Uncovered: The Haunting ‘Human Zoo’ of Paris

[MerryBlooms]

In the furthest corner of the Vincennes woods of Paris, lies the remains of what was once a public exhibition to promote French colonialism over 100 years ago and what we can only refer to today as the equivalent of a human zoo.

In 1907, six different villages were built in the Jardin d’Agronomie Tropicale, representing all the corners of the French colonial empire at the time– Madagascar, Indochine, Sudan, Congo, Tunisia and Morocco. The villages and their pavillions were built to recreate the life and culture as it was in their original habitats. This included mimicking the architecture, importing the agriculture and appallingly, inhabiting the replica houses with people, brought to Paris from the faraway territories.

The human inhabitants of the ‘exhibition’ were observed by over one million curious visitors from May until October 1907 when it ended. It it estimated that between 1870 up until the 1930s, more than one and a half a billion people visited various exhibits around the world featuring human inhabitants.

http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/03/02/the-haunting-human-zoo-of-paris/

[Hoppy]

1. Buffalo Bill did the same thing with Sitting Bull and other American natives.

[MerryBlooms]

2. Yes, same thought came to me. n/t

[FSogol]

7. Except that they got paid well and could leave whenever they wanted.

There is a good chapter on Buffalo Bill's Shows in "American Fun; Four Centuries of Joyous Revolt" By John Beckman.

[Tom Ripley]

9. I recently read that

It is a very good book

[FSogol]

12. Yeah, I am really mad at history class for not teaching me about Thomas Morton and Merrymount. n/t

[Tom Ripley]

13. That's two of us; I thought Hawthorne just made up Merrymount

[packman]

14. Indeed-

makes one wonder how America would have turned out if Merrymount had been the model for America's approach to life instead of those damn Puritans.

[jwirr]

11. If I am not mistaken some of the English explorers took Native back to England to show them off.

[PeoViejo]

16. Christopho el Colon

took Arawaks back to Spain

[Lars39]

3. I'd read about that before, but not of Sarah.

Just heartbreaking.

[MerryBlooms]

4. .

[ReRe]

5. They could create a museum...

... to display the pictures, to show man's inhumanity to man.

[PeoViejo]

6. Disney World

Where the Surveillance State comes to Life.

[KittyWampus]

8. so it was an early version of Disney?

[PeoViejo]

17. Bringing Fantasy to Life

Just like the 'American Dream.'

[get the red out]

10. Apparent

Makes it apparent who the real "savages" were.

[mopinko]

15. they did the same here in chicago in 1893

world columbian expostition.
the white city had a human zoo as well.

[MerryBlooms]

19. Thanks, I will do some reading. n/t

[mopinko]

20. read "devil in the white city"

half page turning true crime story, and half fascinating chicago history.
a fave.

[MerryBlooms]

21. Oh man, that looks like a really good read, and so does his

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin.

Both now in my queue for gift ideas.

Thanks for the tip, Mo.

[mopinko]

22. an incredible serial killer, and burnham, olmstead, et al.

a page turner.

[bananas]

18. Also in Harlan Ellison's TV series "The Starlost"

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starlost

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0069638/