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Rastafari Speaks Archive 1

exhibitions of non'whites' in the 'white' world *LINK*

The tradition of exhibiting people of color in Western societies has existed since the earliest encounters between Europeans and indigenous populations in the New World and in Africa. Indeed, on his return to Spain after his first voyage to the New World in 1492, Columbus brought several Arawaks to Queen Isabella's court, where one of them remained on display for two years. Exhibiting non-white bodies as a popular practice reached its apogee in the nineteenth century in both Europe and in USA when freak shows--the exhibition of native peoples for public entertainment in circuses, zoos, and museums--became fairly common. In USA, in particular, the spectacle of "freaks," "natives," and "savages" became a profitable industry at this time, as epitomized in popular traveling shows like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and Barnum and Bailey's Circus. World Expositions were also popular for the display of native bodies. During the expositions "natives" performed various ceremonies, rites, dances, and otherwise went about their (supposed) daily routines (even though they were on the exposition grounds). In other words, cultural "others" were employed to perform their "cultural otherness" for an Anglo-American and European audience. Up to the mid-twentieth century displays of this sort continued.

Live exhibitions were not the only forms of human spectacle; often the dissected and embalmed remains of the "native" body, particularly the skulls, and sexual organs, were also publicly exhibited. Trophy heads, body parts, and other skeletal remains still reside in the collections of many Western museums, like The British Museum and La Musée de l'Homme, France. As recently as 1997, a small natural history museum just outside of Barcelona finally removed a stuffed Bushman from its permanent display cases, after sustained international pressure to do so. The incident strongly suggests that European fascination with exhibiting non-white bodies is not a phenomenon of the distant past.

Messages In This Thread

uk tv exposes rap
Re: uk tv exposes rap
Re: uk tv exposes rap
Not many hip-hop artists now..mostly rappers *NM*
Hip-Hop vs. Rap
"the debt" and "the reckoning" *LINK*
UK: hottentot venus, big butts, and fashion *LINK*
"Hottentot Venus" *NM* *LINK*
Saarjite Baartman/ The Hottentot Venus
Still goes on today
Re: Still goes on today
"Hottentot Venus" and pagan Goddess-worshipping *LINK*
artist are not concentrated on the maternal *NM*
illict immoral images VS censorship
i like big butts---sir mix a lot
VS... i wish i had a big butt *LINK*
Re: VS... i wish i had a big butt
exhibitions of non'whites' in the 'white' world *LINK*
it's more rick james----super freaking
all that is good is nasty *NM* *LINK*
Re: uk tv exposes rap
Re: uk tv exposes rap
hip hop is just reality


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