Tools in transit: Rudolf Pöch’s facial classification and its multiple interpretations

Abstract

During World War I (WWI), there was a prodigious development of tools for racial diagnosis and racial science: physical anthropologists, working in prisoner-of-war camps, had access to a diverse captive population to measure, compare and record putative racial differences. One of the tools developed there was the facial classification of Rudolf Pöch (1870–1921), an Austrian physical anthropologist. His typology of facial types found among the prisoners of war was later published and popularized by Rudolf Martin's famous Handbook of Anthropology. Pöch's facial classification subsequently found its way into unexpected contexts. Analysis of this migration reveals that the original context in which classificatory tools and frameworks in physical anthropology developed can be quite different from contemporary contexts of use. Moreover, it shows that technology transfer or “knowledge in transit” and its implementation involve the local transformation and reinterpretation of these tools. Finally, looking at the different uses and meanings that a facial classification can have in different historic and geographic contexts can help us understand: (i) the ongoing role and relevance of former racial anthropology in contemporary physical anthropology, forensics and criminal identification; (ii) the dynamics of technology transfer in this field; and (iii) the multiple meanings a face can have.