In the museum of man : race, anthropology, and empire in France, 1850-1950

389 Pages·2013·3.37 MB·English

by  Alice L. Conklin

In the Museum of Man

In the Museum
of Man
Race, Anthropology, and Empire
in France, 1850–1950
Alice L. Conklin
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2013 by Cornell University
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book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without
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First published 2013 by Cornell University Press
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2013
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Conklin, Alice L., author.
In the museum of man : race, anthropology, and empire in France,
1850–1950 / Alice L. Conklin.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8014-3755-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8014-7878-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Anthropology—France—History. 2. Ethnology—France—
History. 3. Imperialism—Social aspects—France—History.
4. Race—Social aspects. I. Title.
GN17.3.F8C66 2013
301.0944—dc23 2013009576
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Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Paperback printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my parents

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1. Races, Bones, and Artifacts: A General Science of Man
in the Nineteenth Century 19
2. Toward a New Synthesis: Th e Birth of Academic Ethnology 58
3. Ethnology for the Masses: Th e Making of the
Musée de l’Homme 100
4. Skulls on Display: Antiracism, Racism, and Racial Science 145
5. Ethnology: A Colonial Form of Knowledge? 189
6. From the Study to the Field: Ethnologists in the Empire 236
7. Ethnologists at War: Vichy and the Race Question 282
Epilogue 327
Selected Bibliography 339
Index 365

Acknowledgments
Th is book grew out of my earlier study of French colonial administration
in West Africa between 1895 and 1930. In that work, I was struck by the ways
in which high-level offi cials in the 1920s began to claim that the very African
peoples whom the French were exploiting had “cultures” and “civilizations”
worth preserving. I concluded then that this newfound French “respect” for
an “authentic” African way of life was largely a political response designed
to contain demands by young educated Africans for equal rights, but later I
began to wonder how the best anthropologists of the day were talking about
these same African societies. Th is question led me to the Musée de l’Homme
in Paris, and through it, to a labyrinthine world of ideas, networks, and sci-
entifi c practices not only unfamiliar to me, but also to many historians of
modern France and to anthropologists everywhere. Th e result of my intel-
lectual foray into this world, I hope, is a story that will interest historians and
anthropologists equally.
In the course of writing this book, I have accrued perhaps more than the
usual quota of debts. I would like to acknowledge the John Simon Guggen-
heim Foundation, the German Marshall Fund, and the Fulbright Commis-
sion for providing critical support for much of my research. At Ohio State,
grants from the Mershon Center and the Arts and Humanities division of the
College of Arts and Sciences, and research support from the History Depart-
ment, helped me to complete the manuscript.
I have received essential help from numerous archivists, librarians, and
scholars at every step of the way. I began working on this book when Chris-
tine Laurière was cataloging the archives of Paul Rivet, as well as those of