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.

About the Author
Dagnoslaw 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. 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
"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 -- Carlo A. Cubero * Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore *
"Neni radno fantazie imperialniho veku podcenovat, zvlast s vedomim toho, jakou roli sehraly rasova nenavist a predstavy o 'miseni plemen' v modernich dejinach stredni a vychodni Evropy. Kniha Staged Otherness Dominiky Czarnecke a Dagnoslawa Demskeho ukazuje, ze toto tema je mozne uchopit kriticky a s primerenou vaznosti." -- Filip Herza * Dejiny - Teorie - Kritika *
"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 -- Stelu Serban * Martor *



Book Information
ISBN 9789633864395
Author Dagnoslaw Demski
Format Hardback
Page Count 460
Imprint Central European University Press
Publisher Central European University Press
Weight(grams) 350g