Abstract
The paper presents an anthropological analysis of freak shows as a form of an inhuman and Eurocentric approach to the physical and cultural differences of people from non-European cultures or to the physically handicapped. In the 19th century, their otherness became the subject of exhibitions and other forms of public presentation taking place mainly in circuses, zoological gardens or wax figure museums.
The paper describes the principles and strategies of freak shows that were defined by prominent impresarios such as Phineas Taylor Barnum, Carl Hagenbeck and Albert Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Freak shows accentuated particularly the exotic features of the exhibited individuals, their morphological differences, deviations and anomalies differing from the norm of the European population.