'Human zoos', forgotten symbols of the colonial era, have been totally repressed in our collective memory. In these 'anthropo-zoological' exhibitions, 'exotic' individuals were placed alongside wild beasts and presented behind bars or in enclosures. Human zoos were a key factor, however, in the progressive shift in the West from scientific to popular racism. Beginning with the early nineteenth-century European exhibition of the Hottentot Venus, this thoroughly documented volume underlines the ways in which they affected the lives of tens of millions of visitors, from London to New York, from Warsaw to Milan, from Moscow to Tokyo... Through Barnum's freak shows, Hagenbeck's 'ethnic shows' (touring major European cities from their German base), French-style villages negres, as well as the great universal and colonial exhibitions, the West invented the 'savage', exhibited the 'peoples of the world', whilst in many cases preparing for or contributing to their colonization... This first mass contact between 'us' and 'them', between the West and elsewhere, created an invisible border. Measured by scientists, exploited in shows, used in official exhibitions, these men, women and children became extras in an imaginary and in a history that were not their own. Based on the best-selling French volume Zoos Humains but with a number of newly commissioned chapters, Human Zoos puts into perspective the 'spectacularization' of the Other, a process that is at the origin of contemporary stereotypes and of the construction of our own identities. A unique book, on a crucial phenomenon, which takes us to the heart of Western fantasies, and allows us to understand the genesis of identity in Japan, Europe and North America.

'Human zoos', forgotten symbols of the colonial era, have been totally repressed in our collective memory. In these 'anthropo-zoological' exhibitions, 'exotic' individuals were placed alongside wild beasts and presented behind bars or in enclosures. Human zoos were a key factor, however, in the progressive shift in the West from scientific to popular racism. Beginning with the early nineteenth-century European exhibition of the Hottentot Venus, this thoroughly documented volume underlines the ways in which they affected the lives of tens of millions of visitors, from London to New York, from Warsaw to Milan, from Moscow to Tokyo... Through Barnum's freak shows, Hagenbeck's 'ethnic shows' (touring major European cities from their German base), French-style villages negres, as well as the great universal and colonial exhibitions, the West invented the 'savage', exhibited the 'peoples of the world', whilst in many cases preparing for or contributing to their colonization... This first mass contact between 'us' and 'them', between the West and elsewhere, created an invisible border. Measured by scientists, exploited in shows, used in official exhibitions, these men, women and children became extras in an imaginary and in a history that were not their own. Based on the best-selling French volume Zoos Humains but with a number of newly commissioned chapters, Human Zoos puts into perspective the 'spectacularization' of the Other, a process that is at the origin of contemporary stereotypes and of the construction of our own identities. A unique book, on a crucial phenomenon, which takes us to the heart of Western fantasies, and allows us to understand the genesis of identity in Japan, Europe and North America.

Verdrangt und vergessen sind die Manner und Frauen, die Kinder und Greise, die man hinter Gittern oder Barrieren zur Schau stellte wie Orang-Utans, chinesische Pandabaren oder bengalische Tiger. Von Hamburg bis Paris, von London bis Tokio, von Chicago bis Genf stromten Millionen von Menschen in derartige Volkerschauen" und Menschenzoos." Dies geschah um die Wende vom 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert - und wirkt bis heute fort. Die Schaulustigen waren fasziniert von diesen Wilden," die so seltsame Gebrauche hatten. Sie sahen in ihnen nur Fremde," Andersartige," angeblich echte Kannibalen." Die Besucher bemerkten nicht, dass sich die westliche Welt der Schaustellungen bediente, um das eigene Selbstbild zu idealisieren. Denn es ging nicht um eine bereichernde Begegnung zwischen verschiedenen Kulturen, sondern darum, das Uberlegenheitsgefuhl der weissen Rasse" zu starken und die zivilisierende" Politik der Kolonialmachte zu rechtfertigen. Zudem begegnete man den Fremden oftmals ganz und gar nicht wohltatig. Man liess sie frieren, blieb oft sogar angesichts der vielen Krankheiten und Todesfalle unter ihnen ungeruhrt. Schliesslich waren es ja nur Wilde." Hamburg war einer der europaischen Brennpunkte dieser Entwicklung. Carl Hagenbeck verwirklichte ab 1874 als erster in Europa die Idee einer anthropologisch-zoologischen Ausstellung ." Der Erfolg dieser Veranstaltungen war - auch in finanzieller Hinsicht - so uberwaltigend, dass man auch anderswo versuchte, die Sensationsgier zu bedienen. Volkerschauen und MenschenZoos fanden im deutschen Sprachraum u.a. in Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Koln, Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Mannheim, Munchen, Wien, und Basel statt. Die MenschenZoos trugen entscheidend dazu bei, dass sich die rassistische Denkweise der Wissenschaft vom Menschen" auf breite Bevolkerungskreise ausdehnte. Denn im Gefolge dieses rassistischen Trugbilds von den Fremden, dem die Pseudowissenschaft der damaligen Anthropologie das Mantelchen der Objektivitat um