Cultural and racial anthropology in stone. Photographic recording of ancient Egyptian representations of humans and the ethnohistorical cartography of the ancient world in the 19th and early 20th centuries
History of Science
Final Report Abstract
Publications in the field of so-called race sciences from the 19th and early 20th centuries contain a surprisingly high proportion of illustrations of ancient art. The depicted objects originated from diverse historical and cultural contexts—such as Greek statues of gods and heroes, Roman portrait busts, and temple reliefs and wall paintings from Egypt and the ancient Near East—and were interpreted in various ways. Some were viewed as representations of ideal ‘racial beauty,’ while others were believed to provide insights into the physical appearance of key historical subjects. I refer to the racial-scientific interpretation of ancient art as ‘anthropological reading.’ This approach was based on the assumption that visible physical differences among groups could be understood as intended representations of different so-called peoples or races, allowing for insights into past anthropological conditions. It seemed feasible not only to classify collective historical subjects (‘peoples’ or ‘nations’) anthropologically but also to demonstrate the constancy of so-called racial types over time, thereby substantiating the concept of ‘race.’ The research project was based on new approaches to the history of ideas, the history of science, and the humanities, aiming to elucidate the origins, foundations, and guiding premises of anthropological reading. It became clear that this method was an interdisciplinary approach, as established in art and ancient studies in the 19th and 20th centuries as it was in racial science. The investigation began with a reconstruction of two photographic expeditions to Egypt, which explicitly aimed at the photographic recording of ancient Egyptian representations of humans to gather material suitable for anthropological reading. The resulting photographs played a central role in constructing and validating ethno- and bio-historical narratives about the history of the ancient Mediterranean and the ancient Near East. Their prominent use in debates regarding the origin and anthropological affiliation of modern populations also attests to their direct socio-political relevance. In the next phase, the epistemic foundations and mediahistorical conditions of this procedure were analyzed. The persuasive power of anthropological reading fundamentally relied on aesthetic premises and art historical narratives that can be traced back to European classicism, as well as on the role of illustrations as visual evidence, which have undergone constant transformation since the late 18th century due to the rapid development of reproduction techniques.
Publications
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Zwischen Mimesis und Typus. Die rassenanthropologische Lektüre altägyptischer Menschendarstellungen im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 43(1), 28-47.
Wiedemann, Felix
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Visual anthropology. The „Expedition to Study Foreign Peoples” of 192/13 and the Photographic Recording of Human Figures from Ancient Egyptian Monuments, in: Gisela Parak/Elke Bauer (Hrsg.), The Empirical Gaze. Interpretations of Scientific Expedition Photography, Halle 2021, S. 146-153.
Wiedemann, Felix
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Visuelle Anthropologie. Die „Fremdvölkerexpedition“ von 1912/13 und die fotografische Erfassung altägyptischer Menschendarstellungen, in: Gisela Parak/Elke Bauer (Hrsg.), Die Empirik des Blicks. Bedeutungszuweisungen wissenschaftlicher Expeditionsfotografie, Halle, S. 134-145.
Wiedemann, Felix
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Rassenbilder aus der Vergangenheit. Wallstein Verlag.
Wiedemann, Felix
