Die anthropologische Konstitution von ‘Rasse’ und ‘Geschlecht’ um 1900

Abstract.

Drawing upon the perspective of poststructuralist feminist science studies, this paper examines the ‘productivity’ of German physical anthropology around 1900. The scientific discourse of anthropology is characterised by highly heterogeneous knowledge production under conditions of ‘mechanical objectivity’ [Daston/Galison, 2002]. It manifests a strong drive toward visual representations.

Methodologically grounded in Foucault, Derrida, and Butler, physical anthropology at the turn of the century can be understood as oscillating between the production and the deconstruction of the categories of ‘race’ and ‘sex’. A close reading of one exemplary visualisation – the skull reconstruction of Kollmann and Büchly (1898) – extends the insights of Rheinberger on the productivity of experimental systems.