Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 372 pages
- Published by: University Of Chicago Press November 2001
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0226983420
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0226983424
-
Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
- Weighs: 1.1 pounds
Product Description
With the rise of imperialism, the centuries-old European tradition of humanist scholarship as the key to understanding the world was jeopardized. Nowhere was this more true than in nineteenth-century Germany. It was there, Andrew Zimmerman argues, that the battle lines of today's "culture wars" were first drawn when anthropology challenged humanism as a basis for human scientific knowledge.
Drawing on sources ranging from scientific papers and government correspondence to photographs, pamphlets, and police reports of "freak shows," Zimmerman demonstrates how German imperialism opened the door to antihumanism. As Germans interacted more frequently with peoples and objects from far-flung cultures, they were forced to reevaluate not just those peoples, but also the construction of German identity itself. Anthropologists successfully argued that their discipline addressed these issues more productively—and more accessibly—than humanistic studies.
Scholars of anthropology, European and intellectual history, museum studies, the history of science, popular culture, and colonial studies will welcome this book.
From the Inside Flap
The rise of imperialism jeopardized the centuries-old European tradition of humanist scholarship as the key to understanding the world. Nowhere was this more true than in nineteenth-century Germany. It was there, Andrew Zimmerman argues, that the battle lines of today's "culture wars" were first drawn when anthropology challenged humanism as a basis for human scientific knowledge.
As Germans interacted more frequently with peoples and objects from far-flung cultures, they were forced to reevaluate not just those peoples, but also the construction of German identity itself. Anthropologists successfully argued that their discipline addressed these issues more productively—and more accessibly—than humanistic studies. Zimmerman draws on sources ranging from scientific papers and government correspondence to photographs, pamphlets, and police reports of "freak shows" to demonstrate how German imperialism opened the door to antihumanism.
Scholars of anthropology, European and intellectual history, museum studies, the history of science, popular culture, and colonial studies will welcome this book.
Reader ReviewsANDREW ZIMMERMAN HAS WRITTEN A MASTERPIECE WHICH SHOULD BE THE JOY OF ALL THOSE WHO ENJOY READING A WELL-RESEARCHED BOOK WHICH IS ALSO WELL WRITTEN WITHOUT ANY JARGON OR OBSCURE LANGUAGE.HE DEMONSTRATES WITH AMPLE EXAMPLES THE INTIMATE CONNECTION BETWEEN GERMAN ETHNOLOGY AND COLONIALISM.HE SHOWS HOW ETHNOLOGISTS LIKE LUSCHAN PROFITED FROM THE COLONIAL SYSTEM BY USING THE NAVY,THE ARMY AND THE COLONIAL SERVICE TO COLLECT ETHNOGRAPHICAL OBJECTS WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN OTHERWISE IMPOSSIBLE TO OBTAIN SUCH AS RELIGIOUS OBJECTS OF RITUAL SIGNIFICANCE.HE ALSO DEMONSTRATES HOW FORCE AND TERROR WERE USED TO PERSUADE INHABITANTS OF COLONIES TO PART WITH OBJECTS THE ETHNOLOGISTS DEEMED NECESSARY FOR THEIR COLLECTION.MANY ETHNOLOGISTS WERE ALSO IN FAVOUR OF USING MILITARY FORCE FOR THE ACQUISITION OF OBJECTS FROM THE COLONIES. ONCE YOU HAVE READ ZIMMERMAN'S BOOK, IT IS DIFFICULT TO ACCEPT THE ASSERTION BY ETHNOLOGISTS THAT THEY ACQUIRED MANY OF THEIR OBJECTS THROUGH PURCHASE OR AS GIFTS.INDEED, SOMETIMES, THE ETHNOLOGISTS STOLE FROM THE COLONIAL SUBJECTS. THIS IS A BOOK ALL THOSE DEALING WITH THE QUESTION OF RESTITUTION OF LOOTED ART OBJECTS SHOULD READ. kWAME OPOKU.
Search for books at
