In the late 19th - early 20th century in Europe were very popular human zoos

Human Zoo (also known as the "ethnological exhibition", "Exhibition of people" and "negro village") - once common in the West, a form of entertainment for the general public in the XIX - early XX century, the aim of which was to demonstrate the immigrants from Asia and Africa in the natural and often primitive savage form. Such zoos have, especially in Germany, pronounced racist overtones, is drawn from the trends of social Darwinism, where the natives of Africa are often exhibited next to the monkeys to show their common origin.

Predecessors of these zoos have been numerous attempts to bring the Europeans from overseas voyages natives. Columbus also brought Indians to Spain show. Another example was the Hottentot Saartjie Baartman (Saartjie Baartman; 1789-1815), better known as the Venus Hottentot, brought back to London for the show from Cape Town, where she was a servant in the Dutch (Boer) family. Her bulging buttocks (steatopyga) and pronounced labia attracted the attention of the public.

In the XIX century, such displays were also popular. One of the famous circus show was F. T. Barnum, who started their shows with an old Negro slave-Joyce Heth, which asserted that she was the nurse of George Washington. When Joyce died a year later, Barnum began to show Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker.

Beginning in the 1870s., Human zoos have become the symbol of the second wave of imperialism that has gripped the Western countries fighting for the colony in the world (see. Scramble for Africa). Then, like zoos appeared in Antwerp, London, Barcelona, Milan, New York, Warsaw, Hamburg, each of which was attended by 200 to 300 thousand people. Often people show was part of the so-called "colonial exhibitions", which represents the various economic achievements colonies. In Germany, a special recognition was Carl Hagenbeck, exposes the tribes of Samoa and Sami (Lapps).