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"Wild Chamacoco" and the Czechs: The Double-Edged Ethnographic Show of Vojtěch Frič, 1908-9

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2021

Abstract

The chapter presents a case study of ethnographic shows that mostly took place in Prague, but also in Vienna and Venice, and in many small cities and towns throughout the Czech lands (defined below) in 1908 and 1909. Traveler and amateur anthropologist Vojtěch Frič brought from South America a "savage" who engaged in formal and informal interactions with the public.

To understand the story of Frič and "his Indian" it is necessary to approach it within the broader context of the nationalist clashes and competitions in the Czech lands and the early phase of the collecting, measuring, classifying, picturing, narrating, and parading of non-European Others by members of a small nation at the center of Europe that lacked colonies but still cherished colonial fantasies and aspirations