Tracing objects of measurement : locating intersections of race, science and politics at Stellenbosch University

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study departs from a confrontation with a collection of 'scientific' objects employed at Stellenbosch University in various ways from 1925 to 1984. Eugen Fischer's Haarfarbentafel (hair colour table), Rudolf Martin's Augenfarbentafel (eye colour table) and Felix von Luschan's Hautfarbentafel (skin colour table) - a collection later joined by an anatomically prepared human skull - are employed in this study as vessels for revealing broader social, scientific and political narratives about race and racial classification, both historically and contemporary, in South Africa. The study traces the history of these objects at Stellenbosch University from one context to another, from one owner to the next, from active tool of measurement to dormant objects exuding powerful and lasting ideas, and from dormant objects to a confrontational re-emergence in 2013 – a moment which sparked controversy and debate about the place and nature of these objects at Stellenbosch University. Initially employed in studies of human measurement at Stellenbosch University (1925-1955) for the purposes of racial categorization, these objects were imbued with a strong eugenic slant, supported by racial and eugenic theories (most often stemming from German academic literature), to inform constructions of the racial self and other. Similar to Saul Dubow (2010), I highlight the malleability of these eugenic theories as they were applied to the local context. These biological notions of race continued to inform engagements with race throughout the apartheid era (see Dubow 2015). Over time these objects materialized in the results they produced – results that became scientific proof for racial difference and the foundation for further engagements with race. As the objects faded out of focus, the race knowledge they embodied, supported and produced, solidified in broader South African society where, as argued by Deborah Posel (2001b), race had become common sense. By the time the objects disappeared they were no longer needed to prove racial difference – for notions of race as the biological source of inherent difference had been deeply internalized by a populace that was both governed by race and applied this logic on a daily basis in their interactions with others. The objects had become 'victims of their own productivity (Daston 2000:11). Their re-emergence in 2013 proved to be unsettling as, on some level, they acted as a stark reminder of the scientific foundations of race-thinking in South Africa. It similarly highlighted the undeterred continued potency of race-thinking in a post-apartheid era. The objects revealed that the spectre of race is haunting South Africa.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University