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New page: '''Ota Benga''' was a pygmy man who was dehumanized by Darwinian racism and was placed on display alongside an orangutan at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. He lived in the Kasai reg...
'''Ota Benga''' was a [[pygmy]] man who was dehumanized by [[Darwinian]] [[racism]] and was placed on display alongside an [[orangutan]] at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. He lived in the Kasai region<ref name="TE">{{cite book
|author= Fatimah Tobing Rony
|title= The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle
|publisher= Duke University Press
|location=
|year= 1996
|pages= p157
|isbn= 0822318407
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref> in [[Congo]], but lost his family in a mishap. A businessman named Samuel Phillips Verner went to [[Africa]] in 1904 to bring pygmies for exhibition and found Ota. Verner brought him to the [[United States]] in the summer of 1906.<ref name="CAHC">{{cite book
|author= Haviland et. al.
|title= Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge
|publisher= Thomson Wadsworth
|location=
|year= 2005
|pages= p81
|isbn= 0534624871
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref> Ota was handed over to the American Museum of Natural History in New York and was later transported to the Bronx Zoo. The director of the zoo William Temple Hornaday,<ref name="AS">{{cite book
|author= Bernth Lindfors
|title= Africans on Stage
|publisher= Indiana University Press
|location=
|year= 1999
|pages= p192
|isbn= 0253212456
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref> in a bold deployment of [[Social Darwinism]],<ref name="ITC43">{{cite book
|author= Karl Kroeber, Clifton B. Kroeber
|title= Ishi in Three Centuries
|publisher= U of Nebraska Press
|location=
|year= 2003
|pages= p43
|isbn= 0803227574
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref> displayed Ota in a cage at the Monkey House<ref name="SN">{{cite book
|author= Lee D. Baker
|title= From Savage to Negro
|publisher= University of California Press
|location=
|year= 1998
|pages= p72
|isbn= 0520211685
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref><ref name="TE"/> with an orangutan.<ref name="SN"/> A sign was placed in the front of the cage which stated Ota's name, height, weight etc. as in the case of animals in a zoo.<ref name="AS"/>
Black clergies protested against this display and ultimately the exhibition was closed. On September 27, 1906, Ota was transferred to the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum, a church-sponsored orphanage.<ref name="ITC44">{{cite book
|author= Karl Kroeber, Clifton B. Kroeber
|title= Ishi in Three Centuries
|publisher= U of Nebraska Press
|location=
|year= 2003
|pages= p44
|isbn= 0803227574
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref> Clergyman James H. Gordon condemned this exhibition which was aimed for promoting [[Darwinism]] and called the dehumanization of Ota Benga is hostile to [[Christianity]].<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/nyregion/thecity/06zoo.html The Scandal at the Zoo]</ref> On March 20, 1916, Ota committed suicide by shooting himself with a stolen revolver.<ref name="ITC44"/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
|author= Fatimah Tobing Rony
|title= The Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle
|publisher= Duke University Press
|location=
|year= 1996
|pages= p157
|isbn= 0822318407
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref> in [[Congo]], but lost his family in a mishap. A businessman named Samuel Phillips Verner went to [[Africa]] in 1904 to bring pygmies for exhibition and found Ota. Verner brought him to the [[United States]] in the summer of 1906.<ref name="CAHC">{{cite book
|author= Haviland et. al.
|title= Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge
|publisher= Thomson Wadsworth
|location=
|year= 2005
|pages= p81
|isbn= 0534624871
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref> Ota was handed over to the American Museum of Natural History in New York and was later transported to the Bronx Zoo. The director of the zoo William Temple Hornaday,<ref name="AS">{{cite book
|author= Bernth Lindfors
|title= Africans on Stage
|publisher= Indiana University Press
|location=
|year= 1999
|pages= p192
|isbn= 0253212456
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref> in a bold deployment of [[Social Darwinism]],<ref name="ITC43">{{cite book
|author= Karl Kroeber, Clifton B. Kroeber
|title= Ishi in Three Centuries
|publisher= U of Nebraska Press
|location=
|year= 2003
|pages= p43
|isbn= 0803227574
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref> displayed Ota in a cage at the Monkey House<ref name="SN">{{cite book
|author= Lee D. Baker
|title= From Savage to Negro
|publisher= University of California Press
|location=
|year= 1998
|pages= p72
|isbn= 0520211685
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref><ref name="TE"/> with an orangutan.<ref name="SN"/> A sign was placed in the front of the cage which stated Ota's name, height, weight etc. as in the case of animals in a zoo.<ref name="AS"/>
Black clergies protested against this display and ultimately the exhibition was closed. On September 27, 1906, Ota was transferred to the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum, a church-sponsored orphanage.<ref name="ITC44">{{cite book
|author= Karl Kroeber, Clifton B. Kroeber
|title= Ishi in Three Centuries
|publisher= U of Nebraska Press
|location=
|year= 2003
|pages= p44
|isbn= 0803227574
|oclc=
|doi=
}}</ref> Clergyman James H. Gordon condemned this exhibition which was aimed for promoting [[Darwinism]] and called the dehumanization of Ota Benga is hostile to [[Christianity]].<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/nyregion/thecity/06zoo.html The Scandal at the Zoo]</ref> On March 20, 1916, Ota committed suicide by shooting himself with a stolen revolver.<ref name="ITC44"/>
==References==
{{reflist}}