La invención de las razas: An Exhibition Exploring the History of Race Science at the National Museum of Anthropology

This exhibition, 'The Invention of Races,' explores the historical use of busts, phrenology, and racial classifications in attempts to typify human differences. It showcases how these artifacts, initially associated with art, were repurposed by pseudoscientific disciplines in the 19th and 20th centuries to support racist theories.

The exhibition 'La invención de las razas' (The Invention of Races) delves into the controversial history of using physical artifacts, such as busts, alongside disciplines like craniology and phrenology, to create fictitious concepts of race. From the late 18th century onwards, and later with the advent of photography, these objects were collected to gather comparative anthropometric data, aiming to establish human typologies based on supposed racial attributes. Although phrenology was eventually discredited, racist theories gained traction among academics, and these busts were reinterpreted as supposed proof of humanity's differences, reaching peak popularity between 1830 and 1890. The collection at the National Museum of Anthropology, formed in 1882 through Diego Ripoche's acquisitions, includes copies of busts from 19th-century scientific-military expeditions. The exhibition highlights that since the early 20th century, the falsity of these pseudoscientific disciplines and their harmful consequences on non-European societies have been increasingly denounced.

Entry is by combined ticket with the permanent exhibition.