on the minds of the Indians

i
FRY, P it Wi-L A B S WEST.

Figure7
Membersof the successful"BuffaloBill's Wild West Show,"visitingLondonin 1887
on the occasionof the 50th jubilee of Queen Victoria'ssuccessionto the throne.In
subsequentyears,the showtouredEuropetwice,includingan appearanceat the 1889
world fair in Paris.This photographwas boughtat Londonin July 1887by a Dutch
visitor.The handwrittennumberscorrespondto the handwrittennamesandtribesof
the picturedIndianson the reverse.Cabinetphotograph,Elliot and Fry, London,
collectionof the MuseumvoorVolkenkunde,Rotterdam.
 Figure8
"NativesfromSurinam,"probablywith theirimpresario,at theAmsterdam1883colonialexhibit
Marrons)from the Dutch West Indies,featuredcolonialnativesfrom the Dutch East Indies (c
PhotographieFransaise,Amsterdam,Collectionof the Tropenmuseum,Amsterdam.
 ANTHROPOLOGY
352 CULTURAL

Figure9
Two gamelan players and two women dancers who performedin the "Javanese
Kampong" (Javanese native village) at the 1883 "International Colonial and
ExportationExhibition"in Amsterdam.Togetherwith others,theywere recruitedin
the Dutch East Indies by the Dutch Missionary Society (NederlandsZendings-
genootschap).Cabinetphotograph,F. D. vanRosmalen,collectionof theMuseumvoor
Volkenkunde,Rotterdam.

from Surinamperformingat the 1883 colonial exhibition in Amsterdam(see Fig-

ures 8 and9), who seem to have been wildly enthusiasticduringthe firstdays of ex-
posure to their new world, but soon had to cope with boredom,sickness, and the
disappointmentof not meeting their Dutch king as promised (Pieterse 1992:34-
35)?

Commerce and Science

Hagenbeckwas certainlynot the firstto take such an initiative.AlthoughVolk-

erschauen became very popularduringthe period 1870-1930 and took place on a
largerscale thaneverbefore,thephenomenonas such was by no meansnew.During
the 1820s, CaptainSamual Hadlock from Maine toured Europe with a troupeof
Inuit,which was exhibitedin London,Hamburg,Berlin,Leipzig, Dresden,Prague,
andVienna.Partof his companywas a "Maorichieftain"whom he hadcome across
in England.Whenthis Maorisuddenlydied,his head was preservedchemicallyand
fixed to a model of his body. "Wedo not even need the Captain'sword for it to be
convinced,"the AustrianAllgemeineTheaterzeitungund Unterhaltungsblattwrote
on the occasion of the exhibition of the reconstructedMaori at Vienna, "thatthis
 SHOWCASES353
ETHNOGRAPHIC

man from New Zealand,beforehe was takenaboard,reallyhas eatenotherpeople,

because that'sindeedthe way he looks" (Goldmann1985:256).
In London,to give but a few more examples, "RedIndians"could be seen in
1844;in 1845and 1847,Bushmen;in 1850 and 1853, southAfrican"Kaffirs,"in the
Egyptianhall-reflecting England'srenewedinterestin thatpartof the world dur-
ing those years.In London,as in Berlin or Paris,learnedsocieties such as the Eth-
nological Society andthecompetingAnthropologicalSociety showedgreatinterest
in the ethnologicalexhibitions.Heretoo, as in Germany,the generalattitudesof the
public were rathernegative,not least underthe influenceof contemporarymission-
ary propaganda."Inappearance,"the 7imes wrote on the Bushmenin 1847,

theyarelittleabovethemonkeytribe,andscarcelybetterthanthemerebrutesof the
field.... Theyaresullen,silentandsavage-mere animalsin propensity,
andworse
than animalsin appearance ... In short, a more miserableset of humanbeings-for
humantheyare,nevertheless-wasneverseen.[Quotedin Altick1978:281]

And CharlesDickens wondered,"Is it idiosyncraticin me to abhor,detest, abomi-

nate,and abjurethatnoble savage?"addingthathe hoped somethingwould happen
to the stove thesepeople slept around,so thatthey would suffocate.In his eyes, and
in the eyes of most of his contemporaries,the savage was

a prodigious nuisance and a gross superstition... cruel, false, thievish, murderish;

addictedmore or less to grease, entrails, and beastly customs;a wild animalwith the
questionablegift of boasting;a conceited,tiresome,bloodthirsty,monotonoushumbug
... if we have anythingto lear from the Noble Savage, it is what to avoid. His virtues
are a fable;his happinessis a delusion;his nobility,nonsense. [Dickens 1938:133-138,
quotedin Altick 1978]

We should add, however, that in later years Dickens tradedhis ideas on Anglo-
Saxon superiorityand progress for a form of culturalrelativism implying much
milderviews on foragingand tribalpeoples.
Columbusand HermanCortes had alreadybroughtback Indiansand Aztecs
from the New World.Europeanprinces,such as the Medici at Florence,had scores
of aliens at theircourtsas curiositiesandfor purposesof prestige.Duringthe age of
Europeanexpansion,virtuallyevery generationof Europeanscould see Nubians,
Inuit,Saami,NorthAmericanIndians,andPygmies at fairs, in inns-like the Am-
sterdam"BlaauwJan,"precursorto the Artis Zoo-and theatersor, togetherwith
exotic animals,in zoos andprincelymenageries.An analogouspracticewas thatof
exhibitingthe insane-usually presentedin cages, with an admissionsfee. In 18th-
centuryFrance,insanitywas seen as a decline to a stateof wildnessandunrulyani-
mality, associated traditionallywith all that was wicked and unnatural(Foucault
1961), while at the same time thereexisted a whole body of publicationstheorizing
on similaritiesof physicalappearancebetweenparticulartypes of insanityandpar-
ticularanimalspecies. "Whatwas presentedhere,"as Domer writes,
354 CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY

was wildandindomitable absoluteanddestructive

nature,<beastliness>, unruliness,
socialdanger,which,behindthe barsinstalledby reason,couldbe stagedthe more
dramaticallyfor showingat the sametime to the publicreasonas the necessityof
controllingnature,as a constraint
uponunlimitedfreedomandas securingtheorderof
thestate.[1984:22]

Orderwas contrastedwith chaos, reason with wildness.

Also comparablewere the "monsters"and "freaks"shown at fairs, in circus
side-shows, and in the amusementzones of world fairs:individualswith clubfeet,
Siamesetwins,beardedwomen, giants,dwarves,andso on (cf. Bogdan 1988). Afa-
mous case is thatof Merrick,the "elephant-man," anintelligentandsensitiveperson
who was terriblymaimedby sickness, exhibited in a freakshow in London at the
end of the 19thcenturyuntil a prominentsurgeontook him into his custody (Mon-
tagu 1971).The so-calledpanopticumsin largecities, like Castan'sPanoptikumand
the Passagen-Panoptikum in Berlin,combinedfeaturesof a museumof anatomy,a
cabinetof curiosities,and a horrorcabinet.The way exotic animalswere-and still
are-shown and handledin circus performanceselucidatespracticesof discipline
andtheconcomitantidiom of wildness andtamingthatwerepresentmoreimplicitly
in many exhibits involving people. P. T. Barnum'sshows and,somewhatlater,the
GermanCircusSarrasanifor decadeshad ethnologicalacts on theirprogram,often
combinedwith acrobatics.
During the 18th and 19th centuries,exhibits of life specimens were increas-
ingly reframedin terms of science, especially physical anthropologyand natural
history.Aside fromtheirentertainmentandcuriosityvalue, theireducationalvalue
came to be stressedmore and more.Hagenbeck,for instance,advertisedhis mani-
festationsas "anthropological-zoological exhibitions"(Anthropologisch-Zoologis-
che Ausstellung).In many ways, exhibitions of humanindividualswere relatedto
scientific practicesand purposes anyhow. The lunatic asylums where the insane
wereput on show were in the process of being medicalized;whatwas monstrousor
exotic was often as interestingfrom a scientific point of view as it was shockingor
fascinatingto the general public. At the beginning of the 19th century,the Khoi-
Khoi ("Hottentot")woman SaartjieBaartmannwas put on show when alive, and
dissected by the famous Cuvier when dead. A mold of her body was then exhib-
ited-in fact, until a few years ago, at the ParisMusee de l'Homme-as was, half
a centurylater,the skeleton of the Tasmanianwoman Truganini,which was cre-
matedand committedto the waves only in the 1970s. Anthropologistsused to be
representedon the committeesheadingthe anthropologicalsections of worldfairs,
often quarrelingwith those who wished to catermore to commercialthanto scien-
tific or educationalinterests.
In anthropometricand psychometriclaboratoriesat the world fairs, visitors
could witness and even take part in scientific researchon racial characteristics.
Phrenology,craniology,physiognomy, and anthropometrysharedthe assumption
thatin the outwardshapeandphysicalappearanceof the body,the innercharacter-
of differentraces, but also of criminals,prostitutes,and deviants-was manifest.
The outwardshape, therefore,had to be measuredand mappedmeticulously (cf.
 ETHNOGRAPHIC SHOWCASES 355

Figure10
A numberof IndiansfromTierradelFuego,probablySelk'nam,withtheirimpresario,
on exhibitin Parisin 1889.Duringthefirstdecadesof the presentcentury,missionaries
protestedsharplyagainstthe systematicmurderof the nativesof Tierradel Fuegoby
whitecolonistsand their bountyhunters.The skullsof murderednativeswereoften
sold to museumsin the Westernworld, fetchinghigh prices.In addition,infectious
diseasesplayedhavoc,so by around1940,onlya hundredindividualsremainedfrom
an originalpopulationof manythousands.The anthropologistAnneChapman(1982)
could locate only ten geneticallyunmixed Selk'nam during three fieldworkstays
between1964and 1974.FromGusinde(1931).

Sekula 1986). Particularlymanifestin this contextarethe interconnectionsbetween

exhibitingcolonial nativesandscientificallycollecting, measuring,classifying, and
filing them.At the sametime, anthropologicalsocieties andmuseumsof naturalhis-
tory accumulatedtens of thousandsof native skulls.6SaartjieBaartmannand Tru-
ganini aretypical cases. Accordingto contemporaryviews of the genetic variation
of mankind,Khoi-Khoi,Tasmanians,AustralianAborgines(Figure5), and several
native peoples from Tierradel Fuego (Figures 10 and 11) stood closest to the apes
and prehistoricape-menin the racialhierarchy,andthereforewere outstandingex-
amples of "contemporaryancestors"and "missinglinks."
Exhibitedcolonial natives typicallyhad to appearbefore anthropologicalso-
cieties such as those of OxfordandLondonor the Societe d'Anthropologiein Paris.
The BerlinerGesellschaftfur Anthropologie,Ethnologieund Urgeschichteused to
organizespecial sessions for this purpose,often at the same locations as the ethno-
logical shows. On March28,1896, for instance,a numberof membersof the Berlin
anthropologicalsociety studied an "authenticArabic harem"at the above-men-
356 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

J' t 1..
'atmM. .J ' ?s .
HIAMBUHRG *'*'*^' S'r PAUL! I
2'o Ber.hardsr s :25,
.5. I\
. ackhells Passage

Figure11
Anotherpictureof "Patagonians," possiblyTechuelches,takenin a Hamburgstudio
and boughtin May 1879on the occasionof a Volkerschauat Hamburg-as writtenby
hand on the reverse. While North American Indians usually were admired and
romanticized,as werethe Samoansin Figure2, the fascinationwithmostothergroups
was tinged with fear and disgust.Cabinet photograph,J. M. Jacobsen,Hamburg,
collectionof the MuseumvoorVolkenkunde,Rotterdam.

tioned Passagen-Panoptikum (Theye 1989:103). Usually anthropometricmeasure-

ments and photographswere takenon such occasions, and it will come as no sur-
prise thatthe objectsof research,who were urgedto undress,were often uneasy or
even reluctant.The manufactureof plastercasts of differentpartsof the body was
anotherresearchactivity,as were linguistic and ethnomusicologicalobservations.
The learnedsocieties providedcertificatesof authenticityof the people exhibited,
and suggestednew targetgroupsthatwould serve the financialneeds of the impre-
sarios as fully as theirown scientific interests.
So science, commerce, and imperialism went hand in hand. When Buffalo
Bill's Wild West Show (Figure7) performedin Paris duringthe summerof 1889,
PrinceRolandBonaparte,ethnologistandanthropologist,was presentcontinuously
in orderto questionandmeasurethe CheyenneandSioux who took partin the show.
J. A. Jacobsen, a Norwegian and one of the most importantcollaboratorsof the
Hagenbeckfamily,also collected for the Berlin Museum of Ethnologyand super-
vised the manufactureof ethnographicaldioramasfeaturingwax, plaster,or papier-
 SHOWCASES357
ETHNOGRAPHIC

.-./ i ;::9genoeo
. s } a ao res-i.ruppe
.
,
,jw V
1;14-t --'1;; ' ., 11; '.X'
* ;1 ^ ^

Figure 12
Hagenbeck's "Troop of Malabars," probably 1925. Often, as in this case, the exhibited
persons on request signed postcards bearing their picture, which were sold at the venue.
Postcard, collection of S. Wachlin, Amsterdam.

mache mannequins.These were fabricatedwith the help of life casts and photo-
graphs,andthey showed dramaticscenes fromritualanddaily life. The Hagenbecks
maintainedclose relations with the HamburgMuseum fur V6lkerkunde,to the
benefit of both parties.And museums of ethnographyor so-called colonial muse-
ums oftenoriginatedfromworldfairsthat,despitetheirmanyaspects,werefirstand
foremostcommercialhappenings:the Musee d'Ethnographiedu Trocad6ro-now
called the Musee de l'Homme-in Paris was createdon the occasion of the 1878
world fair (Dias 1991), while the Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrikaat
Tervuren,Belgium, resultedfrom the colonial exhibitionof 1897.
William Schneider(1977:98-99) signals a certainshift back to the traditional
amusement-orientedcharacterof Europeanethnologicalexhibits,which he situates
at about 1890. In orderto increaseprofits,the organizersbegan to stressthe unusual
andthe bizarreand to add spectacularperformances,such as mock battlesor canni-
balisticrituals.Whathad begun to develop into a means of scientifically educating
andedifying the public aboutfarawaypeoples andtheircustoms turnedinto a form
of amusementagain, yet without impedingthe persistenceof a thirdfunction:that
of political and imperialisticpropaganda.Similardifferencesexisted between the
official ethnographicexhibits and the less scholarlyorchestratedmidway amuse-
ment zones at North Americanworldfairs, which also served as venues for ethno-
graphictypes and spectacles.7
358 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Science andimperialismwent handin hand;and so, of course,did missionary

activities and imperialism.I do not know of any humanshowcases withinthe con-
text of missionarypropaganda,but other practicesof categorizing,picturing,and
exhibitinguncivilized,"heathen"peoples had much in common with moreprofane
happenings.Duringthe firsthalf of the presentcentury,manyEuropeanmissionary
museums andcountlessmissionaryexhibitions,RomanCatholicas well as Protes-
tant, tried to persuadetheir visitors to take certainviews and certainactions con-
cerning colonially dominated non-Western, non-Christian peoples. Such
exhibitions,permanentor temporary,were staged by missionarysocieties with the
help of objects, photographs,maps, and sometimes dressed mannequinsor busts.
On such occasions, the well-known narrativeplots and metaphors,slightly modi-
fied, return:civilized orChristianwhitesbringingthe lightof civilizationorreligion
to savages or pagans,in the name of some higher instance, be it progressor God.
Missionary photographyfor propagandisticgoals showed charactersand scenes
from such narratives.
On December24, 1924,PopePius XI openedtheWorldMissionaryExhibition
at the Vatican,which attractedover 750,000 visitors during the following year.
There was a Hall of Propaganda,a Hall of the Holy Landas the Cradleof Christi-
anity,one of the Historyof theMissions, andone dedicatedto quantitativedatacon-
cerningthe missions. All of these halls were crammedwith ethnographicalobjects
showing the customs andmoralsof the heathenculturesthatwere the targetof the
Roman Catholiccivilizatoryand religious offensive, neatly arrangedaccordingto
ethnologistFatherWilhelm Schmidt's theory of Kulturkreiseand their historical
development (Kilger 1925). Rome was representedas the center of the world-a
role thaton medievalworldmapswas still reservedfor Jerusalemandin imperialist
discoursewas given to the metropolesof the leading imperialistnation-states.Ro-
man Catholicmissionarypageantsin Belgium, the southernNetherlands,andelse-
where in Europeduringthe first decades of this century,with locals made up and
dressed to representblack Africans, are reminiscent of Indian painter George
Catlin's Indian Show in Englandduringthe 1840s, where native English people
dressedup as NorthAmericanIndians,or of the show in honorof King HenryII in
1550 nearRouen, France,whereFrenchsailors played BrazilianIndians.
The 1930s witnessedthe decline of the ethnologicalexhibition,at least in the
specific formit hadtakenuntilthen.Criticismof imperialismandracismincreased,
and ethnographicshows were found objectionable on moral grounds.8Ethno-
graphic films and numerousscientific, semi-scientific, and pseudo-scientifican-
thropologicaltreatises,abundantlyillustratedwith photographs,took over muchof
the function of ethnologicalexhibits, as did colonial and missionarypropaganda
films. The increasingacculturationof colonial natives thwartedthe creationof ro-
manticor depreciatingscenes of theirnaturallives. Recruitingexhibitgroupsin the
Germancolonies becamevery difficultafter 1901 because of new laws andregula-
tions, andthenWorldWarI andits aftermathcomplicatedthingseven more.During
the 1930s, the Volkerschauwas prohibitedby the National Socialists, who feared
they would increasethe sympathyof the Germanpeople for otherraces.
 ETHNOGRAPHIC SHOWCASES 359

Nonetheless,manifestationsthatarequitesimilarin severalrespectshave per-

sisted until today;for instance,the presenceof Maoriat the Te Maoriexhibitionat
New Yorkor of SulawesiToradjabuildinga rice barnat theToradjaexhibitionin the
London Museumof Mankindduringthe 1980s. As a counterpartto exotic native
villages at late 19th-centuryworld fairs, a "Dutchcity" in Nagasakiwas opened in
the springof 1992 featuringfour miles of canals with full-scale replicas of well-
known Dutch buildingssuch as the UtrechtCathedral.The cinema, television, and
tourismalso sharecertainfunctions with the Volkerschau,which was often recom-
mendedas an opportunityto visit farawaycultures.

The Story and the Gaze

It is not difficult to show the pivotal role of narrativestructuresin 19th- and
early20th-centuryworldfairs,museums,or missionaryexhibitions.Narrativeplots
areas pervasivein the civilizatory,imperialist,missionary,andscientificdiscourses
of the periodas in the three-dimensionalspectaclesthat,to a considerabledegree,
were governed by these discursive activities. As many contemporarybook titles
suggest, the historyof mankindwas narratedessentially as a heroic ascent toward
the naturaland ultimate goal of cosmic evolution: the industrialcivilization of
white,European,middle-classcitizens of the 19thcentury.Otherracesfollowed the
samepath,it was postulated-especially in evolutionistethnology,which was a sci-
entific manifestationof the discourse on progress-but lagged behind culturally
andphysically.Imperialistexpansionwas representedin termsof a social Darwinist
naturalhistory,andEuropeanhegemony as a naturalandthereforedesirabledevel-
opment.Therehas been some controversyover the questionof whetherthe master
narrativeof progressandcivilizationis essentiallya secularizedavatarof the Chris-
tian idea of worldhistoryas God's working,but in any case, it is not formulatedin
religious terms.The implied developmentis from lack of civilization to civilized
state,fromwildnessto civility, achievedheroicallyby the white, Caucasianraceun-
derits own power,andby the otherraceswith the help of the Caucasianone, insofar
at least as theirconstitutionsallowed themto progress.The stagewisedevelopment
from savagerythroughbarbarismto civilization was suggested by organizingmu-
seum and world fair exhibits into evolutionarysequences.
Sekula's (1986:58) stress on the spirit of optical empiricism and ency-
clopedismof pictorialarchives,with theirpurelyiterativecharactdr,is heuristically
useful andcertainlyjustifiedto a certaindegree;but in many contextsof collecting,
filing, andexhibiting,an orderwas imposed on the datathatwent beyond mere it-
erationandtaxonomy.In manycases, all essentialingredientsof the story,or atleast
of a certaintype of story,are present:a beginning where some desirablegood is
lacking; an end that is somehow implied by that beginning teleologically; acting
subjects;strifeand struggle;andotherplot elements.Worldfairs andmuseumsnot
only categorizedpeoples, races, cultures,species, and artifactsby creatingtaxono-
mies, but also orderedthem syntagmatically,creatingthe well-knownplots of civ-
ilized/Christianwhites bringing light to the savage/heathenin the name of some
higher instance. The same goes for many photographsfrom colonial contexts,
360 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

showing moments from the story they presupposeand illustrate (Corbey 1988,
1989, 1990).Those well-knownplots-flexible andcapableof incorporatingdispa-
rate elements, of outdoing alternativereadings-are as pervasive in 19th-century
civilizatory,imperialist,missionary,and scientific discourses as in the spectacles
andpicturesthatwere governedby these discursiveactivities.This centurysaw the
proliferationof historicized,evolutionaryframeworksof representation-of arti-
facts and naturalhistory specimens,of human,racial,and nationalorigins.
One aspect of these spectacles,pictures,and narrativeswas thatthey neutral-
ized the cognitive dissonanceandthethreatto Westernmiddle-classidentityconsti-
tuted by the baffling cultural difference of new peoples. Colonial Others were
incorporatednarratively.In a mise-en-intrigue,they were assignedtheirroles in the
storiestold by museumexhibitions,worldfairs,andcolonialpostcards(Figure 12).
They werecast as contemporaryancestors,receiversof truecivilizationandtruere-
ligion. The radicaldifferenceof the Otherwas made sense of and thus wardedoff
by a narrative <discordant concordance> between "civilized" and "savage."
Money,trade,and exchangemediatedbetweenpeoples (cf. Hinsley 1991:362),but
on anotherlevel stories were createdin orderto mediatethe basic contradictionbe-
tween the two statesof mankind.HereI concurwith Levi-Strauss'sinterpretationof
myth as a strugglewith contradictionsor paradoxes,as a syntagmaticmediationof
paradigmaticoppositions.9CarolBreckenridge(1989:211) points out the analogy
betweenthe buildingof privatecollectionsby colonial officials, creatingan illusion
of cognitive controlover a colonialexperiencethatmightotherwisehave been dis-
turbinglychaotic, and the world fair as a reminderof the orderlinessof empire,
which consolidated the sense of imperialknowledge and control in the imagined
Victorianecumene.
But the resultantconcordancewill never be complete;the attemptto harmo-
nize is ultimatelyboundto fail. For as the plot develops, the initialdiscordancebe-
tween civilized andprimitive,whiteandblack,Christianandheathen,is slowly but
nevertotallyovercome.Struggledevelops into contracts,but some antagonismand
differenceis necessary all the way, to keep the story going. The story familiarizes
andexoticizes at the same time.'0Also on a differentlevel-that of the citizen's per-
sonal experience-the Otherseems to preservean elusive quality;he or she never
yields completelyto incorporationwithinthe frameworkof the familiar,stubbornly
resisting a textualizingclosure of spontaneousexperience,of fascination,of won-
der.1'
To returnnow to the 1893 world fair motto we began with-'To see is to
know"-of coursewe do not know how thingsareby simply looking. The eye is not
innocent.The motto succinctlyexpressesan underlyingideology thatis at workin
a rangeof seemingly disparatepracticesin colonial times:photography,colonialist
discourse,missionarydiscourse, anthropometry, collecting and exhibiting, and so
on. Whatpeople saw,rather than realityas it is, was, to a considerableextent,reality
as perceived, as actively constructedby images, conceptions, native taxonomies,
stories, and motivationalattitudeson the spectator'smind (cf. Mason 1990). The
 ETHNOGRAPHIC SHOWCASES 361

perceived orderwas an imposed one; the citizen's gaze on alien people was deter-
mined to a considerabledegree by stories and stereotypesin his or her mind.
"Visualizationandspatialization,"Fabianwritesin his studyof thecentralrole
of the gaze and the visual in the historyof anthropology,

[became]a program forthenewdisciplineof anthropology. Therewasa timewhenthis

meant,aboveall,theexhibitionof theexoticin illustrated museums,fairs,
travelogues,
andexpositions.Theseearlyethnologicalpracticesestablishedseldomarticulated but
firmconvictionsthatpresentations of knowledgethroughvisualandspatialimages,
maps,diagrams,trees,and tablesare particularly well suitedto the descriptionof
primitivecultures.[Fabian1983:121]

In this context, completelyin line with our analysis of ethnologicalexhibitions,he

stresses the ideological effects of visualism as a cognitive style. Whatis seen, the
objectified Other,is looked on as coming not only from farawayplaces, but also,
and more importantly,from a different, allochronic time. Fabian shows how a
temporalgap is constructedbetween citizens and their"contemporaryancestors,"
"how anthropologyhas managed to maintaindistance, mostly by manipulating
temporalcoexistence throughthe denial of coevalness" (Fabian 1983:121). This
occurredin anthropology,just as it did in the political ideology of imperialism,in
Christiandiscourse on heathens and the mission, at world fairs, and in certain
photographicpractices.
Whenmodemanthropology beganto constructits Otherin termsof topoiimplying
distance,difference,and opposition,its intentwas aboveall, but at least also, to
constructorderedSpaceandTime-a cosmos-for Westernsocietyto inhabit,rather
than"understandingothercultures,"its ostensiblevocation.[Fabian1983:111-112]

Besides plotting,thereis a second aspect of the storiednatureof the imperial

imaginationthat has relevance to a properunderstandingof ethnologicalexhibi-
tions. It has to do with the encyclopediccharacterof worldfairs. "As with otherdi-
mensions of the show,"notes Greenhalgh(1988:87), "theimperialdimensionwas
underpinnedby the belief thatit was possible to presenta completeknowledge, to
create a physical encyclopediacapable of capturingand explaining a total world
view."Whatis interestinghereis thecognitive position ascribedto thevisitors:they
are assumed to be situatedhigh above the world they gaze upon. On a very basic
level, activitiessuch as narrating,takingpictures,orjust plain looking createthe il-
lusion of the surveyabilityor transparencyof reality,connectedwith the suggestion
thatthose who narrate,takepictures,or look, find themselves in the privilegedpo-
sition of a panopticspectator.In spontaneousvisual perception,we alreadytend to
experienceourselvesas the naturalcenterof the world we see-a worldthatseems
to be organizedaroundthe onlookeras its pivot; in otherwords,perspectiveis more
thana neutralmathematicalprojectionon externalspace.All threeactivities-look-
ing, takingpictures,narrating-are perspectivistic,not only in a literalsense, as in
the case of looking or photographing,but also cognitively, emotionally,and ideo-
logically. Externalrealityis constructedfrom and arounda centralposition, thatof
362 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

the onlooker,the photographer,the narrator-and also that of the citizen roaming

the world fair.These spectatorsby theirvery activity seem to be panoptic,omnis-
cient;theirpointof view is or seems to be panoramic,thatof a bird'seye ratherthan
a frog's eye. The narrator,hoveringhigh above the plot, oversees time and spaceto
a considerabledegree,havingrelativelyfree access to whatnarrativecharactersare
doing at differenttimes andplaces. This panopticgaze is very wide, and might in-
deed be coextensive with storyor narrativeas a highly generaldiscoursestructure,
operatingnot only in fiction and literature,but also in the sciences and in philoso-
phy, in religious practices,and in everydayconversation.
The position of the narratoris usuallyexternalto the story,somewhereabove
the narratedevents, permittingan overview of space and time, althoughit may be
more limited, tied to one of the charactersin the representedevents and part of
these.12Exteral narratorsfind themselvesin an excellent position to assign signifi-
cance andvalue to the events andcharacters,including,in the case of a typical 19th-
centurymasternarrative,theirown heroicrole, naturalsuperiority,andunshakable
moralandcognitive orientation."Thepanoramicapproachlays out the whole world
conceptuallyin a Linneanclassificationor evolutionaryscheme, or experientially
in a scenic effect.... The view is comprehensive,extensive, commanding,aggran-
dizing. As a prospect,it holds in it scenariosfor futureaction"(Kirshenblatt-Gim-
blett 1991:413). Panoramiclandscapedescriptionsin novels or travel accounts,as
well as landscapephotographsandturn-of-the-century postcards,often embody a
discourseof empire and domination,with the seer as a "monarch-of-all-I-survey"
(Pratt1988;cf. Fabian1983:118-123), in firmcontrolof the seen. The samegaze-
self-confident,panoptic,voyeuristic-is to be found in manyphotos of colonialna-
tives. "Thereis an aggression implicit in every use of the camera,"Susan Sontag
(1984:7) has remarked,andtakingpictureswas indeedanothermeansof takingpos-
session of nativepeoples and theirlands, as was narration.
A fine example of the encyclopedicurge in an imperialistcontext was an am-
bitiousprojectthe Asiatic Societyof Bengaltriedto realizein Calcuttain 1865:a sy-
noptic exhibitionof living representativesof the races of the Old World(or at least
of India),to be visitedprimarilyby scientists(Falconer1984-86). The idea was that
of a kind of panopticon,as we know it from the writingsof Jeremy Benthamand
Michel Foucault.The spiritof theprojectonce againwas one of opticalempiricism,
as expressedby the Chicagomotto"Tosee is to know."13 The effortfailed. A some-
what meagerbut similaroutcomerealized insteadof the exhibit of life specimens
was constitutedby E. T. Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal (1872), illus-
tratedwith lithographsbased on photographs,and the eight-volume ThePeople of
India: A Series of PhotographicIllustrationswith Descriptive Letterpressof the
Races and Tribesof Hindustan(WatsonandKaye 1868-75), commissionedby the
British government,both coveringthe nativepeoples from this partof the British
empire. In a comparableway, richly illustratedpublicationslike Karl Ernst von
Baer's Typesprincipauxdes differentesraces humainesdans les cinq parties du
monde (1861) profferedthe "photographicmuseum of the humanraces"thathad
been postulatedtheoretically20 years before by E. R. A. Serres (1845:243; cf.
 ETHNOGRAPHIC SHOWCASES 363

Theye 1989) in Franceandhad quickly become a quitecommon ideal, all the more
so because it was felt thatsoon it would be too late. In the year 1872, the German
ethnologistAdolf Bastianalso formulatedthe projectof "a photographicmuseum
of thehumanraces,"which was indeedcreatedlaterby the BerlinerGesellschaftfur
Ethnologie, Anthropologieund Urgeschichte;tens of thousands of accumulated
photographswere destroyedduringthe Second WorldWar(Theye 1989).
Apartfrom illustratingthe synoptic theme, the projectof a photographiccen-
sus of humanityalso brings out nicely the role of photographyin the complex of
practicesregardingcolonial subjects:collecting, scrutinizing,measuring,catego-
rizing,filing, controlling,narrating.The second half of the 19thcenturywitnessed
the quickrise of photographyas anothermachineryof capturinganddisplayingthe
world.Here,too, we come acrossthe illusionof authenticity,of unmediatedencoun-
ter. Time and again the unbiased,true characterof the photographicpicture was
stressed;photos were seen as windows on the world, as unmediatedand therefore
unbiasedcopies of natureitself. Photographywas appliedon a large scale in many
scientificdisciplines,in a spiritof optical empiricism.While the prosperingmiddle
classes of Westernindustrialsocieties presentedthemselves honorificallyin self-
congratulatorystudio portraits,hundredsof thousandsof photos of theirOthers-
otherraces, criminals,prostitutes,the insane, deviants-functioned in the context
of repression.Publicationslike The People of India, CarlDamman'sAnthropolo-
gisch-EthnologischesAlbum in Photographien(c. 1872), or, somewhat later, the
scenes-and-types postcard genre, were matched by photographicalbums with
"types"of criminals.In this context, the needs of nation-stateswent hand in hand
with scientific purposes. Breckenridge(1989:195-196) points out that agencies
such as archives, libraries, surveys, revenue bureaucracies,folklore and ethno-
graphicagencies, censuses, and museums provided a context for surveilling, re-
cording, classifying, and evaluating called for by the new order of 19th-century
nation-stateswith their imperializingand disciplinarybureaucracies-whether it
concernedcolonies abroador criminalsand slums at home.
Tony Bennett, in an argumentthat in many ways parallelsand in other ways
complementsthe one developed here, has unraveledrelationsbetween power and
knowledge in the development of what he appropriatelycalls an "exhibitionary
complex."It encompassesmuseums of art,history,and naturalscience; dioramas
and panoramas;national and internationalexhibitions; arcades and department
stores, serving as "linkedsites for the developmentand articulationof new disci-
plines (history,biology, arthistory,anthropology)and their discursive formations
(the past, evolution, aesthetics,man) as well as for the developmentof new tech-
nologies of vision" (Bennett 1988:73).

Conclusion
I have exploredsome of the complex interdependenciesbetween the coloni-
alist, scientific, and visual appropriationof culturalothers in the context of world
fairs and ethnographicexhibits. Personsfrom tribalcultures,on show in the West,
were commodified,labeled (Bouquet and Branco 1988), scripted,objectified, es-
364 CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY

sentialized,decontextualized,aestheticized,and fetishized. They were cast in the

role of backward,allochroniccontemporaryancestors,receiversof truecivilization
andtruereligionin the storiestold by museums,worldfairs,andimperialistideolo-
gies, thusbecomingnarrativecharactersin the citizen's articulationof identity-of
Self and Other.Theirown voices and views-ironically often as ethnocentricand
omniscientas Westernones-were neutralized.Fittingculturalothersinto narrative
plots, we suggested, was a way the citizen's panopticeye/I dealt with their won-
drous, disturbingdifference without annihilatingit completely.These plots came
with the illusion of the panopticposition of an omniscientspectator,functioningas
anotherstrategyof power-the illusion that"to see is to know."
Overthelast centuries,the "we"-group,as anemic categoryof Westernmiddle
classes characterizedby truehumanity,has been expandingcontinuouslyto include
many categoriesthat were formerlyexcluded or consideredambiguous:women,
slaves, peasants,thepoor,andnon-Westernpeoples.14 In this article,occasionalref-
erencewas madeto analogiesbetweenhow otherracesandspecies were thoughtof
andtreatedin the late 19thandearly20th centuries.By now,theboundaryof the hu-
man species has been reachedand, in fact, is being questioned-not least as to its
moralsignificance-and transgressed.The discussionis now shiftingtowardzoos,
circuses,dolphinshows, bioindustry,andanimalexperiments;toward"simianOri-
entalism"(Haraway1989) andotherformsof anthropocentrism. It would seem that
ourobservationson ethno-/eurocentricethnographicexhibitsduringthe heyday of
colonialism are in many ways readily extendableto present-dayforms, in theory
and practice,of anthropocentrismand < speciesism >.

Notes

I wishto thank,amongothers,IvanKarp,PeterMason(whoalso
Acknowledgments.
suggested the motto from de Sade), Bunny McBride, HaraldPrins, and two anonymous
refereesfor their stimulatingcomments. Partof the archivaland photohistoricresearchon
which this article is based was carried out by Steven Wachlin, photographichistorian,
Utrecht,Netherlands,who coauthoredthe captionsto the twelve pictures.
1. In this context, Ivan Karp'sanalyticaldistinctionbetween exoticizing and assimi-
lating strategiesof exhibition is relevant(in Karpand Lavine 1991:375 ff.); both strategies
are examplesof the cognitive strategyof assimilation-as opposed to accommodation-in
the sense of Piagetiandevelopmentalpsychology.
2. For a survey of ethnographicexhibits in the Jardind'Acclimatation,see Schneider
1977.
3. A fruitfulline of analysisnot exploited here mightpursuethe infamouscharacterof
similartradesand professions;cf. Blok in press.
4. Prins (1991) argues that these early showmen functioned as cultural mediators
betweendominantEuro-Americansociety andtheirown respectivenativecommunities,and
that theirperformancesinspired the imagery currentlyused to express ethnic self-identity
among tribespeoplein the Northeast.
5. BunnyMcBride(Manhattan, Kansas;cf. McBride1989)is writinga biography
of
MollySpottedElkon thebasisof herdiaries.
 SHOWCASES365
ETHNOGRAPHIC

6. The Smithsonian Institutionin Washington,D.C., for instance, at this moment

harborsthe remainsof aboutforty thousandnon-Westernindividuals.
7. As remarkedbefore, I am tryingto bring out the generalcharacterof ethnographic
exhibits in the periodunderconsiderationmore thandifferencesbetweennations,over time,
or betweentypes of manifestation.Foran analysisof nationaldifferences,see Benedict 1991.
8. One would also expect conflicts between the scholarlyand the popularimagination
to have increasedtowardthe end of the period 1870-1930 with the advent,in anthropology,
of paradigmscritical of evolutionistanthropology.
9. At the same time, as may be clear to insiders, we take some inspirationfrom the
structuralistnarratologyof A. J. Greimasand the Paris School-without necessarily sub-
scribingto all its presuppostions,however.For an as powerfulbut more radical,poststruc-
turalist,analyticalapproachto exhibitionarypractices,see Bal 1992.
10. Here again, Karp'sdistinctionbetween exoticizing and assimilatingstrategiesis
relevant;see note 1.
11. Stephen Greenblatt's(1991) stress on the enduringfascinationwith "the marvel-
lous" complementsthe narratologicallyinspiredperspectivedeveloped here.
12. In contemporarynarratology,the narrator'sperspective is analyzed in terms of
internaland external "focalization";compareGenette 1972 and Bal 1991, who stress the
ideological effects of focalization not only in texts but also in pictures and museums,
developing the theory of focalizationinto a powerful tool of culturalcriticism.
13. I am here indeed indirectlyandloosely drawingon certainideas from the work of
Michel Foucault, which has proved to be inspiring and heuristicallyuseful in the field of
cultural studies (cf. Mitchell 1988, 1989), despite its lack of historical precision, its
too-sweeping generalizations,and its tendencytowardsometimes ratherobscurerhetoric.
14. Even early hominidsmay be includedin this group.A posterannouncingthe 1989
exhibition "Archeologiede la France: 30 ans de decouvertes"at the GrandPalais in Paris
shows a Homo erectus man with a modern baby on his knee, the caption reading "Nous
avons tous 400,000 ans," which only 20 years ago would still have been unthinkable.

References Cited

Altick, RichardD.
1978 The Shows of London. A PanoramicHistory of Exhibitions, 1600-1862. Cam-
bridge, MA: Belknap.
Bal, Mieke
1991 On Story-Telling:Essays in Narratology.Sonoma:PolebridgePress.
1992 Telling, Showing, Showing-off. CriticalInquiry18:556-594.
Benedict, Burton
1983 The Anthropologyof World'sFairs:San Francisco'sPanamaPacific International
Exposition of 1915. London:Scolar Press, in associationwith the Lowie Museumof
Anthropology.
1991 InternationalExhibitionsandNationalIdentity.AnthropologyToday7(3):5-9.
Benjamin,Walter
1984 Paris, die Hauptstadtdes XIX. Jahrhunderts.In Allegorien kulturellerErfahrung.
Ausgewihlte Schriften 1920-1940. Leipzig: Reclam.
Bennett,Tony
1988 The ExhibitionaryComplex.New Formations4 (Spring):74-102.
366 CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY

Bieder,RobertE.
1991 Zoo: Race, Sex and Power.Bloomington,IN, unpublishedMS.
Blok, Anton
In press Infamy.London:Routledge.
Bogdan, R.
1988 Freaks Show: PresentingHumanOddities for Amusementand Profit. Chicago:
Universityof Chicago Press.
Bouquet,Mary,and Jorge Branco
1988 MelanesianArtifacts-Postmoderist Reflections. Lisbon:Museu de Etnologia.
Bradford,Phillips, and Harvey Blume
In press Ota Benga:The Pygmy at the Zoo. New York:St. Martin'sPress.
Breckenridge,CarolA.
1989 The AestheticsandPoliticsof ColonialCollecting:IndiaatWorldFairs.Compara-
tive Studies in Society and History31:195-216.
Chapman,Anne
1982 Dramaand Power in a HuntingSociety. The Selk'nam of Tierradel Fuego. New
York:CambridgeUniversityPress.
Corbey,Raymond
1988 Alterity:The ColonialNude. Critiqueof Anthropology8(3):75-92.
1989 Wildheiden beschaving.De Europeseverbeeldingvan Afrika. Baarn:Ambo.
1990 DerMissionar,die Heidenunddas Photo.Zeitschriftfir Kulturaustausch 40:460-
465.
Dalton, EdwardT.
1872 Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendentof
GovernmentPrinting.
Damman,Carl
n.d.[cl872] Anthropologisches-EthnologischesAlbum in Photographien. Berlin:
Wiegard,Hempel, & Parey.
de Sade, D. A. E
1990 Oeuvres.Paris:Bibliothequede la Pleiade.
Dias, Nelia
1991 Le Muse d'ethnographiedu Trocadero1878-1908. AnthropologieetMuseologie
en France.Paris:CNRS.
Dickens, Charles
1938 The Noble Savage. ReprintedPieces. London:BloomsburyPress.
D6mer, Klaus
1984 Burgerund Irre.ZurSozialgeschichteund Wissenschaftssoziologieder Psychia-
trie. Frankfurtam Main:EuropiischeVerlagsanstalt.
Fabian,Johannes
1983 Time and the Other.How AnthropologyMakes its Object. New York:Columbia
UniversityPress.
Falconer,John
1984-86 EthnographicalPhotographyin India. PhotographicCollector5:16-46.
Favrod,Charles-Henri
1989 Voir les autres autrement.In Etranges 6trangeres:Photographieet exotisme,
1850/1910. Paris:CentreNationalde la Photographie.
Foucault,Michel
1961 Folie et deraison.Histoirede la folie a 1'age classique. Paris:Plon.
 SHOWCASES367
ETHNOGRAPHIC

Francis,D. R.
1913 The Universal Exposition of 1904. St. Louis: Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Company.
Genette,Gerard
1972 FiguresIII. Paris:Seuil.
Goldmann,Stefan
1985 Wilde in Europa.In Wir und die Wilden. Einblicke in eine kannibalischeBezie-
hung. ThomasTheye, ed. Pp. 243-269. Reinbek:Rowohlt.
Greenblatt,Stephen
1991 Resonance and Wonder. In Exhibiting Cultures:The Politics and Poetics of
MuseumDisplay. Ivan Karpand Steven D. Lavine, eds. Pp. 42-56. Washington,DC:
SmithsonianInstitutionPress.
Greenhalgh,Paul
1988 EphemeralVistas. The Expositions Universelles, GreatExhibitions and Worlds
Fairs, 1851-1939. Manchester.ManchesterUniversityPress.
Gusinde,Martin
1931 Die Feuerland-Indianer. In Die Selk'nam. Vom Leben und Denken eines Jager-
volkes auf der grossen Feuerlandinsel,Modling, Austria:S.V.D.
Hagenbeck,Karl
1909 Von Tierenund Menschen.Erlebnisseund Erfahrungen.Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Halter, Ulrich
1971 Die LondonerWeltausstellungvon 1851. Ein Beitragzur Geschichte der burger-
lich-industriellenGesellschaftim 19. Jahrhundert.Minster VerlagAschendorf.
Haraway,Donna
1989 PrimateVisions: Gender,Race and Naturein the Worldof Modem Science. New
York:Routledge.
Helms, MaryW.
1988 Ulysses Sail: An EthnographicOdessey of Power,Knowledge and Geographical
Distance. Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress.
Hinsley,CurtisM.
1991 The Worldas Marketplace:Commodificationof the Exotic at the World'sColum-
bian Exposition.In ExhibitingCultures:The Politics and Poetics of Museum Display.
Ivan Karpand Steven D. Lavine, eds. Pp. 344-365. Washington:SmithsonianInstitu-
tion Press.
Karp,Ivan, and Steven D. Lavine, eds.
1991 ExhibitingCultures:The Politics andPoetics of MuseumDisplay.Washingtonand
London:SmithsonianInstitutionPress.
Kilger,Laurenz
1925 Die vatikanische Missions-Ausstellung 1925. Die Katholischen Missionen
53(6):167-179.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,Barbara
1991 Objects of Ethnography.In Exhibiting Cultures:The Politics and Poetics of
Museum Display. Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, eds. Pp. 386-443. Washington,
D.C.: SmithsonianInstitutionPress.
Lederbogen,Jan
1986 Fotografieals Volkerschau.Fotogeschichte:BeitragezurGeschichteundAsthetik
der Photographie6:47-64.
 ANTHROPOLOGY
368 CULTURAL

Lehmann,Alfred
1955 Zeitgen6ssische Bilder der ersten Vl6kerschauen.In Von fremden Volker und
Kulturen.Beitragezur Vblkerkunde.Hans Plischke zum 65. Geburtstag.W. Lang, W.
Nippold, andG. Spannauseds. Pp. 31-38. Diisseldorf:DrosteVerlag.
Mackenzie,JohnM.
1984 PropagandaandEmpire:The Manipulationof BritishPublicOpinion1860-1960.
Manchester ManchesterUniversityPress.
Mason, Peter
1990 DeconstructingAmerica.Representationsof the Other.New York:Routledge.
Mason, Peter,ed.
1992 Indianenen Nederlanders,1492-1992. Wampum11, special issue.
McBride, Bunny
1989 A Penobscotin Paris.Down East August:63-65,80-81.
Mitchell, Timothy
1988 ColonisingEgypt. Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.
1989 TheWorldas Exhibition.ComparativeStudiesin Society andHistory31:217-236.
Montagu,Ashley
1971 The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity. New York: Outerbridgeand
Dienstfrey.
Neihardt,John
1988 Black Elk Speaks.Lincoln:Universityof NebraskaPress.
Parsons,Q. N.
1988 Frantzor Klikko,The Wild Dancing Bushman:A Case Study in KhoisanStereo-
typing. BotswanaNotes and Records 20:71-76.
Pieterse,Evelien
1992 Amerika binnen handbereik.In Indianen en Nederlanders, 1492-1992. Peter
Mason, ed. Wampum11:16-39.
Plakate 1880-1914
n.d. Exhibitioncatalogue,HistorischesMuseum,Frankfurt.
Pratt,MaryLouise
1988 Conventions of Representation:When Discourse and Ideology Meet. In The
Tamingof the Text:Explorationsin Language,Literature,andCulture.Willie van Peer,
ed. Pp. 15-34. London:Routledgeand Kegan Paul.
Prins, HaraldE. L.
1991 Public Performanceand Ethnic Identity:Chief Big Thunderand the Peddling of
'Indian'Culture.Paperpresentedat the American Society for Ethnohistory,Annual
Meeting, 7-10 November.
Rice, Julian
1991 Black Elk's Story:Distinguishingits LakotaPurpose.Albuquerque:Universityof
New Mexico Press.
Rydell, RobertW.
1984 All the World'sa Fair:Visions of Empireat AmericanInternationalExpositions,
1876-1916. Chicago:Universityof Chicago Press.
Schneider,G.
1982 Das deutsche Kolonialmuseumin Berlin und seine Bedeutungim Rahmen der
preussischenSchulreformum die Jahrhundertwende.In Die Zukunftbeginnt in der
Vergangenheit.Schriften des Historischen Museums XVI. Pp. 155 ff. Frankfurt:
HistorischesMuseum.
 SHOWCASES369
ETHNOGRAPHIC

Schneider,W.
1977 Race and Empire: The Rise of Popular Ethnographyin the Late Nineteenth
Century.Journalof PopularCulture11:98-109.
Sekula,Alan
1986 The Body and the Archive. October39(Winter):3-64.
Serres,Etienne-Renaud-Augustin
1845 Observationssur l'applicationde la photographiea 1'6tudedes races humaines.
ComptesRenduesde l'Acad6mie des Sciences 21:243 ff.
Sontag, Susan
1984 On Photography.Harmondsworth:PenguinBooks.
Taylor,J. Garth
1981 An Eskimo Abroad, 1880: His Diaryand Death. CanadianGeographicOctJNov.
Theye, Thomas
1989 <Wir wollen nicht glauben, sondem schauen>:ZurGeschichteder ethnographis-
chen Fotografie im 19. Jahrhundert.In Idem (red.), Der geraubte Schatten: Die
PhotographiealsethnographischesDokument.Pp.60-119. Miinchen:Minchner Stadt-
museum.
Thode-Arora,Hilke
1989 Fur funfzig Pfenning um die Welt: Die HagenbeckschenVolkerschauen.New
York:CampusVerlag.
Von Baer,KarlErnst
1861 Types principauxdes diff6rentesraces humainesdans les cinq partiesdu monde.
2nd ed. St. Petersburg.
Watson,J. F., and J. W. Kaye
1868-75 The People of India:A Series of PhotographicIllustrationswith Descriptive
Letterpressof the Races and Tribesof Hindustan.8 vols. London:IndiaMuseum.