L'Invention de la race : représentations scientifiques et populaires de la race, de Linné aux spectacles ethniques

Bancel, Nicolás; David, Thomas; Thomas, Dominic

doi:10.3917/dec.bance.2014.01.0009

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…At the time of the founding of many major natural history museums, museum professionals and scientists sought to collect a variety of specimens and objects, including human remains, animals, and/or ethnographic objects, among their holdings (Bancel et al, 2014; Hallam & Albertie, 2013). The same networks of dealers and private collectors provided specimens of interest to archeological, ethnographic, and natural history collections (Charpy, 2018).…”

Section: Museums Are Not Neutralmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dismantling the diorama: A case study in “unknowable” human remains

Lans

Cuadros

2023

Curator The Museum Journal

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Black Americans have long been disproportionately represented among the victims of state‐sanctioned violence. In response, the Black community has mobilized around movements like Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name. However, the exploitation, objectification, and anonymization of Black bodies persists. In many academic disciplines, Black death and suffering are regularly presented as acceptable research findings. Here, we consider the role objectified Black bodies have played in upholding white supremacy within the context of the museum by piecing together the suspect itinerary of the individual whose skull is contained within Lion Attacking a Dromedary. This diorama, currently housed at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, exemplifies how scientific institutions have perpetuated imperial scientific ideologies in their ongoing exhibitions. By engaging with Black feminism and decolonial frameworks, we present a path forward for such artifacts and consider how museums can truly support the Movement for Black Lives.

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Section: Museums Are Not Neutralmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dismantling the diorama: A case study in “unknowable” human remains

Lans

Cuadros

2023

Curator The Museum Journal

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“…As interrelated systems, freak shows and human zoos are extensions of the microcosm that is the natural history museum (Kérchy & Zittlau, 2012, pp. 3–4; Bancel et al, 2014, p. 2). Animal skins were used in nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century sideshows, dime museums, traveling exhibits, human zoos, and museum exhibits to exaggerate exoticism and further the dehumanization process (Bogdan, 2014, 26; Bogdan et al, 2012, 18; Niittynen, 2020; Taylor, 2017, 108–109).…”

Section: Real and Synthetic Skin The Specimen And The Privilege Of “H...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lions Attacking a Dromedary: The Verreaux brothers, imperial taxidermy, and postmortem bodily rights

Niittynen

2023

Curator The Museum Journal

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Lions Attacking a Dromedary created at Maison Verreaux brings up a larger discussion about representations of racialized bodies (real and synthetic) in the history of museum display. Looking to the history of racialized bodies on display, I outline how taxidermied animals and racialized mannequins oscillate to reinforce continual colonial projects of the present. I show my reader how the construction of a ‘specimen’ is used in the dehumanizing processes that shapes who and what is human: a recognizable being that is (borrowing from Judith Butler) grievable upon death. Since the discovery of real human remains inside the racialized mannequin, the group is now redisplayed at the Carnegie Museum alongside educational insights that seek to ethically interrupt the colonial violence that the display narrates. In order to push this discussion further, I seek direction from decolonial artists and scholars on the best approaches to take in response to postmortem human rights abuses (past and present) and to show the ways that art can be both a destructive and reparative exchange.

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“…Dans ce contexte, les différences raciales sont bien inscrites dans quelques fréquences alléliques, dans quelques gènes, mais tout découpage de l'humanité en groupes discrets relève de l'arbitraire et de la convention (Dobzhansky, 1953 ; Lévi-Strauss, 1971). D'ailleurs, le nombre de races existantes n'a jamais fait l'objet d'un quelconque consensus (Darwin, 1876, p. 232 ; Guillaumin, 1981, p. 57 ; Bessone, 2013, p. 54 ; Michael et Burgos, 2020) et l'idée d'une continuité entre les groupes humains est avancée dès le XVIII e siècle (Panese, 2014). L'obsolescence d'un concept biologique robuste de race est en outre définitivement confirmée par les analyses montrant que les classifications raciales classiques 14 ne rendent compte que de 15% de la diversité génétique humaine (voire de 6,3%) (Lewontin, 1972) 15 et que les allèles qui sont corrélés à des traits traditionnellement étudiés par l'anthropologie physique ne sont pas systématiquement associés dans les prétendues races humaines (Gayon, 2007 ; Livingstone, 1962 ; Loring Brace, 1964 et 2002 ; Andreasen, 2005) 16 .…”

Section: La Race Du Politico-social Au Biologique Et Retourunclassified

“… 10 Buffon est sans doute le naturaliste dont la posture externaliste ou « environnementaliste » concernant la race est la plus célèbre. Son analyse sur ce point est notamment partagée par Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (voir Panese, 2014, p. 67). Par ailleurs, avant le XVIII e siècle, la doctrine médicale humorale va de pair avec l'idée selon laquelle les corps vivants sont poreux et sensibles à leurs conditions d'existence.…”

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Race et biologie à l’ère de l’épigénétique. Naturalisme, environnementalisme, constructivisme

Pontarotti

2023

Dialogue

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RésuméLe concept de race a oscillé dès l'origine entre la sphère politico-sociale et la biologie. Si les perspectives sociales ont été dominantes dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, une nouvelle forme de naturalisation semble émerger à l’ère de l’épigénétique. Dans cet article, je montre que la conception épigénétique de la race rappelle d'anciennes perspectives externalistes et engage à articuler naturalisme, environnementalisme et constructivisme biosocial. Je souligne qu'elle fait apparaître la race comme une propriété relationnelle, plastique et accidentelle, et les groupes raciaux comme des constructions bio-sociales historiquement contingentes.

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L'Invention de la race : représentations scientifiques et populaires de la race, de Linné aux spectacles ethniques

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Dismantling the diorama: A case study in “unknowable” human remains

Dismantling the diorama: A case study in “unknowable” human remains

Lions Attacking a Dromedary: The Verreaux brothers, imperial taxidermy, and postmortem bodily rights

Race et biologie à l’ère de l’épigénétique. Naturalisme, environnementalisme, constructivisme

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