
Semi-Civilized
The Moro Village at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Michael C. Hawkins(Author)
Northern Illinois University Press
Published on 15. March 2020
Book
Hardback
156 pages
978-1-5017-4821-9 (ISBN)
Description
Semi-Civilized offers a concise, revealing, and analytically penetrating view of a critical period in Philippine history. Michael C. Hawkins examines Moro (Filipino Muslim) contributions to the Philippine exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, providing insight into this fascinating and previously overlooked historical episode.
By reviving and contextualizing Moro participation in the exposition, Hawkins challenges the typical manifestations of empire drawn from the fair and delivers a nuanced and textured vision of the nature of American imperial discourse. In Semi-Civilized Hawkins argues that the Moro display provided a distinctive liminal space in the dialectical relationship between civilization and savagery at the fair. The Moros offered a transcultural bridge. Through their official yet nondescript designation as "semi-civilized," they undermined and mediated the various binaries structuring the exposition. As Hawkins demonstrates, this mediation represented an unexpectedly welcomed challenge to the binary logic and discomfort of the display.
As Semi-Civilized shows, the Moro display was collaborative, and the Moros exercised unexpected agency by negotiating how the display was both structured and interpreted by the public. Fairgoers were actively seeking an extraordinary experience. Exhibit organizers framed it, but ultimately the Moros provided it. And therein lay a tremendous amount of power.
By reviving and contextualizing Moro participation in the exposition, Hawkins challenges the typical manifestations of empire drawn from the fair and delivers a nuanced and textured vision of the nature of American imperial discourse. In Semi-Civilized Hawkins argues that the Moro display provided a distinctive liminal space in the dialectical relationship between civilization and savagery at the fair. The Moros offered a transcultural bridge. Through their official yet nondescript designation as "semi-civilized," they undermined and mediated the various binaries structuring the exposition. As Hawkins demonstrates, this mediation represented an unexpectedly welcomed challenge to the binary logic and discomfort of the display.
As Semi-Civilized shows, the Moro display was collaborative, and the Moros exercised unexpected agency by negotiating how the display was both structured and interpreted by the public. Fairgoers were actively seeking an extraordinary experience. Exhibit organizers framed it, but ultimately the Moros provided it. And therein lay a tremendous amount of power.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Cornell University Press
Product notice
Paper over boards
Illustrations
9 b&w halftones - 9 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5017-4821-9 (9781501748219)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2020
Northern Illinois University Press
€36.99
Available for download
Person
Michael C. Hawkins is Associate Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at Creighton University. He is author of Making Moros.
Content
Introduction: The Complicated and Collaborative Art of Colonial Display
1. Sensational Savages
2. Nostalgia and the Familiar Savage
3. Measuring Moros
Conclusion: The Paradox of Preservation and Performative Extinction
Epilogue
1. Sensational Savages
2. Nostalgia and the Familiar Savage
3. Measuring Moros
Conclusion: The Paradox of Preservation and Performative Extinction
Epilogue