“People with a Human Appearance”: the Papuans of New Guinea at Exhibitions in Moscow and St. Petersburg in December 1910 — April 1911

Abstract

In December 1911, an entrepreneur of Greek origin, Angelo Koufakos, brought to Moscow three Papuans from New Guinea, their names, with some variations, are indicated as Noli, Lakki and Simvay. The Papuans were examined by Professor of Moscow University D. N. Anuchin and other specialists, which also attracted the attention of journalists from various newspapers. From late December 1910 to mid-January 1911, the Papuans were shown in the Moscow cinema “Grand Electro” on Tverskaya Street, and from late February to early April — in St. Petersburg, in the exhibition hall in the Eliseev house on Nevsky Prospect, and then in Cinema “Saturn”. February 4, 1911 one of the Papuans died in Moscow. The revealed publications devoted to these exhibitions, as well as the death of one Papuan, make it possible to reconstruct the circumstances of their recruitment and travel to Russia, the organization of their display to the general public, which is especially important, since such ethnic exhibitions, organized by individual entrepreneurs-adventurers, are much less studied than those that were arranged by large firms that had their own archives. The article examines the question discussed in modern historiography and in the public field, to what extent such exhibitions should be considered as odious “human zoos”, and to what extent — as acceptable and adequate forms of acquaintance with other cultures of that era, including for scientific purposes. Attention is also paid to the ways of representing this exhibition for the Russian public in newspapers and magazines of that time in the specific circumstances of the end of 1910 — beginning of 1911.