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Paper short abstract:

This paper retraces the journey of a group of Botocudos, presented in National Museum of Rio de Janeiro in 1882 and later in England and the U.S.A., aiming to analyze the transformation of narratives and representations between the Museum's official exhibition and its London and American versions

Paper long abstract:

In 1883 five Brazilian Botocudos Indians were exhibited at Piccadilly Hall, London's popular theater. This exhibition tried to replicate in Europe the success achieved by the display of seven Botocudos promoted the year before by the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, within the framework of the Brazilian Anthropological Exhibition. This paper presents the circumstances under which the exhibitions took place in England, promoted by two Brazilian businessmen. The Botocudos were measured and studied by scientists from the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and performed daily on a tour through the British cities of London, Sheffield and Manchester until they were sold to famous circus and freak show entrepreneur P. T. Barnum, composing the American tour of the "Ethnological Congress" of Circus Bailey and Barnum. The research emphasizes the ambivalent trajectory between science and spectacle in these three different versions and formats of exhibitions. This paper was developed as part of recently defended doctoral research. Employing as central theme the analysis of the circulation of people, objects and narratives between the fields of museums and human zoos, this research builds a map that spans both scientific and popular entertainment fields, seeking to understand the strategies used to construct exoticism: the primitivist figurations that distinguish the exotic market.