Editing Human zoo (section)

== Circuses and freak shows ==
[[File:Baartman.jpg|thumb|upright|A caricature of [[Saartjie Baartman]], called the ''Hottentot Venus''. Born to a [[Khoisan]] family, she was displayed in European cities in the early 19th century.]]
[[File:Jardin d'Acclimatation Hottentots.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Poster for an anthropological exhibition in Paris, c. 1870]]

The abstract concept of human displays in zoos has been documented throughout the duration of [[colonial history]]. In the [[Western Hemisphere]], one of the earliest-known [[zoo]]s, that of [[Moctezuma II|Moctezuma]] in Mexico, consisted not only of a vast collection of animals, but also exhibited humans, for example, dwarves, albinos and hunchbacks.<ref>Mullan, Bob and Marvin Garry, ''Zoo culture: The book about watching people watch animals'', [[University of Illinois Press]], [[Urbana, Illinois]], Second edition, 1998, p. 32. {{ISBN|0252067622}}</ref>

During the [[Renaissance]], the [[Medici]] developed a large [[menagerie]] in the Vatican. In the 16th century, Cardinal [[Ippolito de' Medici|Hippolytus Medici]] had a collection of people of different races as well as exotic animals. He is reported as having a troupe of so-called Savages, speaking over twenty languages; there were also Moors, Tartars, Indians, Turks and Africans.<ref>Mullan, Bob and Marvin Garry, ''Zoo culture: The book about watching people watch animals'', [[University of Illinois Press]], [[Urbana, Illinois]], Second edition, 1998, p. 98. {{ISBN|0252067622}}</ref> In 1691, Englishman [[William Dampier]] exhibited a tattooed native of [[Miangas]] whom he bought when he was in [[Mindanao]]. He also intended to exhibit the man's mother to earn more profit, but the mother died at sea. The man was named Jeoly, falsely branded as "Prince Giolo" to attract more audience, and was exhibited for three months straight until he died of smallpox in London.<ref>Mangubat, L. (2017). The True Story of the Mindanaoan Slave Whose Skin Was Displayed at Oxford. Esquire Publications.</ref>

[[File:Friedländer.plakat.8.jpg|thumb|upright|Ad for a [[Carl Hagenbeck]] show (1886)]]
One of the first modern public human exhibitions was [[P. T. Barnum]]'s exhibition of [[Joice Heth]] on 25 February 1835<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/joiceheth.html|title=The Museum of Hoaxes|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529171238/http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/joiceheth.html|archive-date=29 May 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> and, subsequently, the [[Conjoined twins|Siamese twins]] [[Chang and Eng Bunker]]. These exhibitions were common in [[freak show]]s.<ref>[http://migs.concordia.ca/occpapers/zoo.htm "On A Neglected Aspect Of Western Racism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140816113405/http://migs.concordia.ca/occpapers/zoo.htm |date=16 August 2014 }} by Kurt Jonassohn, December 2000, Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies</ref> Another famous example was that of [[Saartjie Baartman]] of the [[Nama people|Namaqua]], often referred to as the [[Hottentot (racial term)|Hottentot]] Venus, who was displayed in London and France until her death in 1815.

During the 1850s, [[Maximo and Bartola]], two [[microcephalic]] children from El Salvador, were exhibited in the US and Europe under the names Aztec Children and Aztec Lilliputians.<ref>[[Roberto Aguirre (academic)|Roberto Aguirre]], ''Informal Empire: Mexico And Central America In Victorian Culture'', Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2004, ch. 4</ref>  However, human zoos would become common only in the 1870s in the midst of the [[New Imperialism]] period.

From 1936 to 1943, the Canadian province of Ontario displayed five White [[French Canadian]] quintuplets, whom the provincial government had removed from their birth family, in a human zoo called [[Quintland]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Emery |first=Tom |date=28 May 2022 |title=Quintuplets' story remains one of shame, regret; sisters lives on display for the fortune of others |url=https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Quintuplets-story-remains-one-of-shame-regret-17201521.php |access-date=6 September 2024 |work=[[Journal-Courier]]}}</ref>