So like any other day, I was just scrolling down my Instagram and I came across The human zoo. So thought that I should read it, but the information was hardly enough to really get interested. So I started searching regarding the same topic.

So I searched regarding the same and found out that there are many different sources like there's a book called The human zoo by Desmond Morris, Human zoos: invention of the savage by Pascal Blanchard. There are too many movies with the same name. So hot confused and decided to get back on instagram and go for the right source. So there is a documentary named Human Zoos which was released in 2018 and would be available on Amazon prime (if interested).

The earliest known zoo was in Moctezuma Mexico it had animals but it also showed humans such as Dwarves, Albinos and Hunchbacks. First human Exhibit, was shown on February 25, 1835. During the Renaissance a cardinal named Hippolytus Medici had a collection of people of different races as well as exotic animals. The cardinal reported having a group of barbarians, speaking over 20 languages. He also had Moors, Tartors, Indians, Turks and Africans. One of these many humans zoo was a woman named Saartije Baartman. She was known as hottentot Venus. She was famous for her large buttocks. Hottentot Venus war shown in human exhibits, it is said that she was sold into the human zoo. When asked she had said it was her choosing to be there. She also denied abuse in the exhibits. Whether or not it was true is a known since she could have been line to avoid any consequences for her speaking out. Saartije Baartman died on December 29, 1815. Remains were displayed in France. Paris' Musée De l'homme  her remains word discussion until 1974. For two years the outline remained were her remains had been. 

Since the 1940s there were requests for her remains to be returned to her homeland. Diana Ferrus wrote a poem and title “I have come to take you home”. Diana's poem help push forward for Baartman's remains to be returned to her homeland full stop after Stephen jay Gould, wrote “The Mismeasure of Man” in the 1980. After his book the world came to be aware of the the treatment of Baartman and her remains on the display. In 1994 president Mandela formally requested France for Baartman's remains to be returned to her homeland. After many debates and legal arguments France accepted the request on March 6, 2002 full stop her remains was sent to her homeland on May 6, 2002. 

Saartije Baartman is just one of the many that were part of these humans full stop there are others who are forgotten as well as the existence of this exhibits in which they were around 200,000 to 300,000 visitors attending each exhibit.

So the documentary that I talked about tells us the story of how thousands of indigenous peoples were put on public display in America in the early decades of the 20th century. Often touted as ‘missing links between man and apes', these native peoples were harrassed and demeaned on a regular basis.