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Professional savages : captive lives and western spectacle  Cover Image Book Book

Professional savages : captive lives and western spectacle

Poignant, Roslyn. (Author).

Summary: "In August 1882 the circus impresario P. T. Barnum wrote to American consulates and agents around the world for assistance in assembling a collection 'of all the uncivilized races in existence'. Within months the showman and self-declared man-hunter R. A. Cunningham, already in Australia, had 'recruited' a group of North Queensland Aborigines and shipped them to San Francisco." "In this narrative, Roslyn Poignant pieces together the experience of two groups of reluctant travellers. Exhibited in circuses, dime museums, fairgrounds and other show places in America and Europe, they were also examined, measured and photographed by anthropologists. Displayed as cannibals and brutish specimens on the metropolitan exhibition circuit - Crystal Palace in London, the Folies-Bergere in Paris, Berlin's Panopitkum, St. Petersburg's Arcadia, the imperial court in Constantinople, the World's Fair in Chicago and Coney Island, New York - they transformed themselves into accomplished show people and professional savages." "Thrust into the harsh world of commercial spectacle, the survival of the Aboriginal performers depended on the strengths they drew from their own culture and their individual adaptability. Few ever returned to Australia. Most died somewhere on tour. A century later, in October 1993, the mummified body of Tambo, the first to die, was discovered in the basement of a recently closed funeral home in Cleveland, Ohio. Tambo's posthumous repatriation stimulated a cultural renewal within the community from which he came and exposed the roots of present social and economic injustices experienced by Indigenous Australians."--BOOK JACKET.

Record details

  • ISBN: 030010247X (cl. : alk. paper)
  • ISBN: 9780300102475 (cl. : alk. paper)
  • Physical Description: print
    xv, 302 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
  • Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, c2004.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note: Includes bibliographical references (p. [278]-293) and index.
Formatted Contents Note: Introduction : the journey -- 1. Meet the travellers -- 2. 'Now enough' -- 3. Colonial circuits -- 4. American spectacle : 'attractions of wonder' -- 5. European spectacle -- 6. Palaces of illusion and scientific discipline -- 7. 'Rare strangers' -- 8. To Constantinople and back -- 9. Absent presence : 'Billy -- Australien' at the Paris Exposition, 1889 -- 10. King Bill and company : the story of the second group -- 11. Welcome home Tambo.
Subject: Aboriginal Australians in popular culture History 19th century
Aboriginal Australians Public opinion
Circus History 19th century
Barnum and Bailey History
Racism in museum exhibits History 19th century
Racism in anthropology History 19th century
Museum exhibits Moral and ethical aspects
Human remains (Archaeology) Repatriation Australia
United States Public opinion
Europe Public opinion
Human remains (Archaeology) Repatriation
Popular culture
Public opinion
Racism in anthropology
Racism in museum exhibits
Australia
Europe
United States
Genre: History.

Available copies

  • 1 of 1 copy available at Northwest Indian College.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
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Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Lummi Library GN 666 .P65 2004 283541 Stacks Available -

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