080020 VO Art and Anthropology (2024S)

The reification, classification, hierarchization, commodification, and annihilation of human beings has a long history. In this lecture, we will study the visual and material histories of a science of the human, later called “anthropology.” Well before the use of photographs, artists played a huge role in shaping different depictions of faces and bodies. The representation of “Otherness,” also through textiles and fashion, progressively became a science based on visual evidences that were in fact highly constructed and political. We will put a particular focus on early images and theories, taking examples starting in the 15th century, well before the development of anthropology as a scientific discipline. We will also approach early discourses about “races” (as a historical concept and not a reality), in order to unpack how it was visually constructed. For instance, this theory took a major development in writings such as Immanuel Kant Von den verschiedenen Rassen der Menschen (1777). Early art historians too, while (wrongly) emphasizing the Whiteness of Greek statues, impacted the ways in which white became a predominant color symbolizing progress and democracy. Finally, invited guests, including art historians, historians, and anthropologists, will offer contemporary perspectives on these topics.