Learn how theatre and globalization have affected each other over the past century, and how to conduct your own research on global theatre histories.
The Exhibitionary Complex
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Del curso dictado por Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)
Theatre and Globalization
53 calificaciones
De la lección
Theatre on the move: Migration, Mobility and Modernization
How we can relate migration and mobility to the dissemination of theatre.
Conoce a los instructores
Christopher BalmeProfessor
Institut für Theaterwissenschaft / Department of Theatre Studies
So, while English actors and
actresses were being eaten by ants, what was happening in the other direction?
What flowed back?
A great deal, in fact.
There was huge interest in the west, in the exotic cultures of Africa, Asia,
and the Pacific.
The display of exotic peoples was nothing new.
And there had been a continual practice going back at least to the discovery of
the New World by Columbus.
In Shakespeare's Tempest, Trinculo reminds us that,
quote: "The English will apparently lay out ten to see a dead Indian."
In these contexts, indigenous performers, if they performed at all and
were not just on show, were framed in a rather indiscriminate gaze of wonderment,
along with dwarfs, fat women, and three-headed calves.
After the middle of the 19th century, however, indigenous and
exotic peoples were positioned in a different discourse.
Not wonder, but scientific inquiry and
colonial politics, framed such performances.
The major locales for displays of race and culture were the continual succession of
World's Fairs and colonial expositions, that dominated European and
North American metropolitan centers well into the 20th century.
They part of what cultural theorist Tony Bennet has
called the "Exhibitionary complex".
It is a complex because non-western performances took many forms.
We find professional Japanese theater troupes,
one of which we will look at in more detail in another module.
Siamese dancers,
and Samoan ethnographic shows, that all toured Europe and the Americas.
I want to look at the Samoans in a bit more detail, because they
represent a special kind of theatrical performance developed in Germany,
known as "Völkerschauen" or "ethnographic shows".
These were highly elaborate displays of mostly non-literate peoples
pioneered by the German zookeeper and animal dealer Carl Hagenbeck.
Hagenbeck's idea was simple.
Rather than just displaying polar bears and
seals in a zoo, why not include some Eskimos as well?
The idea proved so popular.
that between 1875 and 1914, over 300 such tours were organized in Germany alone.
Although they went to many other countries as well.
They were seen by millions of people.
Of these, the Samoans were among the most popular.
Between 1889 and 1911, a total of seven troops toured to Europe and North America.
By 1900, Western Samoa had become a German colony and
Eastern Samoa an American protectorate.
Any troop visiting either Germany or the United States was
therefore a messenger of those countries' colonial policies.
Let us see how this worked in practice.
We're here in an exhibition devoted to, Samoans in Germany as part of the so
called Völkerschauen.
Can you tell me what Völkerschauen were?
>> I would translate the term Völkerschauen as "ethnic shows".
Völkerschauen were a widespread phenomenon of showbiz and business around 1900.
You would find Völkerschauen in the whole Western world.
People of mainly non-European origin were recruited, and
brought to the Western world to perform here in front of paying audiences.
They were asked to show what were considered typical pursuits of
their culture.
>> We're standing next to a picture which says Karl Hagenbeck's Völkerschauen.
Who was Carl Hagenbeck?
>> Völkerschauen traveled mainly from city to city.
They were shown in many different places and
the most important organizers were show people.
One of the most famous ones in Germany is Karl Hagenbeck.
He took the menagerie and the animal trade form his father at a very young age.
And when there was a crisis, a financial crisis in his animal trade,
he was looking for other fields of business.
And it was a family friend according to an anecdote who had the idea that it
would be very nice to have
some non-European people accompany the animals who came to Hamburg,
who came to Europe.
>> Displaying people next to animals sounds to us today
a somewhat ideologically dubious.
Type of entertainment.
Were there no kinds of objections in those days to this kind of entertainment?
>> To my surprise there were very few objections against putting
people on display.
There were some objections concerning the sort of production,
the way people performed.
There were very few missionaries who actually objected to
having put human beings on display.
One of the main reasons to show these ethnic shows in
zoological gardens was the space.
So Karl Hagenbeck had the opportunity,
the possibility to erect large recreated villages.
Sometimes from different parts of the world,
sometimes with elaborate scenery in the background.
He had this idea, an idea quite typical for the time, of a sort of authenticity.
So he would not only show people from a certain area.
He would, also put animals on display.
He would have landscapes erected with topical plants, he would have backdrops,
for example Indian temples, or
the Egyptian pyramids with an ethnic show called "At the Nile".
So it was a very elaborate form of business.
>> We're standing next to a poster which says Zoological Garden,
our new compatriots.
Why were the Samoan performers considered to be the compatriots of the Germans?
>> Well we are in the year 1900, since half a year,
west Samoa has become a German colony after a very bloody civil war,
which is still in the memories of the German side, at least the German side.
And this is the time that the second ethnic show troop
recruited in Samoa by the brothers Marquardt has come to Germany.
Before, if you look at the earlier ethnic show,
most of the advertisement went with the topic of eroticism.
You would have a beautiful woman or several beautiful women who were
advertised, who were at the center of attention.
If you look at this poster, you actually still have this idea.
>> What do we know about the reactions of the German spectators to
these performances and to the performers?
>> Around 1900, people had quite a difficult way of getting.
To know anything about countries which were far away.
You would either be able to read a book or a magazine, or the newspaper.
If you were lucky you would find maybe a wood cut or
a picture, but people were not able to travel as we are today.
We have a lot of newspaper clippings where it is described that
the audiences were thrilled by the Samoans, that they
at least the young men wanted to get in contact with the Samoan ladies.
We have some reports that some young men went to
the show daily and stayed for five hours just to converse
with the Samoan women.
>> Can you tell us something about the political motivation for
these troops, on the part of the Samoans.
>> The shows definitely had a political motivation.
As a number of descendents of high ranking Samoans who
traveled to Germany have told me, many Samoans saw this as a "Malanga".
A Malanga traditionally was a travel, a trip, which a high-ranking chief
with his entourage made to a different place, maybe a different village.
They would be hosted there for a long time and they would reciprocate, for
example, with fine speeches, with music and
dance, all things which are highly valued in Samoan culture.
And we have to be aware that West Samoa was a German colony by then.
So, it would be quite advantageous for
high ranking chiefs to be able to say, I have been to Germany.
I have met with dignitaries of the German society, maybe even with the Emperor, as
two of them actually did.
This would be a definite advantage, coming back to Samoa.
And being able to say that.
>> What would German spectators actually see during these Samoan performances?
>> Well, with all ethnic shows,
invariably of where they came from, we actually find three basic elements:
One is music, one is dance, and one is combat scenes.
And this is a large part of what was shown in the Samoan ethnic shows, as well.
Quite surprisingly, the program did not change at all between 1895 and
1911: climbing a palm and bringing down the coconuts,
boat rides, and an earth oven which would be dug and
where a whole pig would be roasted, free samples would be given to the spectators.
Or, a very favorite topic:
The so-called "Schwimmfest", the "swimming festival",
where in a pond at the venue, maybe in the zoological garden,
the Samoan women and men would ride a boat and afterwards would
sort of play in the water, do somersaults, swim, splash around.
So this was highly attractive, especially for the European males I guess.
>> Clearly, the Germans and
Samoans were following different agendas with these tours.
For the German government, the Samoans were new compatriots, a proud and
warlike race with whom the Germans felt affinities.
For the ordinary spectators, the Samoans were probably more exotic or
even of erotic interest.
An encounter with a wild and savage people.
For the troops, the tours were diplomatic and political missions.
A form of Malanga, or traditional traveling party, to meet,
if possible, the German emperor.
Before they could meet the emperor, however, they stopped off in zoos and
theaters, where they performed songs and war dances, and prepared kava.
Of course, in the Samoan context,
these were unrelated activities that would never appear together.
Here we can use our term,
de-territorialization, to describe such performances.
They are de-contextualized and cater to an exoticized gaze.
Yet for all sides, the extended tours also demonstrated forms of connectivity,
the strengthening of ties between distant peoples.
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