Complicity of the Orient: Anthropological Expositions and their Memories from the late 19th Century

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25884071
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Cultural anthropology
• Research Institution: Miyagi University (2014); Waseda University (2013)
• Principal Investigator: YAMAMOTO Mayumi 宮城大学, 共通教育センター, 准教授 (60709400)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-08-30 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 歴史文化人類学 / ポスト・コロニアル研究 / オリエンタリズム / 文化人類学史 / 比較学説史

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this research was to explore the social and academic background of the 1903 Osaka “Academic Human Pavilion” which Tsuboi Shogoro designed after visiting 1889 Paris Exposition to show the theme of cultural evolution through exhibition of human beings.
The research achievements are twofold: 1) Exhibition documents and Tsuboi’s writings demonstrate he did not follow the popular idea of single trait development of social evolutionism, but developed the idea of cultural diffusionism in order to understand Japanese race. 2) In the exhibition, Javanese people were displayed despite being neither close to Japanese racial traits nor close in terms of colonial politics. Javanese were displayed many exhibitions at that time, raising the question of a “human exhibition industry” in the Netherlands and her colonies, which will be the subject of further study.

Free Research Field

文化人類学