Von der »Kultur« zur »Rasse« - vom Objekt zum Körper?

Abstract

Wie verlaufen die Argumentationsmuster in Völkerkundemuseen und den Wissenschaften der Völkerkunde sowie der Anthropologie zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts? Das Buch versucht, dieser Frage an zwei Fallbeispielen nachzugehen, indem der theoretische Diskurs der Sammlungs-, Ausstellungs-, Lehr- und Forschungspraxis gegenübergestellt wird. Der identifizierte Wandel von einem »Kultur«- hin zu einem »Rasse«-Begriff sowie der Perspektivenwechsel von Objekten hin zu Körpern wird dabei in einem breiten kolonialen Kontext interpretiert - über ein tradiertes Epochenverständnis hinaus. Dadurch werden Kontinuitäten und Brüche präziser erkennbar als bislang üblich.

The violence of collecting

“…In Germany, the race to collect was fueled by the establishment of multiple major new museums in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth century. These included the Berlin Ethnological Museum (at the time the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde), which was founded in 1873 to house burgeoning collections of objects from all around the world—except Europe (König, 2007; Laukötter, 2007). Although precise numbers are often difficult to come by, at the turn of the twentieth century, the skeletal collection in the Museum für Völkerkunde was estimated at 4,300 registered items (Kunst and Creutz, 2013, 87; Laukötter, 2013, 32–35).…”

“…Other major factors that contributed to the shaping of German colonialism and its legacies were the amalgamation of evolutionary thinking, ideas about race, and the “rediscovery” of Mendelian genetics in 1900. Genetics offered a new structure for establishing and interpreting what were considered to be racial differences, thereby contributing to a growing discourse on identity and difference in biologized terms (Lange in Berner, Hoffmann, and Lange, 2011, 21; Laukötter, 2007, 91; Massin, 1996, 121; Schnalke, 2013, 178).…”

“…The competitive amassing of things, which had begun much earlier in the form of private collecting, and the institutionalization of collections in newly founded museums took place in the context of travel and exploration, whether for scientific, economic, religious, or political purposes. German museums often funded overseas research trips for the purpose of augmenting their collections, while at the same time acquiring materials through gifts from private collectors as well as through purchases from commercial enterprises (Laukötter, 2007, 32–34, 142–50).…”

Umstrittene Sammlungen

“…Als Abhandlungen über die Verbindung von deutscher Kolonialpolitik und ethnographischem Sammeln für deutsche "Völkerkundemuseen" sind zu nennen: Bergner (1996), Briskorn (2000), Gothsch (1983), Laukötter (2007), Penny (2002Penny ( , 2006, Stelzig (2004Stelzig ( , 2006, Zimmerman (2001Zimmerman ( , 2006Zimmerman ( , 2013. Geschrieben wurden einige dieser Werke von Historikern, die weniger den verstehenden Ansatz der Ethnologie anwenden.…”

Visibility matters

“…However, for scientific inquiries, these typological strategies hardly sufficed when new quantitative methodologies and new visual ways of documenting were introduced from the late 19 th century onwards (Hoßfeld, 2005; Laukötter, 2007). The materiality of the very objects of study contributed to these new forms: whereas bones and skulls made up specific objects that could be revisited, transported, stored and traded, studying living humans brought new challenges, but also opportunities.…”