Abstract
Indian hobbyists are people who turned their youth fascination with 'Cowboys and Indians' into a form of a lifelong commitment. In their activities, they adopt a specific image of 'Indians' based on consuming and interpreting movies, museum production, fiction and non-fiction literature about historical Native Americans. They attempt to mimic this image through creating replicas of historical clothing and tools, which they wear and use at both private and public historical re-enactment events.
We can observe the hobbyists' image of 'Indians' in photographs of themselves dressed up that are widely shared both among the members of the community and with public. These photographs serve as an important presentation of both individual members and the Indian hobby scene as a community.
I will try to find basic common characteristics of the image of 'Indians' in hobbyists' minds, trace sources and inspiration of this visual representation and the role of a physical body in this image. I will build my analysis on long-term anthropological fieldwork among the Czech hobbyist and use contemporary and historical photographs depicting hobbyist to illustrate my findings.