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Professional savages : captive lives and western spectacle
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Professional savages : captive lives and western spectacle

by Roslyn Poignant

This book documents the history of two groups of Australian Aboriginal people shipped to the US and Europe in 1882 to be exhibited in circuses. It examines their lives as performers and the lasting cultural impact of repatriating one performer's remains a century later.

Accession 16509 ISBN 030010247X Publisher Yale University Press
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TAGS
Curated Derived
Art Collections Culture Entertainment Ethnology History Institutions Painting Photography Social Sciences
CONNECTIONS
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State
on_shelf
True
position_updated_at
2026-05-27 10:55
orientation
vertical
Details

Physical

binding_type
Hard Back
dimensions
none captured
spine_text
none captured

Metadata

Book form
LOCATION HISTORY
M:N4:10 4 Current vertical
1 week, 3 days ago
Book Location
Updated 1 week, 3 days ago
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Identity

name→ title
Professional savages : captive lives and western spectacle
vernon_id
25678
accession_no→ accession_number
16509
vernon_slug
professional-savages-captive-lives-and-western-spectacle-roslyn-poignant

Drives Pulse state

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On Shelf
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location_reason
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isbn_issn→ isbn (when valid)
030010247X

Descriptive

production_date
2004
object_type
Books/Document genres/Information forms/Visual and Verbal Communication
object_status
Accessioned
brief_description
Tells the fascinating and often searing story of the transformation of the Aboriginal travelers into accomplished performers, professional savages who survived at least for a short time by virtue of the strengths they drew from their own culture and their individual adaptability. Most died somewhere on tour. A century later, the mummified body of Tambo, the first to die, was discovered in the basement of a recently closed funeral home in Cleveland, Ohio. Poignant recounts how Tambo's posthumous repatriation stimulated a cultural renewal within the community from which he came, exposing the roots of present social and economic injustices experienced by indigenous Australians. --blurb

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)
Roslyn Poignant
tags→ tags
Art, Arts, Figurative art, Realism in art, Photography, Anthropology, Public institutions, Associations, institutions, etc., Ethnology -- Australia, Museums, Tableaux (Art), Portrait photography, Amusements, Race, Physical anthropology, Aboriginal Australians -- History, Concerts, Circus, Anthropological museums and collections, Australia -- Ethnic relations, Aboriginal Australians, Treatment of, Aboriginal Australians -- Social life and customs, Concert tours
subject_people
Tambo (Australia, b.Circa 1863, d.1884), P. T. Barnum (American, b.1810, d.1891), Robert A. Cunningham (Canadian, b.1837, d.1907)
subject_objects
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Cover image

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29651

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