Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden, New York City, 1908-1936 Author(s): Donna Haraway Source: Social Text, No. 11 (Winter, 1984-1985), pp. 20-64 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/466593 . Accessed: 10/04/2013 10:34 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Duke University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Text. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 164.41.223.39 on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:34:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TeddyBear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Gardenof Eden,New York City, 1908-1936 DONNA HARAWAY "Natureteaches law and order and respectfor property. If these people cannot go to the country, thenthe Museum mustbring nature to the city."' "I startedmy thoughtson the legend of Romulusand Remus who had been suckled by a wolfand foundedRome, but in thejungle I had mylittle Lord Greystokesuckled by an ape."2 I. The AkeleyAfrican Hall andthe Theodore Roosevelt Memorial in the Ameri- can Museumof Natural History: Experience In theheart of New York City stands Central Park--the urban garden designed by FrederickLaw Olmstedto heal the over-wroughtor decadentcity dweller witha prophylacticdose of nature. Immediately across from the park the Theodore RooseveltMemorial presides as the centralbuilding of the AmericanMuseum of NaturalHistory, a monumentalreproduction of the Gardenof Eden. In the Garden,Western Man may beginagain the firstjourney, the firstbirth from withinthe sanctuaryof nature.An institutionfounded just afterthe CivilWar anddedicated to populareducation and scientific research, the American Museum ofNatural History is theplace to undertakethis genesis, this regeneration. Passing throughthe Museum's Roosevelt Memorial atrium into the African Hall, opened in 1936,the ordinarycitizen may entera privilegedspace and time:the Age of Mammalsin the heartof Africa,scene of theorigin of our species.3A hope is implicitin everyarchitectural detail: in immediatevision of theorigin, perhaps the futurecan be fixed.By savingthe beginnings, the end can be achievedand the presentcan be transcended.African Hall offersa uniquecommunion with natureat itshighest and yet most vulnerable moment, the moment of the interface of theAge ofMammals with the Age ofMan. Thiscommunion is offeredthrough thesense of vision by the craft of taxidermy. Restorationof the origin, the task of genetic hygiene, is achievedin Carl Akeley's AfricanHall by an art thatbegan for him in the 1880swith the crudestuffing of P.T. Barnum'selephant, Jumbo, who had been rundown by a railroadtrain, theemblem of theIndustrial Revolution. The end of histask came in the1920s, withhis exquisitemounting of theGiant of Karisimbi,the lone silverback male gorillathat dominates the dioramadepicting the site of Akeley'sown gravein themountainous rain forest of the Congo, today's Zaire. So itcould inhabit Akeley's monumentto thepurity of nature,this gorilla was killedin 1921,the same year the Museumhosted the Second InternationalCongress of Eugenics.From the 20 This content downloaded from 164.41.223.39 on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:34:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Teddy Bear Patriarchy 21 dead bodyof the primate, Akeley crafted something finer than the living organism; he achievedits true end, a newgenesis. Decadence-the threatof thecity, civili- zation,machine-was stayed in thepolitics of eugenicsand theart of taxidermy. And theMuseum fulfilled its scientific purpose of conservation,of preservation, of theproduction of permanence. Life was transfiguredin the principal civic arena of Westernpolitical theory-the natural body of man.4 Behindevery mounted animal, bronze sculpture, or photographlies a profusion of objectsand social interactionsamong people and otheranimals, which in the end can be recomposedto tell a biographyembracing major themes for 20th- centuryUnited States. But the recompositionproduces a storythat is reticent, even mute,about Africa. H.F. Osborn,president of theAmerican Museum from 1908-33,thought Akeley was Africa's biographer. This essay will argue that Akeley is America'sbiographer, or rathera biographerof partof North America. Akeley thoughtin AfricanHall the visitorwould experiencenature at its momentof highestperfection. He did not dreamthat he craftedthe meansto experience a historyof race, sex, and class in New York Citythat reached to Nairobi.He thoughthe was tellingthe unifiedtruth of naturalhistory. His storywill be re- composedto tella tale of thecommerce of powerand knowledgein whiteand malesupremacist monopoly capitalism, fondly named Teddy Bear Patriarchy.5 To enterthe Theodore Roosevelt Memorial, the visitor must pass by a James Earle Fraserequestrian statue of Teddy majesticallymounted as a fatherand protectorbetween two "primitive"men, an AmericanIndian and an African, bothstanding and dressedas "savages."The facadeof thememorial, funded by theState of NewYork and awardedto theAmerican Museum of Natural History on the basis of its competitiveapplication in 1923,is classical,with four Ionic columns54 feethigh topped by statuesof thegreat explorers Boone, Audubon, Lewis,and Clark.Reminiscent of coins,bas-relief seals of theUnited States and of the LibertyBell are stampedon the frontpanels. Inscribedacross the top are thewords TRUTH, KNOWLEDGE,VISION and thededication to Roosevelt as "a greatleader of theyouth of America,in energyand fortitudein the faith of ourfathers, in defenseof the rights of the people, in thelove and conservation of natureand of the best in lifeand in man."Youth, paternal solicitude, virile defenseof democracy,and intenseemotional connection to natureare the un- mistakeablethemes.6 The buildingpresents itself in manyvisible faces. It is at once a Greektemple, a bank,a scientificresearch institution, a popular museum, a neoclassicaltheatre. One is enteringa space thatsacralizes democracy, Protestant Christianity, ad- venture,science, and commerce.It is impossiblenot to feelentering this building thata dramawill be enactedinside. Experience in thispublic monument will be intenselypersonal; this structure is one of NorthAmerica's spaces forjoining theduality of self and community. Justinside the portals,the visitorenters the firstsacred space wheretransforma- This content downloaded from 164.41.223.39 on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:34:23 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 22 Haraway tionof consciousnessand moralstate will begin.' The wallsare inscribedwith Roosevelt'swords under the headingsNature, Youth, Manhood, the State.The seekerbegins in Nature:"There are no wordsthat can tell the hiddenspirit of thewilderness, that can revealits mystery.... The nationbehaves well if it treats its naturalresources as assetswhich it mustturn over to the nextgeneration increasedand not impairedin value."Nature is mysteryand resource,a critical unionin thehistory of civilization.The visitor--necessarilya boy in moralstate, no matterwhat accidents of biologyor social gendermight have pertainedprior to theexcursion to themuseum- progressesthrough Youth: "I wantto see you game boys...andgentle and tender....Courage, hard work, self mastery, and in- telligenteffort are essentialto a successfullife." Youth mirrors Nature, its pair across the room.The nextstage is Manhood:"Only those are fitto live who do not fearto die and none are fitto die who have shrunkfrom the joy of life and theduty of life."Opposite is itsspiritual pair, the State: "Aggressive fighting forthe rightis the noblestsport the worldaffords.... If I mustchoose between righteousnessand peace, I choose righteousness."The wallsof the atriumare fullof muralsdepicting Roosevelt's life, the perfect illustration of his words.His lifeis inscribedin stonein a peculiarlyliteral way appropriate to thismuseum. Onesees the man hunting big game in Africa, conducting diplomacy in the Philippines and China,helping boy and girlscouts, receiving academic honors, and presiding overthe Panama Canal ("The landdivided, the world united"). Finally,in the atriumalso are the strikinglife-size bronze sculptures by Carl Akeleyof theNandi spearmen of East Africaon a lionhunt. These Africanmen and thelion they kill symbolize for Akeley the essence of the hunt, of what would laterbe named"man the hunter." In discussingthe lion spearers, Akeley always referredto themas men.In everyother circumstance he referredto adultmale Africansas boys.Roosevelt, the modernsportsman, and the "primitive"Nandi sharein the spiritualtruth of manhood.The noble sculpturesexpress Akeley's greatlove forRoosevelt, his friend and huntingcompanion in Africain 1910for thekilling of one ofthe elephants which Akeley mounted for the museum. Akeley saidhe wouldfollow Roosevelt anywhere because of his "sincerity and integrity."8 In themuseum shop in the atrium in the 1980s, one may purchase T.R.: Champion ofthe Strenuous Life, a photographicbiography of the 26th president. Every aspect of the fulfillmentof manhoodis depictedwithin, even death is labelled"The GreatAdventure." One learnsthat after his defeatin thepresidential