“Where are the Botocudos?” Anthropological displays and the entanglements of staring, 1882-1883

Abstract This article proposes an entangled perspective on nineteenth-century anthropological exhibitions. Whereas the existing scholarship mostly focuses on the receiving end of such displays or the agency of indigenous performers, this article argues for more stopovers and contextualization to grasp both the ambiguous position of non-metropolitan exhibitors like Brazil and the semantic transformations of traveling exhibits. In 1882, a group of Botocudo Amerindians was first taken to Rio de Janeiro and later put on display in Britain. Their presence in Rio sparked great interest, with lasting effects on the popular entertainment scene. Yet staring at them became a contested issue once they were taken to Europe, since Brazilians were concerned about becoming an object of Europe’s exoticizing voyeurism.

摘要 本文针对19世纪人类学展览提出一种互嵌式研究视角。既有学术成果大多聚焦于此类展览的接收端，或是原住民表演者的主体性，本文则主张通过增设更多中间驻留场景与语境化分析，以把握巴西等非都会参展主体的模糊定位，以及巡回展览的语义流变。1882年，一支博托库多美洲印第安人（Botocudo Amerindians）族群先被带至里约热内卢，随后赴英国展出。他们在里约的亮相引发了广泛关注，并对当地大众娱乐场景产生了持久影响。然而当他们被运往欧洲后，对其围观便成为一项争议性议题，原因在于巴西方面担忧自身沦为欧洲异国情调化窥看的对象。