Un/doing Albinism: Recodings of a bodily difference through historically shifting frames

白化病是一个医学术语，指的是一种导致皮肤、头发和视网膜色素沉着减少为突出特征的身体外观。这种外观背离了世界各地的生理规范，并在许多地方导致了对患有这种疾病的人的污名和歧视。这种现象常常被模棱两可地理解为介于“种族”和“残疾”之间。这个项目从宏观历史的角度考察了白化病在大约500年的时间里的不同之处。这次长期观测的地理焦点是欧洲、非洲和北美之间的跨大西洋三角。其目的是从跨大西洋互联的角度来审视色素减退的历史。启发式地说，该项目区分了三个阶段，这三个阶段以不同的色素减退为标志：在原始白化阶段，色素减退的人被概念化为种族两性人或人与灵的混合体；在白化阶段，他们被视为患有遗传综合症的人，而在白化后阶段，他们被认为具有一定的审美品质。该项目通过转换其解释框架--种族话语、魔法、医学和艺术--考察了色素减退的重新编码，这些框架部分存在于历史上，部分同时存在于不同的社会领域。在这里，框架的转移一方面被理解为社会条件变化的偶然效应，另一方面被理解为源于社会运动的具体的毁灭行为。

Albinism is the medicalized term for a condition that results in a physical appearance with the prominent feature of hypopigmentation of the skin, hair and retina. This appearance deviates from physical norms throughout the world and results in many places in the stigmatization and discrimination of people with the condition. The phenomenon is often perceived ambiguously as falling between "race" and "disability". This project examines un/doing albinism as exemplary of un/doing difference from a macrohistorical perspective over a period of approximately 500 years. The geographical focus of this long-term observation is the transatlantic triangle between Europe, Africa and North America. The aim is to examine the history of hypopigmentation from the perspective of its transatlantic interconnections. Heuristically speaking, the project differentiates between three phases, which are marked by different framings of hypopigmentation: during the proto-albinistic phase, people with hypopigmentation are conceptualized as racial hermaphrodites or human-spirit hybrids; in the albininistic phase, they are seen as people with a genetic syndrome, and in the post-albinistic phase they are considered as people with certain aesthetic qualities. The project examines the recoding of hypopigmentation through the shift of its interpretative frames -- the race discourse, magic, medicine and art -- which exist partly in historical succession, and partly simultaneously in different social fields. The shifting of framings is understood here as a contingent effect of changing societal conditions, on the one hand, and a concrete act of undoing which emanates from social movements, on the other.