Carl Hagenbeck´s human exhibitions and whiteness (1880-1881) in Europe
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22380/2422118X.2501Keywords:
blancura, colonialismo, cuerpos, exhibiciones humanasAbstract
In the nineteenth century, paying to see living foreign people perform was a popular phenomenon in Europe. Paradoxically, few traces of these exhibitions remain today. However, they created a lasting legacy by shaping public attitudes toward ethnic differences. I will analyze the diary of Abraham Ulrikab who left the only source produced by one of the persons exhibited. By doing this, I laid bare how whiteness was built on a set of cultural practices, that have been unnamed but that nonetheless are part of a process of domination. Bodies conveyed meanings that were devised from an invisible position, a zero-point, a marker, against which difference was measured. Hence, the bodies were part of long duration phenomenon that started in London during the XVII century and was expanded outwards. The body was targeted not only for being the most intimate space but also the signified through which domination was completed.
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