What would a zoo exhibit for humans look like?

C

Corax

Active Member
Just for fun, no agenda!

How would you keep modern humans in a zoo? Do they need their smartphones or will some other form of enrichment be healthier? Will they eat their veggies or should they be offered fast food? Should they be kept alone or in family groups? What is the ideal size for the enclosure? Should visitors be allowed to feed them and interact with them?
 
What a great idea for a thread!

Exhibit Design

I think the exhibit should be split in two and used to accommodate two groups of 6 people. These 12 people would be on exhibit for two weeks so as not to disrupt their lives too much. The groups should consist of people of the same age group and take on a competition theme e.g. teens versus twenties. A group of six people in their teens would be housed on one side or the exhibit and a group of six people in their twenties on the other side.

The public viewing area would make up the majority of each side’s area and be filled with an entertainment centre (with computers etc.), a gym, dining area and kitchen.

There will be an off exhibit area on each side out back with showers and sleeping areas (male and female to keep things PG if necessary) and a lounge area with a TV. The idea is to make the public viewing area more stimulating so the groups will choose to spend time in public view, while still having the option of quiet time off display. The two public areas will be connected by a door which requires both groups to consent to it being open (and therefore the choice to interact or avoid the other group) during the day.

The groups can order from a wide range of healthy ingredients and food to make meals in the kitchen. An online recipe and cooking guide will be provided for guidance.

The public can interact with the people on display by asking them questions through a screen on the public side which displays inside the exhibit. They can submit general questions or choose a particular person by clicking on their picture/name. The groups have four half hour Q&A times a day at 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm where they are rewarded financially at the end of the two weeks for their participation. There will also be daily challenges over the two weeks:

Ideas for challenges:

Disaster challenge:

A flood is simulated in the twenties area through a burst pipe. With their area close to uninhabitable, will the teenagers share their area?

Empathy challenge:

The twenties receive a catered buffet meal of high value foods. Will they share with the teens who have been served dry cereal on the other side?

Response challenge one:

The teenagers wake up to find their area trashed (by the staff) and are told the twenties did it. Will they trash the twenties area in revenge when given the opportunity later that day to go into their exhibit unsupervised?

Response challenge two:

The twenties have a gift they can give to the teenagers or destroy/dispose of. Will the teenagers response in challenge one influence their decision?
 
Last edited:
Corax said:
Well yeah. This thread was a bad idea. I'll admit that. Sorry.
Click to expand...

I don't really see why. Gorillas, elephants, and polar bears were all kept appallingly a century ago, but that's no reason not to discuss them now. Likewise, it was clear what you meant by a human exhibit and times have moved on. A loaded term used by a non-native English speaker is no reason to believe the ZooChat community is incapable of avoiding racism.

Actually, at the risk of opening a can of worms, many definitions widely used in the literature would divide Homo sapiens into subspecies (if any author were foolish enough to apply them that way).
 
  • Like
Reactions: TNT
I'm in agreement with Giant Panda about this thread. As long as people think carefully about what they post before they post it, and remain level-headed, rational, and patient, I think we can have a good discussion about this topic while also maintaining civility and not lapsing into questionable moral content.

Of course, if that were to happen, we could then reconsider whether this thread should continue.
 
Giant Panda said:
I don't really see why. Gorillas, elephants, and polar bears were all kept appallingly a century ago, but that's no reason not to discuss them now. Likewise, it was clear what you meant by a human exhibit and times have moved on. A loaded term used by a non-native English speaker is no reason to believe the ZooChat community is incapable of avoiding racism.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but it's not the same thing at all.

Whilst I'm not suggesting Corax has any racist intent (or aardvark for that matter, though the language they used was clumsy at best), I am willing to bet that had I or somebody else not pre-empted it we'd get some horrible suggestion along the lines of having Africans in a savannah zone, or Asians in a rainforest zone. 'Twas inevitable. And how inclusive a place do you think that would make Zoochat for people of colour?

It's not just that bad things were done in the past, but that many of the underlying assumptions that permitted those things to happen haven't gone away, they've just been suppressed a little.

Perhaps the intervention has now been sufficient that the thread can continue, with sufficient awareness of the issue to prevent it from going down a dark path.
 
CGSwans said:
Sorry, but it's not the same thing at all.

Whilst I'm not suggesting Corax has any racist intent (or aardvark for that matter, though the language they used was clumsy at best), I am willing to bet that had I or somebody else not pre-empted it we'd get some horrible suggestion along the lines of having Africans in a savannah zone, or Asians in a rainforest zone. 'Twas inevitable. And how inclusive a place do you think that would make Zoochat for people of colour?

It's not just that bad things were done in the past, but that many of the underlying assumptions that permitted those things to happen haven't gone away, they've just been suppressed a little.

Perhaps the intervention has now been sufficient that the thread can continue, with sufficient awareness of the issue to prevent it from going down a dark path.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I don't think it was destined to go down that route (as @Zoofan15's response indicates), but perhaps I'm just naive. Whilst recent history on this site doesn't support my belief, it did show that every member except one was against prejudice entering our community. Personally, I think it's unfortunate that show of solidarity was deleted (along with a third of my likes :D). Out of interest, what's your view of the clumsy, generic attempts at "cultural" theming seen in so many zoos (African villages, Asian temples, etc.)? I'm not sure it's all that different conceptually.

Back on topic, Edinburgh exhibited humans in the recent past (CultureLab: A human enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo) and I've long been impressed by the breeding program on Tralfamadore.
 
Last edited:
Giant Panda said:
Fair enough. I don't think it was destined to go down that route (as @Zoofan15's response indicates), but perhaps I'm just naive. Whilst recent history on this site doesn't support my belief, it did show that every member except one was against prejudice entering our community. Personally, I think it's unfortunate that show of solidarity was deleted (along with 50% of my likes :D). Out of interest, what's your view of the clumsy, generic attempts at "cultural" theming seen in so many zoos (African villages, Asian temples, etc.)? I'm not sure it's all that different conceptually.

Back on topic, Edinburgh exhibited in humans in the recent past (CultureLab: A human enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo) and I've long been impressed by the breeding program on Tralfamadore.
Click to expand...

I agree about the supposed 'cultural' theming. It's not about reflecting foreign cultures at all, it's just decoration by way of apppropriation.
 
Giant Panda said:
I've long been impressed by the breeding program on Tralfamadore.
Click to expand...

All time is all time...

I like a lot of Zoofan's ideas. If I were to design my own exhibit, I would probably do it in a way that stimulates more physical activity; for instance, a large outdoor enclosure with climbing equipment, a pool with a sandy beach, maybe a basketball court. I would keep things like TVs and computers either completely absent or only in off-show quarters, since watching people sitting around watching a screen sounds very dull. Watching them running around, playing, and swimming sounds much more fun, and I think the participants would enjoy getting in touch with their inner child and spending some time away from technology. Additionally, the lack of antisocial activities to engage in would encourage more social interaction between the participants.

As for food, I think I would serve them already prepared food, since we don't expect other zoo animals to cook for themselves. And I would give them food puzzles as well; I've always wondered how successful humans would be at solving them compared to other animals!
 
Wow, this thread has generated quite a discussion, thought obviously not of the nature it was intended to do so.

The original intention of this person’s thread was no doubt to provoke a fun discussion on how people would exhibit the human race and in a forum filled with so many people more intelligent and creative than I, I’m surprised nobody has taken this thread at face value and designed an exhibit. Have some fun people!

I didn’t think I needed to state this, but of course my human exhibit would show no discrimination based on age, gender, race, culture or sexual orientation. I’m surprised the fine, cultured people of ZooChat could imagine an alternative!
 
Zoofan15 said:
I didn’t think I needed to state this, but of course my human exhibit would show no discrimination based on age, gender, race, culture or sexual orientation. I’m surprised the fine, cultured people of ZooChat could imagine an alternative!
Click to expand...

If you are surprised that people could imagine discrimination then I think you've not been paying attention for the last 3000 years!

And in fairness, your own suggestion specifically discriminated on the grounds of age.

More generally:

Although I want to subscribe to Giant Panda's point of view, I end up somewhere closer to CGSwans. Zoochat isn't a group of friends where you can build up trust in people that they can handle a thorny issue. At any time, some idiot can join the site and start posting crap in this thread, even years later.

The Homosexuality thread was an example if this. I'm sure I wasn't the only one whose heart sank every time it appeared in the new post section, wondering if this was the 'one' that went too far.

The recent 'episode' was rather encouraging in the end, as GP says, and I don't think this is the same thing at all. But it does feel 'icky' and I think CGS was perfectly right to point that out. Maybe that was enough.
 
FunkyGibbon said:
If you are surprised that people could imagine discrimination then I think you've not been paying attention for the last 3000 years!

And in fairness, your own suggestion specifically discriminated on the grounds of age.

More generally:

Although I want to subscribe to Giant Panda's point of view, I end up somewhere closer to CGSwans. Zoochat isn't a group of friends where you can build up trust in people that they can handle a thorny issue. At any time, some idiot can join the site and start posting crap in this thread, even years later.

The Homosexuality thread was an example if this. I'm sure I wasn't the only one whose heart sank every time it appeared in the new post section, wondering if this was the 'one' that went too far.

The recent 'episode' was rather encouraging in the end, as GP says, and I don't think this is the same thing at all. But it does feel 'icky' and I think CGS was perfectly right to point that out. Maybe that was enough.
Click to expand...

I was being ironic. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, not everyone on ZooChat is finely cultured either.

It did not discriminate on grounds of age, it suggested those two age groups as examples. I was too lazy to design multiple scenarios concerning different age groups but of course you could have different ages. I named ‘teens’ and ‘twenties’ as those groups in general would have less health problems than senior people and the ethical consent process for infants and children to take part in what is basically an experiment could open up human rights discussion and debate. Something I’m sure the zoo would be keen to avoid.

Anyway, to redirect this thread back to its original purpose. It would be good to see people take this at face value and give a constructive reply to @Corax by sharing their ideas.
 
Giant Panda said:
Whilst recent history on this site doesn't support my belief, it did show that every member except one was against prejudice entering our community. Personally, I think it's unfortunate that show of solidarity was deleted (along with a third of my likes :D).
Click to expand...

Last that I was aware, it was only locked (by myself) but the posts within were still visible.

Given how Homo sapiens sapiens treat one another now, and the ways we find time and time again to split ourselves into Us and Them, I think it is probably a *good* thing that we are the only remaining member of our genus; one trembles to think just how horrifyingly we would treat living Homo sapiens idaltu, let alone Homo neanderthalis or Homo floresiensis, were they still around.
 
@TeaLovingDave A search indicates it has since been deleted.

Whilst I realise there are idiots and bigots on the internet(!), I don't think the solution is to chaperone or shut down any vaguely possibly sensitive topic. This thread didn't show any indication of going down a bad route, so I personally found CGSwans' posts heavy-handed. A friendly warning would have sufficed. Of course I understand why he felt more was necessary and the point has now been made. To each their own.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top