Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial GermanyUniversity of Chicago Press, 2010 M02 15 - 372 pages 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. |
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Adalbert Falk Adolf Bastian Africa allowed Ankermann anthro anthropol anthropologists artifacts Berlin Anthropological Society Berlin museum Berliner Gesellschaft Bismarck blond Cambridge CBDAG collection craniometry culture-historical method Cultusministerium curators Darwinism Deutschen Dietrich Reimer discipline display Emil Stephan Ethnologie und Urgeschichte European expedition Felix von Luschan fieldwork Friedrich Friedrich Ratzel Fritsch Fritz Graebner Frobenius German Anthropological Society German anthropology Geschichte Graebner GStA PK Gustav Gustav Fritsch hair Herero Hermann Hermann Schaaffhausen historians human sciences humanist Imperial individuals Jews Kaiser knowledge Krämer Leo Frobenius measurements minister of culture museum of ethnology narrative natural science natural scientific navy nineteenth century NL Virchow non-European panopticons photographs political pological pologists popular prehistoric presented Prussian race racial Ratzel relation Royal Museum Rudolf Virchow Schaaffhausen Schlaginhaufen scientists seum skull social Source Steinen Steinthal tion University Press VBGAEU Völkerkunde Wilhelm Zeitschrift
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