Human zoo
Human zoos, also known as ethnological expositions, were a colonial practice of publicly displaying people, usually in a so-called "natural" or "primitive" state. They were most prominent during the 19th and 20th centuries. These displays often emphasized the supposed inferiority of the exhibits' culture, and implied the superiority of "Western society", through tropes that depicted marginalized groups as "savage". They then developed into independent displays emphasizing the exhibits' inferiority to western culture and providing further justification for their subjugation. Such displays featured in multiple colonial exhibitions and at temporary exhibitions in animal zoos.
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Quotes about human zoos
[edit]- There are many dark chapters in mankind's history ranging from transatlantic slave trade to holocaust to dropping of nuclear bombs. While most are brought up to serve as a reminder of human misdeeds -- one sordid tale often goes unnoticed -- the presence of 'human zoos'. Up until the late 1950s, white Europeans could go and see people from other ethnic backgrounds exhibited in cages for entertainment purposes during trade fairs. Akin to the modern zoos where animals are exhibited, humans, that too of a certain complexion were paraded.
