Abstract

The full caption of this original drawing by Fritz Waibler reads “The Bella Coola Indians from America’s Northwest Coast in the Zoological Garden at Leipzig: A Cannibal Dance.” It shows members of the Bella Coola tribe (also called Nuxalk) who had been recruited in a part of today’s province of British Columbia and toured Germany as part of a Völkerschau. This scene depicts them performing a dance that, according to the caption, was part of a cannibalistic ritual.

“A Cannibal Dance at the Leipzig Zoological Garden” (1885)

Source

Source: Illustrirte Zeitung (Leipzig), Bd. 85, 2. Halbjahr, Nr. 2207 (17. October 1885), p. 387. Reprinted in Eric Ames, Carl Hagenbeck’s Empire of Entertainments. Seattle, London: University of Washington Press, 2008, p. 107.