Contribution short abstract:

Within Indianthusiasm-research, I use language and symbolism connected to differing German representations of North American Indigenous people–those depicted under the auspices of the I-word–to begin to plot a visual field of Indianthusiasm while hypothesizing future uses of the I-word in Germany

Contribution long abstract:

The topic of my dissertation project centers around everyday expressions of what Harmut Lutz calls ‘Indianthusiasm’. This refers to a fascination for 'Indianer' – not necessarily real Indigenous North Americans, but rather images, character traits and iconography of stereotypes stemming primarily from fictional narratives which portray 'Indianer' as historically static, racialized, and culturally uniform. Although different facets of Indianthusiasm are found throughout Europe, I focus in on German Indianthusiasm.

In multiple sites and with various actors, I approach diverse and specialized, but also very common, manifestations of these differing fascinations through ethnographic fieldwork. Both factual portrayals and stereotypical visual representations of North American Indigenous people have emerged as one critical aspect in my analysis. The images, but also the language describing them, build community and solidarity in certain groups and generate uncommoning effects, conflict, and political activism among other groups. Certain images are used (or rejected) to reclaim autonomy and generate public awareness, while others are employed in a symbolic way, co-opting the image to make a point about other, often emotionally and politically-charged topics.

In this presentation, I reflect on 'Indianer' imagery encountered throughout my research. I discuss the imagined communities (Anderson) that make use of these images and the strategic language used in combination with them. In doing so, I sketch out a visual field of Indianthusiasm in Germany and begin to hypothesize about the future use of the ‘I-word’ and connected representations among contrasting groups in Germany.