Identity in Forms: Paper Technologies in Dutch Anthropometric Practices Around 1900

This article analyses anthropometric forms used in three different Dutch contexts around 1900: an expedition in Dutch New Guinea, the Dutch police and prison registration system, where ‘Bertillonage’ was used to identify recidivist criminals, and a state-owned reform school for girls. The authors identify the loose form as an innovative ‘paper technology’ within anthropometry that opened up entirely new ways of linking bodies to identities and was critically important in inscribing bodies into knowledge systems. The article demonstrates how this crucial innovation within anthropometry took sha... Mehr ...