Human Zoo
Human zoos, also known as ethnological expositions, was a practice of publicly displaying people. In some cases these displays were voluntary on the part of people who willingly agreed, while in other cases the people were displayed without their consent.
Such practices have been found in cultures worldwide, dating back to at least the 1500s.
The practice was popular in the 1900s and early 20th Century. In many of these cases, those displayed were typically of indigenous people, and the exhibits were often linked to colonialism and imperialism. These displays often emphasized the supposed inferiority of the exhibits' culture, and implied the superiority of Western civilization, Imperial Japan, and other ruling powers through tropes that depicted marginalized groups as savage or primitive. and provided justification for continued subjugation of these populations. Such displays featured in multiple colonial exhibitions and at temporary exhibitions in animal zoos. Such displays were controversial at the time, with protestors describing them as degrading and some organizers being forced to end the human exhibits due to maltreatment.
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