Filipino tribe. Dreamland, Coney Island. New York. Library of Congress photo.
Now you are listening to:
Human Zoos
From the decadent human zoo of the 19th/20th century to the tourist human safaris of the 21st
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Tour operators in India’s Andaman Islands are selling “human safaris” in the protected area of a previously “untouched” tribe, despite government promises to ban the practice.
Tourists travel along the road that runs through the Jarawa forest, treating members of the tribe like animals in a safari park. In 2013, Andaman authorities promised to open a sea route to the most popular tourist destinations, thanks to which tourists would stop passing through the Jarawa region. This sea route has recently become accessible.
But despite the authorities’ pledge to guarantee the safety of all tourists who would take this route, very few have chosen it and the market for human safaris continues to boom.
‘One tourist agency, Tropical Andamans, advertises them as follows: “The famous Jarawa Bay is a planet in itself. It is the home of the ancient tribes that inhabited these islands. The tribes called Jarawas are outside the civilized world. They are the wonder of the modern world because they feed on wild boar, fruits and vegetables. They speak no known language. Their pitch-black skin and red eyes will leave you stunned should you meet them.”
Survival International
Exhibition “Humans Zoos – the invention of the wild” at Musée du quai Branly (2012). Paris.
Arist, African girl, “exhibit” at the Brussels International Exhibition (1958). Right, human ‘safari’ on the land of the Jarawas, an ‘untouched’ tribe living hitherto isolated in the Andaman Islands of India. Photo South China Morning Post.
“The divers.” International Exhibition in Amiens in 1906.
Museum of Man (Paris) showcase 33, Anthropology Department. The “Venus of the Hittites”.
Arist., the “Black Venus”. Right, Paris Colonial Exhibition (1906). “Many attractions”.
Arist., Sudan in Paris. Right, a commemorative at an exhibition in Marseille.
Paris welcomes exotic Malabar (India).
Pygmies performance at the Folies Bergère theatre in Paris (1886). Photo CNRS.
Attraction at a fair.
Koreans are shown off in Japan in 1914.
Angers (France). Vaccination in the Negro village.
Negro village in Brest. The singers of the tribe (1913).
Arist, “Well, well, little Frenchies.” On the right, the “little savage of Saint-Ouen”.
Arist, Indians in the Boulogne Forest Park (Paris). Photo by Pierre Petit.
Negro village.
Galibis Indians at the Boulogne Forest Zoo (Paris).
The convoy of tourists waiting to pass through the Jarawas’ territory. Photo by The Miriam Shlesinger Human Rights Action.
The re-invention of the savage in the 21st century.
![Buschmen [groupe]](https://en.lifo.gr/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/cnrs_le_journal1307__1140search_by_image_spectacle_de_pygmees_aux_folies_bergere_1886_ymago_pp0021545_02_rec_72dpi-1280x1116.jpg "Human Zoos: from the human zoo festival to human safaris 8")
