The Crisis of Modernity and Human Zoos: The Exposure Practice of Colonization

Abstract

This article focuses on the ontological crisis and structural deadlocks of modernity through the practice of human zoos. These exhibitions, established in the major cities of Europe and America during the 19th and 20th centuries, where colonized peoples were put on display, are not only a historical disgrace, but also scenes that render visible the contradictions collapsing inward within modernity itself. In this configuration, the other is transformed into an object of exotic curiosity and spectacle, while the modern subject constructs its identity through domination, classification, and control. Ethnological and colonial displays become symbolic spaces where modernity is confronted with the internal contradictions embedded in its foundational claims such as universality, progress, and reason. As postcolonial theory demonstrates, this crisis is not a deviation of the past or a resolved condition. Late examples such as the 1959 Brussels World’s Fair reveal the ongoing presence of this practice well into recent history. Contemporary acts of mass violence and civilian atrocities, unfolding across different geographies in full view of the world, illustrate the endurance of this repressive and destructive imaginary, which lies at the heart of the ongoing human catastrophe. This reality clearly reveals how the crisis of modernity continues to reproduce itself in ever-changing forms.