- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226222677
- eISBN:
- 9780226222691
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226222691.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, European Cultural Anthropology
This chapter investigates the major anthropological project of the war years: the study of foreign soldiers in German prisoner-of-war (POW) camps. The particular setting of the POW camps combined ...
More
This chapter investigates the major anthropological project of the war years: the study of foreign soldiers in German prisoner-of-war (POW) camps. The particular setting of the POW camps combined with the increasingly nationalist directions of the scientists working there to facilitate the racialization of the enemy, particularly the European foes of the Central Powers. As anthropologists in the camps implicitly carved out a specialized racial space for Germans in central Europe, they also blurred the distinctions between the liberal categories of race, nation, and Volk.Less
This chapter investigates the major anthropological project of the war years: the study of foreign soldiers in German prisoner-of-war (POW) camps. The particular setting of the POW camps combined with the increasingly nationalist directions of the scientists working there to facilitate the racialization of the enemy, particularly the European foes of the Central Powers. As anthropologists in the camps implicitly carved out a specialized racial space for Germans in central Europe, they also blurred the distinctions between the liberal categories of race, nation, and Volk.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226222677
- eISBN:
- 9780226222691
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226222691.003.0006
- Subject:
- Anthropology, European Cultural Anthropology
This chapter uses the methods of cultural history to analyze the photography of prisoners of war (POWs) as a further means of examining how anthropologists constructed the racial and colonial “other” ...
More
This chapter uses the methods of cultural history to analyze the photography of prisoners of war (POWs) as a further means of examining how anthropologists constructed the racial and colonial “other” in the context of war. In the camps, anthropologists went to great lengths to capture (and thus define) the racial makeup of the prisoners through the camera lens, producing in the process a series of propagandized images that not only racialized the enemy, but also emphasized the supposed power and cohesion of the Central Powers and Germany.Less
This chapter uses the methods of cultural history to analyze the photography of prisoners of war (POWs) as a further means of examining how anthropologists constructed the racial and colonial “other” in the context of war. In the camps, anthropologists went to great lengths to capture (and thus define) the racial makeup of the prisoners through the camera lens, producing in the process a series of propagandized images that not only racialized the enemy, but also emphasized the supposed power and cohesion of the Central Powers and Germany.
