Abstract
The paper focuses on ethnologic and cultural-anthropologic analysis of the freak shows. It is one of the forms of Eurocentric and inhuman approach to the physical and cultural differences of people from non-European cultures or physically handicapped people, whose differences became the subject of shows and other forms of public presentations.
Freak shows accentuated particularly the exotic features of different individuals, their morphological differences or any other deviations and anomalies differing from the European norm. The paper describes, analyses and interprets historic, cultural, social and power factors and causes which made it possible to turn "the others" into a subject of amusement, astonishment and comic.
The paper presents the principles and strategies employed by freak shows, mostly determined by their impresarios (Phineas Taylor Barnum, Carl Hagenbeck, Albert Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, William Leonard Hunt). In addition to circuses, zoological gardens and wax museums, the paper does not ignore the influence these freak shows had on theatres, music halls and cabarets.
Its final part reveals the inhuman message of freak shows which were grounded in ideological and power construction of Eurocentric cultural norms and values. The aim of the paper is to call attention to a frequently omitted field of ethnology and cultural anthropology and negative consequences resulting from constructing "the others" in the context of mass entertainment and the comic.