Ethnic Expositions in Italy, 1880 to 1940

Guido Abbattista is Professor of Modern History at the University of Trieste. He is a specialist in the cultural history of colonialism, imperialism and human diversity 18th-19th century. He published books on James Mill, Edmund Burke, Lord Bolingbroke, Anquetil-Duperron, abbé Raynal, the European view of China in the Enlightenment and living human ethno-exhibitions 18th-20th century.

Contents

Abbreviations

Narratives about humans on exhibition

Acknowledgments

Editorial note

Introduction

1. Words and things

2. Historiography: Human exhibitions

3. Historiography: The colonial experience

4. Distribution

5. A look at the present

6. Ten years later

PART ONE

I. From the beaches of the Red Sea to the banks of the River Po

II. Exhibitions, colonies, otherness

II.1. A long European story resulting from globalisation

II. 2. The century of exhibitions: A world of shows and the spectacle of the world

III. Turin 1884: ‘A snippet of African life in the heart of European life’

III.1 Arriving in third class, returning in first class: The Italian adventure of six Africans

III. 2. Under the spotlight

III.3. The other side of the coin: Racism with a human face

III.4. The Assabian ‘ruse’: Political controversy and imaginative satirical humour.

PART TWO

IV. Palermo 1892 and Milan 1894

IV.1. Palermo 1892

IV.2. Milan 1894

V. Missionary exhibitions and ethno-exhibitions

V.1. La Civiltà Cattolica and the world of exhibitions

V.2. Nineteenth-century precedents and trends (1858–1906)

V.3. Genoa 1892

V.4. Turin 1898 and further developments in the Fascist era

VI. Show villages

VI.1. General aspects

VI.2. Between the Dinkas and the Wild West Show: Milan, Turin, and elsewhere, 1895–1906

VI.3 Turin 1898 and beyond

VII. Exhibitions and science: From villages to the anatomical theatre

VII.1. The ‘anatomy of the Negro’: Comparatism and racism

VII.2. Anatomical findings and real lives

VII.3. Forms of racism: Spectacular exhibitions, public health, and medical science

VIII. ‘Reverse explorations’ and ‘Geography books in action’: Exhibitions and colonial villages in early twentieth-century Italy

VIII.1. Turin 1902

VIII.2. Milan 1906

IX. From the fiftieth anniversary of Italian national unification to the wars (1911–1914)

IX.1. Turin 1911

IX.2. Genoa 1914

X. Conclusion: Towards empire, racial laws, and the war (1920–1940)

Illustrations

Bibliography