Frozen in Time. Teaching Imperialism through Lead Toys in Interwar America
Abstract
The author argues that, in the early 1920s, many urban White Americans saw in the Arctic an escape from a world of rapidly expanding technology and became captivated by images of Inuit communities. To pass down an antimodernist form of imperialism to children of the period, educators used lead ethnographic "Escimo" figurines, which rendered Inuit communities as relics of the past. Drawing on visual and documentary evidence, she holds that these ethnographic toys functioned as a form of interactive education that taught young American children about the potential possibilities, as well as limits, of Arctic imperialism. She discusses these toy sets as pedagogical tools and how they helped convey ideas about race, authenticity, and citizenship.
Domains
Humanities and Social SciencesOrigin | Files produced by the author(s) |
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