The mestizo-indian, the original-indian (the double-image of the indian in the 1938 Archaeological and Etnographic Exposition)

Abstract

The celebration of the IV centenary of Bogotá’s foundation was accompanied by several social acts displaying a myriad of different self-representations of the Colombia’s national character. A prominent event was the Archaeological and Ethnographical Exposition, in which both objects and indigenous people themselves were exhibited. Both journalists and “amateur” etnologists or archaelogists forged a representation on what the indio meant for the past and the
present of the nation. This image was constituted of two overlapping images: the image of the indio-mestizo and the image of the indio-origen. This article suggests that 1938 was a breaking point in the story of this double-image: both origins and future; the best and the worst of the “national soul” was to be found in the representations evident in press of the not-quite-citizensyet indigenous people of Colombia. This article proposes a consideration to the history of an anthropological or etnological knowledge in Colombia through the analysis of this double-image