ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes influential representations of Native Americans in Habsburg festival culture centered on Vienna, including outdoor events, indoor masquerades, and staged performances. Most often a smaller part of a larger festival program, the portrayals and embodiments of Native Americans became more complex over time, reflecting growing knowledge and contact. However, old stereotypes were still repeated, especially when they could serve to entice and marvel audiences and convey Habsburg political dominance. In this way, theater and festival designers were not afraid of embellishing the Native American figures they created with large doses of imagination. However, this imagination was still grounded in early modern visual sources, predominantly illustrated travel reports and costume books.
