In the late 1920s and early 1930s, professional anthropologists and prominent race scientists in Germany served as judges in a series of mail-in photographic competitions designed to identify the most representative examples of the so-called Nordic race. This essay examines the interactions between judges and audience in three of these contests. Race scientists and entrants collaborated to construct a vision of the Nordic race as primarily male and middle and upper class. More important, the contests served to configure the very categories of “science” and “lay public” for the new discipline of race science (Rassenkunde), setting them in an unequal relationship to each other. Race scientists portrayed their audience as the entire German people, or Volk, which they represented as desperately in need of racial knowledge that only experts in Rassenkunde could provide. Rather than breaking down divisions between race scientists and the public, the collaborative process of the contests served to construct those very categories.

中文翻译：

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“最不寻常的”选美比赛：北欧摄影比赛和德国种族科学公众的建设，1926-1935

在 1920 年代末和 1930 年代初，德国的专业人类学家和著名种族科学家在一系列邮寄摄影比赛中担任评委，旨在确定所谓的北欧种族最具代表性的例子。本文考察了其中三场比赛中评委和观众之间的互动。种族科学家和参赛者合作构建了北欧种族主要是男性和中上层阶级的愿景。更重要的是，这些竞赛有助于为新的种族科学学科（Rassenkunde）配置“科学”和“公众”的类别，使它们彼此之间形成不平等的关系。种族科学家把他们的观众描绘成整个德国人，或者说Volk，他们认为这迫切需要种族知识，而只有 Rassenkunde 的专家才能提供。比赛的协作过程并没有打破种族科学家和公众之间的分歧，而是用来构建这些类别。