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Introduction: World Fairs, Exhibitions and Anthropology: Revisiting Contexts of Post-colonialism

Introduction: World Fairs, Exhibitions and Anthropology: Revisiting Contexts of Post-colonialism World fairs and exhibitions served as important venues for empires to showcase their industrial and technological achievements. Moreover, they also presented ‘civilisational models’ that portrayed Europeans as the most advanced and sophisticated and depicted the distant inhabitants as exotic and primitive. In portraying distant peoples, these contrasts were evident through their dress styles, dance, music, and performance of daily customs, but most noticeably, through their skin colours. With five articles focusing on world fairs and exhibitions in diverse locations and times, this special issue raises questions about the display and showcasing of humans that are still pertinent to the current contexts of anthropology. The articles call for ‘decolonising’ thoughts, discourses, and practices in political and public space in displaying contemporary cultures. While acknowledging the problematics and limits of ‘decolonisation’ itself, the articles reassess through a critical lens the connections between fairs and exhibitions in the early days of anthropology. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Anthropological Journal of European Cultures Berghahn Books

Introduction: World Fairs, Exhibitions and Anthropology: Revisiting Contexts of Post-colonialism

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Publisher
Berghahn Books
Copyright
© 2022 Berghahn Books
ISSN
1755-2923
eISSN
1755-2931
DOI
10.3167/ajec.2022.310202
Publisher site
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Abstract

World fairs and exhibitions served as important venues for empires to showcase their industrial and technological achievements. Moreover, they also presented ‘civilisational models’ that portrayed Europeans as the most advanced and sophisticated and depicted the distant inhabitants as exotic and primitive. In portraying distant peoples, these contrasts were evident through their dress styles, dance, music, and performance of daily customs, but most noticeably, through their skin colours. With five articles focusing on world fairs and exhibitions in diverse locations and times, this special issue raises questions about the display and showcasing of humans that are still pertinent to the current contexts of anthropology. The articles call for ‘decolonising’ thoughts, discourses, and practices in political and public space in displaying contemporary cultures. While acknowledging the problematics and limits of ‘decolonisation’ itself, the articles reassess through a critical lens the connections between fairs and exhibitions in the early days of anthropology.

Journal

Anthropological Journal of European Cultures – Berghahn Books

Published: Sep 1, 2022

Keywords: anthropology and fieldwork; colonial ideologies and practices; (de)-colonisation; history of anthropology; human displays; Indigenous groups; world fairs

References

  • Home Page
  • book review of: Coming of Age in Chicago: The 1893 World's Fair and the Coalescence of American Anthropology (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press)
    Birkalan-Gedik, H.
  • ‘Orientalism alla Turca’: Evolutionary Desires, Imperial Nostalgias, and Western Anxieties in Ahmed Midhat's
    Birkalan-Gedik, H.
  • Ethnographic Showcases, 1870–1930
    Corbey, R.
  • From the Colonial Exhibition to the Museum of Man: An Alternative Genealogy of French Anthropology
    L'Estoile, B. de
  • Power and Identity: The Exhibition of Human Beings in the Portuguese Great Exhibitions
    Matos, P. F. de
  • Human Zoos or Ethnic Shows? Essence and Contingency in Living Ethnological Exhibitions
    Sánchez-Gómez, L. A.
  • On Display: From Early Public Exhibitions of Humans in World Fairs and Museums to the Cinematic Representations of World Cultures, Popular Travelogues and Expedition Films of the 20th Century and Their Enduring Influence in Contemporary Tourism
    Vail, P.
  • Black Women's Bodies in the Portuguese Colonial Visual Archive (1900–1975)
    Vicente, F. L.