Setzkasten

The fingerprint is considered a symbol of uniqueness – no two people have exactly the same. But its meaning only emerges through categorisation: through databases, scanners and comparison systems. To the untrained eye, it remains one pattern among many – a variation of the general. We recognise that it is a fingerprint, but nothing more.

A type case is reminiscent of a ball maze, in which a ball or marble is moved through a two-dimensional structure. The ball bounces off walls, falls into holes or rolls along the intended path. The walls limit the ball’s freedom of movement, but they also guide it. In a similar way, infrastructures such as language, laws or social norms and categories influence how we move and which paths are open to us. They are like invisible walls that give us a direction but also define the limits of our options. The path the ball takes in turn limits its further possible paths. Likewise, categorisations always depend on what has already happened.

Our bodies are different – and so is what we are able to do with them. However, our society takes many things for granted, such as the ability to walk, see or hear. Signage and texts are mostly aimed at sighted people. Accessibility for all is difficult to achieve – including in this exhibition: It offers only a few languages and no simple language, and our listening station cannot be used by deaf people. Object descriptions or Braille – a tactile pattern of raised dots for blind and severely visually impaired people – are also absent, with the exception of this greeting card.

Early on, we learn to categorise each other and what characteristics to associate with certain groups. In nursery school, we already learn that pink is ‘for girls’ and blue is ‘for boys’, that some children are the ‘big ones’ and others are still the ‘little ones’ or who belongs to the ladybug and who to the dolphin group. Games like this sorting cube also shape our thinking: They not only promote spatial understanding, they also convey that everything has its specific place and belongs together on one page. Sorting thus becomes a natural thing for us at an early age – part of our perceptual apparatus and our understanding of the world.

Dark circle remover creams are used to lighten the skin, particularly dark eye outlines – a goal that is further emphasised with before-and-after images altered with image editing programs. However, the appearance of dark shadows around the eyes is often already a side effect of skin-lightening practices. Products such as dark circle removers and knuckle oils apply even more lightening products to already damaged skin to address the stigmatised damaged skin areas. The skin is lightened primarily because, in Nigeria, positive characteristics are often associated with lighter skin tones, such as feminine beauty or belonging to a higher social class.

The group of people using skincare products that promise anti-ageing effects are becoming younger and younger. Many researchers see this development, also known as the ‘Sephora kids trend’, as a result of social media, with influencers presenting their skincare routine in detail and advertising high-priced products. In California, a bill is currently being introduced that would prohibit the purchase of anti-ageing products by minors. This also raises the question of what anxiety images of old age are coming into play when a ten-year-old tries to stop the ageing process of her skin.

you can remain trapped in it. Even if the classification doesn’t fit (any more) or is currently irrelevant, it often remains in effect – for instance if a person is treated as a ‘migrant’ even in situations that have nothing to do with their residence status. Such attributions influence how people see and treat each other – and how they see themselves. Human differentiation thus shape not only our thinking, but also our actions in everyday life.

Measuring something is not a neutral act. For instance, when measuring and comparing body sizes, we create norms – such as how tall or slim a body ‘should’ be. Numerical formulas (such as the body mass index) are created based on only a few parameters, thereby reducing complexity but also smoothing out many differences. Such standards can create pressure and influence how people perceive themselves and others. The tape measure thus stands for the common practice of not only identifying differences but also judging them.

‘You cannot work a man who must have beef and bread, and would prefer beer, alongside a man who can live on rice. It cannot be done. In all such conflicts and in all such struggles the result is not to bring up the man who lives on rice to the beef and bread standard, but it is to bring down the beef and bread man to the rice standard.’

James G. Blaine, a Republican representative from Maine, made this argument in the U.S. Senate in 1879 with the aim of drastically restricting the immigration of Chinese workers. The campaign resulted in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which initially prohibited the immigration of Chinese workers for 10 years and then permanently (this ban was only overturned after World War II). Food metaphors played an important role in the differentiation of ‘native’ workers – imagined as white Americans – from ‘foreign, unassimilable’ workers. The choice of the ‘right’ foods indicated a desirable ‘American standard of living’ on the one hand, while on the other hand drawing attention to the fall of non-American workers to misconsumption or even underconsumption.

We have had stickers printed for our summer schools, where young scientists from all over the world come together to dedicate themselves to a topic. These little stickers are more than a decoration: They allow guests and staff of the Collaborative Research Centre Human Differentiation to make their (even temporary) affiliation visible. A sticker on a laptop or an office door marks a connection – to an event, an idea or a shared scientific practice.

The cotton wool already showed that categorisations reduce complexity. They make it easier for us to grasp each other. But this simplification gain does not happen without losses and can also have a restricting effect. Sometimes categories are too rigid – and too constricting.

Starting in February 2022, volunteers from the Berlin Arrival Support initiative supported refugees from Ukraine at Berlin Central Station. The helpers wore vests to be easily recognisable to those seeking help. The relevant linguistic repertoires were shown on masking tape (here English and German). Coloured ribbons indicated that the briefing on current regulations had been completed, which initially changed at times even daily. The helpers thus sorted themselves according to the languages in which refugees could address them, and the colourful ribbons marked them as legitimate and competent helpers.

Cotton wool is soft and malleable, it adapts. Its open shape is created solely by the adhesion of the individual fibres. It is complex and difficult to describe – but in our type case it is restricted. It appears as a cuboid. The same can be observed in other forms of existence – including us humans. Categorisations create orientation and simplify the complexity of what we can perceive in others. Complexity. Categories shape us in a certain way, making us more tangible.

Some categories we are born into: our nationality, gender or – in many cases – religion. They are often fixed at birth. But that doesn’t mean that they are immutable – even if questioning or changing them can be very challenging. For example, hormone treatment with testosterone can be part of a transition from the female to the male sex – but it doesn’t have to be.

One distinction of substantial consequence is that of nationality. Our citizenship often has little to do with us personally – neither with our character nor with our body, sometimes not even with the country we live in. Nevertheless, it has a strong influence on our lives: It decides where we are allowed to live, which social securities we are entitled to, when we need a visa and where we can travel to at all. At the same time, our passport tells us nothing about where we belong and with whom. We can be Mainzians in Frankfurt, Germans in France – and Europeans in Chile.

Foto: Chichchicko (Wikimedia Commons)

This picture, which shows a pregnant (trans*) man with his partner, irritates our self-evident expectations of gender differentiation during pregnancy. That irritation demonstrates that we attribute pregnancy not only physically but above all socially to women. The understanding of pregnancy as fundamentally feminine also puts women more at the centre of parenthood, care and childcare in couple biographies. Sociologically, culture reveals itself precisely at those times when is disturbed in its self-evident assumptions: The reversal of the expected, highly naturalised gender attributions of pregnancy and parenthood shows how deeply our cultural categories of gender and parenthood are anchored but also constructed.

If you want to ride a train, you need a valid ticket. Only a paper or digital ticket temporarily turns people into passengers. The dominant differentiation in passenger transport of Deutsche Bahn is the division into first and second class. These two travel classes are based on economic reasons but also allow other categorisations in parallel (such as status or performance), which allows distinction and social class to be represented. Passengers in first class enjoy separate areas in stations and trains, more comfort and better service. As privileged regular customers, they have access to the exclusive DB Lounge at Frankfurt Airport’s long-distance train station, for example. The age category, too, is important: Adults pay the regular fare; younger (children under 15 years of age) and older people (seniors aged 65 and over) travel at a reduced price.

Who or what is considered human in a society is also demonstrated by what is considered non-human. One area in which the boundary between man and machine can be tested and shifted is games. But what do such distinctions between humans and non-humans look like? Take a close look: Are these board game figures human or not? And how can you tell? https://www.instagram.com/colorful.boardgames/ (These figures are hand-painted. You can find the artist on Instagram).

Dog names and human names are becoming more and more similar (Frieda, Henry). Dog owners spend a lot of time finding the right name, which makes them more and more individual. In addition to their official name, dogs are also given nicknames that have similarities to the pet names couples use in a relationship (sweetheart, honey, baby), feed into gender stereotypes (princess, gangster) or even counteract them. This development in first names is accompanied by a change in the concept of families – from the traditional nuclear family to the interspecies family, in which the distinction between humans and animals begins to blur.

Am I a he or a she – or something completely different? The genderbread person model shows that gender is not either/or. It demonstrates that our identity, body, how we show ourselves to the outside world and who we fall in love with don’t always fit together – and that’s perfectly fine.

Many people think that octopuses live to be very old, but most of their species live between three and five years. In many stories, however, we encounter octopuses portrayed as stereotypical old people such as grumpy old men. This also shows a creative approach to the social design and linking of categories. Although the octopus may seem almost maximally dissimilar to humans, its ageing is evidenced by human patterns. One could therefore ask: Can we even describe or comprehend ageing outside of our human patterns?

These self-published, often experimental publications appear in very small editions, are hand-crafted and are not created with the intention of generating a profit. Zines offer a space for alternative perspectives, marginalised voices and personal expressions. They are semi-public, semi-private. While large magazines often address clearly defined target groups, zines open up new possibilities – for stories that would otherwise have no place, and for readers who don’t find themselves in the usual categories. But zines also categorise people: Both the authors (zinesters) and the readers can clearly express their membership in a subculture or fan community and reflect their affiliation with (new) categories. Zines are a subject of research in our sub-project ‘Curated Bodies’.

In Brazil, volunteers cook meals in community kitchens and distribute them to the needy and homeless in disadvantaged neighbourhoods or city centres. This practice follows the humanitarian idea of the universal human need for food. However, the sub-study on Brazil in the research project ‘Sorting with Care’ shows that these distribution contexts do not eliminate social differences – instead, helpers and recipients produce themselves as such in the aid situation. They also eat different foods: For example, soup is often chosen as food for the homeless, while volunteers eat rice, beans, meat and salad. The food that is eaten – and by whom – thus becomes a marker of social status.

Who gets a microphone – and who doesn’t? Visibility and influence often depend on whose voices are considered important. The decision is based not only profession and skills but also on age, gender, origin or language: We listen to some, others we don’t. Social categories let us ‘know’ what someone has to say before we listen to them. Without such expectations, we would hardly get through everyday life; at the same time, this keeps our ‘mental drawers’ stable.

The sculpture Norma was created in the 1940s United States in the area of tension of the normal – between what something is and what it should be. Her measurements are based primarily on the averages of a study for sewing pattern construction for off-the-rack clothing, whereby some women were excluded from the statistics on the basis of attested characteristics such as race, disability or age. A newspaper competition sought a woman who corresponded to Norma’s dimensions, but not even the winner of the competition pictured here met all the requirements. Norma is a testimony to how the creation of statistics produces differentiation and provokes exclusion, and how comparison yields both similarities and differences.

People with disabilities are often overlooked on the partner market because they are culturally stigmatised by a lack of sexuality or a threatening hypersexuality. Against this background, our sub-project ‘Sexual Human Differentiation and Disability’ examines sex education counselling and support services for people with disabilities. Models such as this one are often used, conveying not only knowledge about the sexual body, but also normative ideas of ‘true’ sexuality.

Men, women and non-binary people sweat. Although the biological processes are the same, packaging suggests that some deodorants are suitable for women and others for men. Similar offers make gender visible and significant for many other drugstore products (such as soaps, shampoos or teas). Different scents – such as floral or fruit aromas, which are associated with femininity – also contribute not only to creating a difference between genders but also raising its visibility.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to conflicts between those who followed measures and those who rejected them. The mask not only offered protection, it also became a symbol of belonging to one of the two groups.

We also differ in our languages. Who we can talk to depends largely on the languages we speak. Learning a new language opens up the possibility for us to relate to more or to completely different people. But first comes a decision: Who do I want to be able to talk to and what language do I have to learn to do so? A phrase book can facilitate this communication without requiring a full command of the language. But it ties us to a certain role, usually that of a tourist. We can book a hotel room, shop and maybe make a little small talk. It is not intended for more complex interactions – such as taking on a professional role.