Staged Otherness: Ethnic Shows in Central and Eastern Europe, 1850–1939

Open Access Published by Central European University Press 2021

Staged Otherness

Ethnic Shows in Central and Eastern Europe, 1850–1939

Edited by: Dagnosław Demski and Dominika Czarnecka
Funded by: Opening the Future

https://doi.org/10.1515/9789633864401

Overview
Contents

About this book

The cultural phenomenon of exhibiting non-European people in front of the European audiences in the 19th and 20th century was concentrated in the metropolises in the western part of the continent. Nevertheless, traveling ethnic troupes and temporary exhibitions of non-European humans took place also in territories located to the east of the Oder river and Austria. The contributors to this edited volume present practices of ethnographic shows in Russia, Poland, Czechia, Slovenia, Hungary, Germany, Romania, and Austria and discuss the reactions of local audiences. The essays offer critical arguments to rethink narratives of cultural encounters in the context of ethnic shows. By demonstrating the many ways in which the western models and customs were reshaped, developed, and contested in Central and Eastern European contexts, the authors argue that the dominant way of characterizing these performances as “human zoos” is too narrow.

The contributors had to tackle the difficult task of finding traces other than faint copies of official press releases by the tour organizers. The original source material was drawn from local archives, museums, and newspapers of the discussed period. A unique feature of the volume is the rich amount of images that complement every single case study of ethnic shows.

Author / Editor information

Demski Dagnosław :

Dagnosław Demski is an associate professor at the Centre for Ethnology and Contemporary Anthropology at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

Czarnecka Dominika :

Dominika Czarnecka is an assistant professor at the Centre for Ethnology and Contemporary Anthropology at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

Reviews

Stelu Șerban:
"Beyond the book’s ethnically-connoted subject, adjacent topics such as entertainment consumption of the new Central and Eastern European urban elites, or the deconstruction of the pejorative imaginary, or the pejorative Other, through which these new elites were perceived by Western Europe, come to develop it and give it consistency. The volume attracts attention through the variety of case studies brought up, as well as the accuracy of the facts and contexts described." https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1075529

Filip Herza:
"Není radno fantazie imperiálního věku podceňovat, zvlášť s vědomím toho, jakou roli sehrály rasová nenávist a představy o 'míšení plemen' v moderních dějinách střední a východní Evropy. Kniha Staged Otherness Dominiky Czarnecké a Dagnosława Demského ukazuje, že toto téma je možné uchopit kriticky a s přiměřenou vážností."

Carlo A. Cubero:
"This collection questions of power relations between Europe and non-Europeans, the relationship between empire and nation, culture and race, and elaborates on ideas of cultural authenticity and performance. I would suggest that this collection would be of interest to researchers of ethnic shows, museum studies, Eastern European nation building, and postcolonial studies." Link to review: https://www.ceeol.com/search/viewpdf

Andrea Zittlau:

“Staged Otherness makes a valuable contribution to scholarship in the field of ethnic shows. It includes many case studies that have never been at the center of academic attention. Furthermore, the book makes archival material accessible to scholars worldwide and offers critical arguments to rethink narratives of cultural encounters in the context of ethnic shows.”

Robert W. Rydell:

“The authors problematize the very concept of ‘ethnic’ shows, with many of the contributors arguing that the dominant way of characterizing these performances as ‘human zoos’ is too narrow. The book fills in a gap (nearly a tabula rasa) in the scholarly literature about traveling ‘ethnic’ shows across Central Europe. Each author speaks through her/his voice, but the voices are those of a well-schooled choir.”

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
1. Introduction: From Western to Peripheral Voices Dominika Czarnecka and Dagnosław Demski Open Access Download PDF	1
I. European versus Indigenous Agency
2. The Hagenbeck Ethnic Shows: Recruitment, Organization, and Academic and Popular Responses Hilke Thode-Arora Open Access Download PDF	43
3. A Brief History of Staging Somali Ethnographic Performing Troupes in Europe, 1885–1930 Bodhari Warsame Open Access Download PDF	77
4. “Wild Chamacoco” and the Czechs: The Double-Edged Ethnographic Show of Vojtěch Frič, 1908–9 Markéta Křížová Open Access Download PDF	101
5. Why Hidden Ears Matter: On Kalintsov’s Samoyed Exhibition in Vienna, 1882 Evgeny Savitsky Open Access Download PDF	137
II. Performing the Ethnographic Other
6. The (Ethno-)Drama of Exoticism: Ethnic Shows as a Medium Dagnosław Demski Open Access Download PDF	165
7. How Do These “Exotic” Bodies Move? Ethnographic Shows and Constructing Otherness in the Polish-Language Press, 1880–1914 Dominika Czarnecka Open Access Download PDF	201
8. The World of Creation: Press Accounts of Ethnographic Shows in Circus Performances in Upper Silesia Kamila Baraniecka-Olszewska Open Access Download PDF	233
III. Across Local Contexts
9. Racialized Performance and the Construction of Slovene Whiteness: Ethnographic Shows and Circus Acts on the Habsburg Periphery, 1880–1914 Andreja Mesarič Open Access Download PDF	255
10. A Century of Elision? Ethnic Shows in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, 1879–1914 Maria Leskinen Open Access Download PDF	295
11. “When Winter Arrives, the Sinhalese Go Back to Ceylon and Their Elephants Go to Hamburg”: Hagenbeck’s Sinhalese Caravans and Ethnographic Imagery in the Polish Press during the Partition Era Izabela Kopania Open Access Download PDF	329
12. The Call of the Wild: A Sociological Sketch of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in Banat and Transylvania Timea Barabas Open Access Download PDF	367
13. “Staged Otherness” in Saint Petersburg István Sántha Open Access Download PDF	399
Epilogue Open Access Download PDF	433
List of Contributors Open Access Download PDF	439
Index Open Access Download PDF	443

Language: English
Publisher: Central European University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 460
Illustrations
- Coloured Illustrations: 97
Keywords: differences; social history; human zoo; exotic; mass entertainment; modernity; Völkerschauen

eBook

Published: December 22, 2021
ISBN: 9789633864401