Full Description
World's fairs and industrial expositions constituted a phenomenally successful popular culture movement during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition to the newest technological innovations, each exposition showcased commercial and cultural exhibits, entertainment concessions, national and corporate displays of wealth, and indigenous peoples from the colonial empires of the host country. As scientists claiming specialized knowledge about indigenous peoples, especially American Indians, anthropologists used expositions to promote their quest for professional status and authority. Anthropology Goes to the Fair takes readers through the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition to see how anthropology, as conceptualized by W J McGee, the first president of the American Anthropological Association, showcased itself through programs, static displays, and living exhibits for millions of people "to show each half of the world how the other half lives." More than two thousand Native peoples negotiated and portrayed their own agendas on this world stage. The reader will see how anthropology itself was changed in the process.
Contents
List of Illustrations
AcknowledgmentsSeries Editors' Introduction
Prologue: Setting the Stage for St. Louis
Chapter 1 Organizing the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Chapter 2 WJ McGee and the Science of Man
Chapter 3 Planning the Anthropology Department and Model Indian School
Chapter 4 Assembling the "Races of Mankind"
Chapter 5 Presenting Worthy Indians
Chapter 6 The Model Indian School
Chapter 7 The Philippine Reservation
Chapter 8 The Anthropology Villages
Chapter 9 The Polyglot Pike
Chapter 10 Being a Living Exhibit
Chapter 11 In the Anthropology Building
Chapter 12 Anthropological Performances
Chapter 13 Celebrating the Fair and Going Home
Chapter 14 The Experiences of an Exposition
Epilogue: Passing into History and Moving On
Appendix 1: McGee's Racial Classification SchemesAppendix 2: Native ParticipantsNotesReferences
Index
