Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book seeks to change that by discussing the pedagogical and aesthetic stakes involved in representing racial differences and cultural history through mannequins. It discusses the complicated issues at stake when museums attempt to present race and cultural differences to their audiences. In some museum exhibitions, mannequins’ hyper-realistic features support the authority of the museum through the appearance of objective authenticity. In other exhibitions, mannequins function as human placeholders without articulated features that would suggest race or nationality. The museum professionals at the annual meeting seized the retail opportunity to create a moment for conversation and ultimately, intervention. The book examines the function of the earnest museum that presents an Afrocentric Black history that is revelatory for most visitors. It explores origins of mannequin life groups in the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian and also considers the contemporary contexts that they inhabit.