Indigenous People were Exhibited in Human Zoos to Entertain White People
By: Justannet
Tags: BlackLivesMatter, History, Equality, Culture, Racism

Indigenous People were Exhibited in Human Zoos to Entertain White People

Dissecting the shameful history behind human zoos

An exhibition of the Igorot villagers — image from Wikipedia

I recently wrote an article titled Her African Buttocks were Exploited for Europe’s Entertainment. The article focused on the story of Sarah Baartman, a Khokhoi woman who was exhibited all over Europe in the 1800's due to her unusually large buttocks. As sad and cruel as Sarah Baartman’s story was, the bigger tragedy is that it didn't just happen to her. The act of exhibiting humans (mainly indigenous, non Caucasian people), although cruel was once extremely popular.

Human zoos, which are also referred to as ethnological expositions, were a great source of entertainment for Caucasian European and American societies from the late eighteenth century. The exhibitions were designed to showcase indigenous cultures and other races as being lesser than the white Europeans and Americans. Nowadays the act of displaying human beings in zoos, regardless of how peculiar looking they may be, would not be acceptable at all.

Human zoos provided great entertainment for Caucasian societies. They could even be likened to today’s cinemas as the zoos enabled people to see people from different parts of the world, people they themselves had never come across and perhaps had merely heard tales of their existence from travelers.

How did human zoos start?

Image of Carl Hagenbeck — courtesy of Wikipedia

During the 1800’s the animal trade market was booming. At the forefront of this business was Carl Hagenbeck who was a German businessman dealing in exotic animals (basically the Joe Exotic of the 1800's). Although the business was booming there were numerous overhead costs that made the business less profitable than it could have been. This put a lot of financial strain on Carl. As a result he began brainstorming ways to make more money and keep overhead costs low.

In an attempt to boost his business Carl decided to bring along the indigenous people from the foreign lands from which he sourced his animals. On his next trip, while picking up some for reindeers, Carl also brought back some Laplanders. The Laplanders became part of an exhibit set up by Carl on his property. The exhibit included the reindeer and the Laplanders who set up their traditional homes and went about their lives within the confines of the exhibition area.

This was the start of human exhibitions. The exhibitions proved so popular that Carl began planning more human exhibitions. He traveled far and wide to bring indigenous people alongside animals and various components of their traditional lives such as hunting and cooking equipment to Europe. The indigenous people were able to recreate their lives on Carl’s property which was used for exhibition purposes. The exhibitions continued to grow in popularity and complexity. The indigenous people became showmen, not only showcasing their lives but performing various acts such as juggling and dancing.

The Igorot village: one of the world’s most popular human exhibition

Poster advertising the Igorot village exhibitions — courtesy of Wikipedia

Soon human exhibitions had spread across the globe. The exhibition of indigenous people happened in many powerful countries around the world. Exhibitions were found in France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (the colonial super powers). One of the most popular and largest human exhibitions the world has ever seen was that of the Igorot villagers from the Philippines. They were displayed at the St. Louis World Fair in the 1900’s. The exhibit had a dedicated 47-acre site at the World Fair which was home to over 1000 Filipinos.

The Igorot village was a lucrative exhibition, making more money than any other showcase at the World Fair. The exhibition was extremely popular because it featured Filipinos who had a different culture and appearance to most of the white American audience. The indigenous people on display would be dressed in their traditional attire which was very minimal when compared to the clothing worn by the audience viewing them.

This particular human exhibition was extremely popular because the people displayed in the exhibition ate dogs as part of their tradition. The audience found this extremely fascinating. During the show the Igorot people were forced to eat dogs on a daily basis so as to entertain the audience. This is despite the fact that traditionally this tribe only ate dogs during special ceremonies. They were made to butcher dogs in front of the audience which was all part of a show as this spectacle was not part of the original Igorot tradition.

The village exhibition was so popular that many tried to recreate it even after the St. Lois World Fair ended. Many of the people in the exhibition went on to become showmen and women in various other fairs and carnivals. Those people belonging to the Igorot village was eventually banned by the American government in 1914 after protests by the Filipinos.

Human zoos today

Human zoos are not just a feature of the past. In today's world some zoos and nature parks continue to include humans in exhibitions. However, they are no longer a common feature in today’s zoos due to the criticism such an exhibition would attract. In 2005 Augsburg zoo in Germany was heavily criticized for showcasing an African village display that included African cultural performances. Although this may seem harmless on the face of it, given the history of human zoos, an exhibition that includes Africans would pay homage to the history of having humans displayed in zoos. It normalizes the horrific act of exhibiting humans in zoos which should never be okay.