Fiona Asokacitta

School: Northwestern University

Majors: History and Art History

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-zj4s-2202

Biography:

Fiona Asokacitta is a senior at Northwestern majoring in History and Art History with a minor in Anthropology. Her research centers mainly around Indonesian visual and material culture. She is currently writing an interdisciplinary senior honors thesis on visual reconstructions of Java Man (Pithecanthropus erectus), exploring the role of visual knowledge production within colonial paleoanthropology. Aside from research, Asokacitta has worked in various arts institutions in Chicago, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, and EXPO Chicago. After graduation, she is attending the University of Oxford to pursue a Masters in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology.

Picturing Java (Wo)man: Visual Reconstruction of Colonial Paleoanthropology

Abstract

The question of man’s origin has plagued philosophers, scientists, and intellectuals alike for centuries. After Charles Darwin’s revolutionary Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) were published, fossil discoveries became paramount in establishing the connection between humans and earlier life forms. However, despite decades of progress, the absence of the ‘missing link’ between apes and humans confounded scientists. In 1891 Dutch paleoanthropologist and geologist Eugene Dubois discovered what was claimed to be the missing link in the Dutch East Indies. He dubbed the fossil he discovered in Trinil, Java “Java Man” (Pithecanthropus erectus). Java Man was later found to be a subspecies of Homo Erectus, but for a time debate raged regarding its place in human ancestry. Although Dubois’ discovery was limited to the skullcap, molar, and femur of Java Man, multiple artistic renderings of what the prehistoric hominid may have looked like populated textbooks, scientific journals, and museums. These purportedly scientific reconstructions of the missing link were extrapolated from scant empirical evidence. Nonetheless, images of Java Man played a crucial role in reifying the 'missing link' between modern humans and apes–both for scientific and lay communities. Through these images, Pithecanthropus’ position as ‘ape-man’ was widely accepted at the end of the nineteenth century. Reconstructions in the twentieth century and beyond familiarized popular audiences with the concept of human descent from apes. Drawing on History, Art History, and Visual Anthropology, this project analyzes how visual reconstructions of Java Man produced between the end of the nineteenth century to the present were, and are, producers of knowledge within the intellectual history of evolution.

What is your research topic, in a nutshell?

My research looks at the role of visual reconstructions of Java Man (Pithecanthropus erectus), the first ‘missing link’ fossil discovered. It examines role of images and reconstructions specifically as producers of scientific knowledge.

How did you come to your research topic?

I actually had to switch topics a few months into my original thesis’ research due to COVID. I was initially going to write about three Dutch museums’ permanent exhibitions on Indonesia, but quickly realized that I would not be able to travel to the Netherlands any time soon. Knowing my interest in Indonesian material culture, as well as the macabre, my advisor suggested that I look at Java Man. What could be more dead than someone from the Upper Pleistocene? After some cursory research I became intrigued by the inconsistent visual reconstructions I saw. I decided then to focus on this element of colonial paleoanthropology, allowing me to also pursue my long-standing interest in scientific Art History.

Where do you see the future direction of this work leading (how might future researchers build on your work or what is left to discover in this field)?

There is much work left to be done within Art History and Visual Anthropology in analyzing the plethora of visual reconstructions over time. Only a handful of scholars have studied this topic in detail, despite the outsized role that visual reconstructions play in the general audience’s conception of human evolution. Future researchers may take a comparative approach—looking at how reconstructions of different ancient hominids differ or are similar depending on its age, where it was discovered, and its perceived ‘primitivity’. Researchers could also study natural history museum dioramas and displays of human evolution in more depth, as well as non-Western reconstructions of ancient hominids.

Where are you heading to after graduation?

I will be pursuing my MSc in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology at the University of Oxford.