Why Study Anthropology?

Abstract

with the intellectual contradictions implicit in physical scientists attempting to comment credibly on the social dimension of their findings means that The Human Story fails to come to life for the visitor. While it represents the latest in scientific thinking amongst the most eminent scholars in their field, the organizers have succeeded neither in transforming this academic knowledge into an 'exhibition' that will hold the attention of the family on a Sunday afternoon, nor in confronting fully the social implications of their 'story'. These two factors, the surface 'exhibit' and the underlying intellectual framework, are crucially interlinked. A forthcoming conference at the British Museum entitled Making Exhibitions of Ourselves promises to explore the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of such exhibition-making in ways that will be of considerable interest to anthropologists and which might throw helpful light on the problems faced by the particular exhibition under discussion here. Against such a background, it is difficult to give much credence to the claims of this exhibition to combat racism and to overturn the nineteenth century stereotypes and assumptions regarding race and evolution that still play a major part in the socialization processes of this society. If they are to mount much of a challenge to dominant ideology, exhibitions such as this will need to learn something from the ways in which the everyday images that reinforce these stereotypes, such as those in advertising, are capable both of holding immediate attention and of striking deep resonances with underlying preconceptions and ideology. The latest Guinness advert, for instance, appearing on large hoardings throughout British cities, depicts a supposed evolutionary development from short, dark apes to a tall, white beer-drinking male: whatever irony its producers may claim, it still feeds on, and helps reinforce, the assumption that the highest point of evolution is the white man. How often, in fact, does one see non-white women at the apex of evolutionary construction? (Indeed, the picture used for The Human Story has been criticized on similar grounds over the face of an anthropoid ancestor is depicted, in the form of a mask, the visage of a white man.). Against the power and pervasiveness of the everyday signs and symbols of race, social evolution and white supremacy, embedded in advertising, popular literature, and in schooling, even a striking exhibition on the theme of The Human Story would have to struggle to make an impact. Given the constraints of its production, both practical and intellectual, and the lack of imagination in its presentation, this particular exhibition is unlikely to do much to shift popular preconceptions, to challenge racial stereotypes or to help us anticipate our future.