Capturing the World: Exhibition Trophies, Ethnography, and Displays of Imperial Power

IF 0.7 1区 历史学 Q1 HISTORY
Amy Woodson-Boulton
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Exhibition trophies have become invisible to most people reading about and looking at images of the great world’s fairs. This is not surprising; trophies have fallen out of our awareness because they, and the criticisms they provoked, have received surprisingly little scholarly attention. This article reveals not only this largely overlooked form, but also just how much cultural work they were doing and why so many people found them disturbing. Exhibition trophies became a solution to the nineteenth-century design problem of representing progress, imperial power, extractive superabundance, control of the natural world, and industrial capacity. Nineteenth-century exhibitors and collectors made trophies out of a wide array of commodities, animals, raw materials, manufactured goods, weapons, and “primitive” objects. But by carrying with them ancient connotations of high-minded victory and violence, exhibition trophies also inspired criticisms that got to the heart of modern forms of conquest. Divisive in the middle of the nineteenth century, trophies were ubiquitous by the turn of the twentieth. Meanwhile a new, rival way of displaying imperial power emerged that challenged ethnographic trophies in particular: the new science of anthropology. This article begins to recover this lost form and its implications—from disquiet to the acceptance of abundance (even overabundance) as a collective goal.

《夺取世界:展览奖杯、民族志和帝国权力的展示》
大多数阅读和观看世界博览会图片的人已经看不见展览奖杯了。这并不奇怪;奖杯已经从我们的意识中消失了,因为它们以及它们所引发的批评,几乎没有得到学术界的关注。这篇文章不仅揭示了这种在很大程度上被忽视的形式,还揭示了他们做了多少文化工作,以及为什么这么多人觉得他们令人不安。展览奖杯成为19世纪象征进步、皇权、开采过剩、控制自然世界和工业能力的设计问题的解决方案。19世纪的参展商和收藏家用各种各样的商品、动物、原材料、制成品、武器和“原始”物品制作奖杯。但是,由于带有高尚的胜利和暴力的古老内涵,展览奖杯也引发了批评,这些批评直指现代征服形式的核心。奖杯在19世纪中期还存在分歧,但到了20世纪初已经无处不在。与此同时,一种新的、与之竞争的展示皇权的方式出现了,它特别挑战了民族志的战利品:新科学人类学。本文开始恢复这种失落的形式及其含义——从不安到接受富足(甚至是过剩)作为一个集体目标。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.90
自引率
10.00%
发文量
163
期刊介绍: The official publication of the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS), the Journal of British Studies, has positioned itself as the critical resource for scholars of British culture from the Middle Ages through the present. Drawing on both established and emerging approaches, JBS presents scholarly articles and books reviews from renowned international authors who share their ideas on British society, politics, law, economics, and the arts. In 2005 (Vol. 44), the journal merged with the NACBS publication Albion, creating one journal for NACBS membership. The NACBS also sponsors an annual conference , as well as several academic prizes, graduate fellowships, and undergraduate essay contests .
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