The Human Zoo
The Stolen Lives Behind the Greatest Spectacles of the Gilded Age
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Remove from wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Adding to library failed
Please try again
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.
The Human Zoo
Narrated by:
Beth Hicks
Pre-order Now for £13.60
-
Narrated by:
-
Beth Hicks
-
By:
-
Shoshi Parks
In the 19th century, as colonial expansion exposed previously unknown civilizations to the Western gaze, a small group of entrepreneurs, adventurers, and anthropologists created a new form of popular entertainment: "human zoos." Between 1871 and World War I, more than 20,000 Indigenous people, from Southeast Asia to the far North to the tip of South America, were abducted, coerced, or convinced to appear in these "living habitats," exhibited to gawking audiences the way animals are today.
Award-winning science writer Shoshi Parks delves into the engrossing and horrifying history of human zoos and their centrality to the early years of anthropology. Human zoos encapsulated the young field's central intellectual battle between the dominant social Darwinists, who argued societies exist on a scale from savagery to civilization, and Franz Boas, the person who first articulated the idea of cultural relativism.
Telling the stories of Geronimo, Ota Benga, and Ishi, as well as dozens of little-known Indigenous people caught up in the exhibits, Parks not only vividly describes the many tragedies that befell them but also uncovers the inventive ways they pushed back and bargained for power.
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet