From Samoa With Love?: Retracing the Footsteps [Hardcover]

V?lkerschauen,or human ethnological displays, promised to take visitors around the world for fifty pennies, providing a form of popular entertainment in late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century Germany while also satisfying deepening European curiosities about exotic peoples and places. For the Samoansmany of high social statuswho traveled to Germany to take part inv?lkerschauen, the displays were seen as an opportunity to establish political ties with the colonial power.

From Samoa With Love?traces the history of these displays of typically Samoan forms of music, dance, and weapons performance that could be found in amusement parks, zoos, and even at Oktoberfest.? Recovering both German and Samoan interests inv?lkerschauenbetween 1895 and 1911,the book looks at how these Samoan ethnological displays shaped the ways German people saw foreign cultures. Echoes ofv?lkerschauen,for instance, came to be seen in many works of art of the period, from Ludwig Kirchners woodcutRowing Samoan Womanto Erich HeckelsSamoan Dance, paintings and prints by the Samoan-descended artist Michel Tuffery, and works by artists of the Dresden-based collective Die Br?cke. Featuring interviews with descendants of formerv?lkerschauenperformers, the detailed reconstruction inFrom Samoa With Love?goes well beyond clich?s to present a nuanced picture of the phenomena of Samoan ethnological displays.

Hilke Thode-Arorais an ethnologist at the State Museum for Ethnology in Munich, where she specializes in Samoan history and culture.

A Word of Welcome
His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi
 
A Word of Welcome
His Royal Highness Franz Duke of Bavaria
 
Preface
Christine Kron
 
Introduction
Hilke Thode-Arora
 
Fa'a Samoa -- Samoan culture
Galumalemana A. Hunkin