When Science meets Spectacle: The Development of the ‘Other’ and Enlightenment Exploitation

In a broad sense, the scientific revolution and enlightenment age can be interpreted as an effort by man to dominate and understand the world at large. Abandoning traditional reliance on blind faith and the divine, Europeans began to formulate what they perceived to be absolute truths regarding nature by means of exploration, investigation, and classification.   

While for centuries leading up to the Enlightenment period religion had been used as a platform to justify slavery and the mistreatment of people; the Enlightenment’s emphasis on science and deduction over divine reason did not accompany an abandonment of these exploitative practices. Instead, during the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans often used scientific principles and thought to justify and make common the widespread mistreatment and imperialization of native peoples, as seen in the accounts of 19th century explorers such as James Cook.

What was the development during the Enlightenment era that allowed Europeans to view and treat those of other ethnicity as intrinsically inferior or “other?” How was it that during this period in history one can observe the emergence of modern concepts of race and inferiority? In my essay, I answer these questions and more through an investigation of the role of spectacle during the Enlightenment period. In it, I argue that spectacle above all contributed to the manifestation of the conceptual “other” in 18th and 19th century Europe - a development that I believe had a significant impact on the creation of modern day racism and hate.  

What form did the "other" take in European Society? How did spectacle manifest itself?  

    -By Enquirer Job Printing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

• Promotional poster circa 1899 for a "Wild West" burlesque show 
• While this material is from the turn of the 20th century, it is still pertinent to my topic regarding the Enlightenment age. The Native American population had already been significantly decimated, to many in the Americas and Europe alike these people were merely an idea. In this example, the Native American "other" is sexualized and eroticized to suit the desires and urges of white spectators. Stigmas such as these regarding sexuality were generally produced regarding natives during Enlightenment era exploration

• In the wake of the scientific revolution, seemingly objective and methodical processes were used to make wide-sweeping judgments regarding the origin, status, and capabilities of entire racial groups
• This image is representative of the Enlightenment theme of classification. Enlightenment scholars and explorers were intent to classify and categorize the world around them, and used these methods to come to conclusions regarding the inferiority of certain races
• This image implies that the black male seen on the early half of this alleged evolutionary scale is somehow less evolved and less sophisticated than the man seen to the far right

n·  This is an image circa 1889 of a European man posing next to a group of natives from Southern Chile. They had just recently landed in Paris for a world exhibition, an event which was essentially a human zoo

  ·  The businessman in the picture has the stone cold demeanor of a lion tamer or zoo keeper. His European appearance stands in stark contrast to the native attire of the individuals on display next to him 
  · Most Europeans who attended these world fairs and exhibitions had never left Europe, and because of this their only concept of natives was that of an inferior “other” with whom they had little to nothing in common