
There are many things to discuss in the Hall of African Peoples but one thing that is important to think about is the where the exhibit is in relation to other exhibition displays in the museum. When I was researching this project I read some interesting blogs and comments about the exhibit but one comment from an anonymous blogger talked about how a visitor travels through the museum and finally comes to the Hall of African Peoples. If one looks at the Museum Floor Plan for the second floor the African Peoples exhibit is central on the plan.
What is also interesting is that unlike the rest of the cultural exhibits it has little hut symbols to signal that you are reaching a particular exhibit. The South American Peoples and the Asian Peoples are left without any symbolic image on the plan. However the Hall of African Mammals also shows an image of an elephant to orient the visit. This is pertinent because both exhibits center around Africa but also one can not see the Hall of African Peoples without first leaving an exhibit concerning animals. If you look closely there are multiple entrances to the exhibit but one is a short winding hall way with photos of Coral Reefs but right before that is the Hall of African Mammals. The orientation of people with nature is not a new connection and dates back to the late 18th and 19th century with theories such as Social Darwinism and Social Evolutionism. These theories, in the most simple of definitions, were ways of looking at cultures in both a "scientific" and also "cultural" manner. With particular labels and categories the non-western and western cultures of the world were ordered according to certain ideas of civilization and savagery, who was the west and who was not etc. The spatial arrangements of the American Museum of Natural History subtly hint at the connection between the natural world and the cultural world beyond the fact that they share the same world. The connection made relates the cultural ability and display of African cultures with the display of the natural world and its animals. This is not a passive or harmless connection but one that has its roots in historical understandings of other non-western cultures.
In the 1893 Chicago World's Fair a similar spatial arrangement was used but to a more obvious extent to display how animalistic, natural, and on the periphery many of the cultures they displayed were. Unlike the AMNH's Hall of African Peoples, the things that were displayed were not just objects but living cultures in "Living Exhibitions." On the Floor Plan to the Midway Plaisance, the cultural and entertainment section of the fair the African Dahomey people are at the very end of the Plaisance boardwalk and close to the wooded area of the fair. It is also across from the Ostrich farm and near the Wild West Arab Ottoman show. The placement of the culture on display as well as the fact that these cultures were displayed at all exposes a deep sense western superiority and dominence over African and other non-western cultures. Very few closely examine the spatial placement of an exhibit but this particular arrangement states more about the museum's beliefs about African cultures than for other exhibitions.