Human Zoos (Paperback)

Pascal Blanchard

ISBN 10: 1846311748 / ISBN 13: 9781846311741

Editore: Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 2008

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Paperback. Human zoos, forgotten symbols of the colonial era, have been totally repressed in our collective memory. In these anthropo-zoological exhibitions, exotic individuals were placed alongside wild beasts and presented behind bars or in enclosures. Human zoos were a key factor, however, in the progressive shift in the West from scientific to popular racism. Beginning with the early nineteenth-century European exhibition of the Hottentot Venus, this thoroughly documented volume underlines the ways in which they affected the lives of tens of millions of visitors, from London to New York, from Warsaw to Milan, from Moscow to Tokyo Through Barnums freak shows, Hagenbecks ethnic shows (touring major European cities from their German base), French-style villages negres, as well as the great universal and colonial exhibitions, the West invented the savage, exhibited the peoples of the world, whilst in many cases preparing for or contributing to their colonization This first mass contact between us and them, between the West and elsewhere, created an invisible border. Measured by scientists, exploited in shows, used in official exhibitions, these men, women and children became extras in an imaginary and in a history that were not their own. Based on the best-selling French volume Zoos Humains but with a number of newly commissioned chapters, Human Zoos puts into perspective the spectacularization of the Other, a process that is at the origin of contemporary stereotypes and of the construction of our own identities. A unique book, on a crucial phenomenon, which takes us to the heart of Western fantasies, and allows us to understand the genesis of identity in Japan, Europe and North America. Human zoos, forgotten symbols of the colonial era, have been totally repressed in our collective memory. This book puts into perspective the spectacularization of the Other, a process that is at the origin of contemporary stereotypes and of the construction of our own identities. It allows us to understand the genesis of identity. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Codice articolo 9781846311741

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Human Zoos (Paperback)
• Editore: Liverpool University Press, Liverpool
• Data di pubblicazione: 2008
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1846311748
• ISBN 13: 9781846311741
• Rilegatura: Paperback
• Condizione: new

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

One of the first modern exhibitions of living humans was produced by the great American showman and charlatan P. T. Barnum who infamously introduced the public to Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker and George Washington’s supposed “mammy,” Joice Heth, in 1835. Human zoo exhibits like Barnum’s—forgotten symbols of the colonial area predicated on a vague scientific racism—have been largely  repressed in our collective memory. Human Zoos, which begins with the early nineteenth-century exhibition of the Hottentot Venus and proceeds through a history of showcasing “savages” and “peoples of the world”—in New York, Moscow, Paris, and Tokyo, among other places—in a chronicle of our cultural effort to present the Other as a spectacle, unearths the men, women, and children who became extras in an imaginary history that was by no means their own. A bestseller on its original publication in France, with the addition of newly commissioned chapters and a contemporary translation, this unique and remarkable volume discusses a crucial phenomenon at the heart of Western fantasies, allowing us to understand anew the genesis of popular racism and cultural identity that fueled our fascination with colonial and imperial cultures.

Informazioni sull?autore

Nicholas Bancel is professor of history at the Marc Bloch University of Strasbourg II in Austria. Pascal Blanchard is a historian and the founder of the Association Connaissance de l’histoire de l’Afrique contemporaine. Giles Boëtsch is director of research at the Centre national de la recherché scientifique. Eric Deroo is a historian and filmmaker. Sandrine Lemaire is a historian and author. Charles Forsdick is the James Barrow Professor of French at the University of Liverpool.