Exhibitions: The Invention of the Savage

This current awareness of human zoos in France maybe related to the recent film named Venus Noire or Black Venus which is based on the life of Saartjes Bartman,offensively called the Hottentot Venus and displayed publically in England and France in the early 1800´s. Her skeltal remains and genitalia remained in the Jardin des Plantes until fairly recently when the late Stephen jay Gould and Nelson Mandela asked for their repatriation to South Africa. You can read this amazing testimonial of human mistreatment on the wikipedia article for Sarah Baartman. I have not seen the movie.
 
The article doesn't mention if Ota Benga is covered in this exhibit, but I imagine that he must be. This seems like the worst example of this kind of exhibit in the U.S.: [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ota_Benga]Ota Benga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Definitely not the Bronx Zoo's finest hour, nor the zoo world in general.
 
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