The Invention of Race: Scientific and Popular Representations

320 Pages·2014·2.572 MB·English

by  Nicolas Bancel, Thomas David, Dominic Thomas

The Invention of Race
This edited collection explores the genesis of scientifi c conceptions of race
and their accompanying impact on the taxonomy of human collections
internationally as evidenced in ethnographic museums, world fairs, zoolog-
ical gardens, international colonial exhibitions and ethnic shows. A deep
epistemological change took place in Europe in this domain toward the end
of the eighteenth century, producing new scientifi c representations of race
and thereby triggering a radical transformation in the visual economy relat-
ing to race and racial representation and its inscription in the body. These
practices would play defi ning roles in shaping public consciousness and the
representation of “otherness” in modern societies. The Invention of Race
provides contextualization that is often lacking in contemporary discus-
sions on diversity, multiculturalism and race.
Nicolas Bancel is Professor at the Insititute of Sports Science at the Univer-
sity of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Thomas David is Professor at the Institute of Economic and Social History
at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Dominic Thomas is Madeleine L. Letessier Professor of French and Franco-
phone Studies at the University of California Los Angeles.
Routledge Studies in Cultural History
1 The Politics of Information in 9 Empires and Boundaries
Early Modern Europe Rethinking Race, Class, and
Edited by Brendan Dooley Gender in Colonial Settings
and Sabrina Baron Edited by Harald Fischer-Tiné
and Susanne Gehrmann
2 The Insanity of Place/ The Place
of Insanity 10 Tobacco in Russian History and
Essays on the History of Psychiatry Culture
Andrew Scull From the Seventeenth Century to
the Present
3 Film, History, and Cultural Edited by Matthew P. Romaniello
Citizenship and Tricia Starks
Sites of Production
Edited by Tina Mai Chen 11 History of Islam in German
and David S. Churchill Thought
From Leibniz to Nietzsche
4 Genre and Cinema Ian Almond
Ireland and Transnationalism
Edited by Brian McIlroy 12 Israeli-Palestinian Confl ict in the
Francophone World
5 Histories of Postmodernism Edited by Nathalie Debrauwere-
Edited by Mark Bevir, Jill Hargis, Miller
and Sara Rushing
13 History of Participatory Media
6 Africa after Modernism Politics and Publics, 1750–2000
Transitions in Literature, Media, Edited by Anders Ekström Solveig
and Philosophy Jülich, Frans Lundgren
Michael Janis and Per Wisselgren
7 Rethinking Race, Politics, and 14 Living in the City
Poetics Urban Institutions in the Low
C. L. R. James’ Critique of Modernity Countries, 1200–2010
Brett St Louis Leo Lucassen and Wim Willems
8 Making British Culture 15 Historical Disasters in Context
English Readers and the Scottish Science, Religion, and Politics
Enlightenment, 1740–1830 Edited by Andrea Janku, Gerrit J.
David Allan Schenk and Franz Mauelshagen
16 Migration, Ethnicity, and 24 Critical Perspectives on
Mental Health Colonialism
International Perspectives, Writing the Empire from Below
1840–2010 Edited by Fiona Paisley
Edited by Angela McCarthy and Kirsty Reid
and Catharine Coleborne
25 Old World Empires
17 Politics of Memory Cultures of Power and
Making Slavery Visible in the Governance in Eurasia
Public Space Ilhan Niaz
Edited by Ana Lucia Araujo
26 The Afterlife of Used Things
18 Neutrality in Twentieth-Century Recycling in the Long Eighteenth
Europe Century
Intersections of Science, Culture, Edited by Ariane Fennetaux,
and Politics after the First World Amélie Junqua and Sophie Vasset
War
Edited by Rebecka Lettevall, 27 Holocaust Consciousness in
Geert Somsen, and Sven Widmalm Contemporary Britain
Andy Pearce
19 Americans Experience Russia
Encountering the Enigma, 1917 to 28 The Invention of Race
the Present Scientifi c and Popular
Edited by Choi Chatterjee Representations
and Beth Holmgren Edited by Nicolas Bancel, Thomas
David, and Dominic Thomas
20 A Social History of Disability in
the Middle Ages
Cultural Considerations of
Physical Impairment
Irina Metzler
21 Race, Science, and the Nation
Reconstructing the Ancient Past in
Britain, France and Germany
Chris Manias
22 Identity, Aesthetics, and Sound
in the Fin de Siècle
Redesigning Perception
Dariusz Gafi jczuk
23 Disease and Crime
A History of Social Pathologies
and the New Politics of Health
Edited by Robert Peckham
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The Invention of Race
Scientifi c and Popular Representations
Edited by Nicolas Bancel, Thomas David,
and Dominic Thomas
I Routledge
n Taylor & Francis Group
NNEEWW YYOORRKK LLOONNDDOONN
First published 2014
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The right of Nicolas Bancel, Thomas David and Dominic Thomas to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accord ance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
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registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The invention of race : scientific and popular representations / edited by
Nicolas Bancel, Thomas David, and Dominic Thomas.
pages cm. — (Routledge studies in cultural history ; 28)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Race—Social aspects. 2. Physical anthropology. 3. Popular
culture. I. Bancel, Nicolas. II. David, Thomas. III. Thomas,
Dominic Richard David.
GN269.I58 2014
305.8—dc23
2013050690
ISBN13: 978-0-415-74393-8 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-1-315-81331-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by IBT Global.
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Invention of Race—Scientifi c and Popular
Representations of Race from Linnaeus to the Ethnic Shows 1
NICOLAS BANCEL, THOMAS DAVID, AND DOMINIC THOMAS
PART I
The Genealogy of Race in the Eighteenth Century
1 Biologization of Race and Racialization of the Human:
Bernier, Buff on, Linnaeus 17
THIERRY HOQUET
2 Cranial Varieties in the Human and Orangutan Species 33
MIRIAM CLAUDE MEIJER
3 The Creation of the “Negro” at the Turn of the Nineteenth
Century: Petrus Camper, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, and
Julien-Joseph Virey 48
FRANCESCO PANESE
4 Panel and Sequence: Classifi cations and Associations in
Scientifi c Illustrations of the Human Races (1770–1830) 60
MARTIAL GUÉDRON
5 Christoph Meiners’ “New Science” (1747–1810) 68
BRITTA RUPP-EISENREICH
viii Contents
PART II
The Internationalization and Institutionalization of Racial
Anthropology in the Nineteenth Century
6 Construction and Circulation of the Notion of “Race” in the
Nineteenth Century 87
CAROLE REYNAUD-PALIGOT
7 “We Can’t Help Laughing”: Physical Anthropology in Belgium
and Congo (1882–1914) 100
MAARTEN COUTTENIER
8 Danish Perceptions of Race and Anthropological Science at the
Turn of the Twentieth Century 117
RIKKE ANDREASSEN
9 Discourses of Race in Imperial Russia (1830–1914) 130
VERA TOLZ
10 The Reception of the Idea of Race in East Asia 145
GÉRARD SIARY
11 The Anthropological Society of Tokyo and the Ainu: Racial
Classifi cations, Prehistory and National Identity (1880–1910) 158
ARNAUD NANTA
12 Warfare, Commerce, and Science: Racial Biology in
South Africa 170
PATRICK HARRIES
PART III
The Transcription and Exhibition of Race
13 From Cabinets of Curiosity to the “Hottentot Venus”:
A Long History of Human Zoos 185
GILLES BOËTSCH AND PASCAL BLANCHARD
Contents ix
14 Race, Showmen, Disability, and the Freak Show 195
ROBERT BOGDAN
15 In Sight and Sound with the Other Senses All Around: Racial
Hierarchies at America’s World’s Fairs 209
ROBERT W. RYDELL
16 Human Exhibitions at World’s Fairs: Between Scientifi c
Categorization and Exoticism? The French Colonial Presence
at Midway Plaisance, World’s Columbian Exposition,
Chicago, 1893 222
CATHERINE HODEIR
17 Exhibiting Haiti: Questioning Race at the World’s Columbian
Exposition, 1893 233
CHARLES FORSDICK
18 Races on Exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis Anthropology Days 247
FABRICE DELSAHUT
19 Eskimos in the Museum, Pygmy in a Cage, Social Darwinism
Everywhere 259
HERMAN LEBOVICS
20 Emile Yung and the African Village at the Swiss National
Exhibition in Geneva, 1896 271
PATRICK MINDER
21 Beyond Objectivity: Anthropometric Photography and Visual
Culture 281
CHRISTIAN JOSCHKE
Contributors 291
Index 295