A tribute to Western domination? The Anthropology Days at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics
Type de matériel :
95
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, widely known as the St. Louis World’s Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, United States, in 1904. The Fair hosted the third Olympic Games of the modern era, along with the 1904 “Anthropology Days.” These “sporting” encounters saw different ethnic groups of “savages” being pitted against each other. This involved measuring their athletic performance and then comparing it to that of white athletes. This work hypothesizes that this competition aimed to promote the superiority of the “white race” in this sporting field. This demonstration of physical prowess went hand in hand with the display of the West’s economic and technological power at the Exhibition: it was a question of establishing the racial and civilizational boundaries between the “white race” and the other peoples of the world, ideas which the press then relayed to the public.
Réseaux sociaux