Child - Munbil, West Sepik, PNG

Child - Munbil, West Sepik, PNG
01-12-2008

April 1986

20-07-2011

Amazing picture!

20-07-2011

Really? What's so amazing about it?

21-07-2011

In my opinion, it looks some what like a National Geographic photo. Possibly from an album of any New Guinea collection. I really like the way the child is focused with the rest of the surrounding area all plurred.

22-07-2011

Then you'll probably also like:

Young Yapese boy - Yap
Yapese dancers - Yap
Yapese dancers - Yap
Yapese woman and child - Yap
Pohnpeian woman - Pohnpei



Hix

22-07-2011

Very interesting picture,as an anthropologist i have been interested in humans as a species with wide variation. the child from a "remote" area shows blond hair,dark skin and eyes,thin lips.A very interesting mixture.As an antro i always end up seeing humans
as another animal species,but as Desmond Morris wrote, that is really a compliment.
I also liked your other pictures from that trip.

22-07-2011

The kid should have dark hair, it's blond due to malnutrition. We saw a lot of children like that when we were there.This child's diet probably consisted almost entirely of corn, banana and taro, and maybe the occasional piece of meat.

23-07-2011

I have been thinking about this issue a lot and what I should say, if anything, but I'm not at all comfortable with posting pictures of people on a website about zoos and wildlife.

I feel it is inappropriate and whilst I'm sure it wasn't the intention, I feel the result is patronising and demeaning to people from Papua New Guinea, as if they are some kind of exotic oddity.

Child
23-07-2011

It could be regarded as an extension of the old Hagenbeck ethnographic shows....

23-07-2011

Yet you have never voiced any complains about the many photos of zoo visitors (as well as some zoochat members) in the Gallery. Isn't it also "patronising and demeaning" to the poor American/European/Australian zoo visitors to be depicted on a zoofan website, without knowing?
Driven by the current over-PC zeitgeist that demonises ethnological expositions in connection with zoos in general, and the historic ones in particular, you forget one important fact: Humans are part of the big picture, may it be the zoo world, or the big, bad world in general. So either exclude and eradicate all photos even showing the tiniest fragment of a human being from the Gallery, or brush that overzealous PC chip off your shoulder, and consider this pic as another facet of Papua New Guinea's elusive natural beauty, just like you would in a copy of the NG magazine.

23-07-2011

I can assure you that my intentions were NOT to demean the people of PNG. I included the photos of some of the people's in the "PNG - Other" section, along with scenery and other non-wildlife related images. I have included them because they represent a very different culture from our own, something that many people who travel find interesting.

I'm sorry these images make you uncomfortable, but if you have a problem with them, feel free to report them to Sim and he feels the same way he can remove them.

23-07-2011

While I don't necessarily disagree with your point here, I would just like to point out that the difference is that the zoo visitors and zoo chat members aren't usually the subject of the photo.

23-07-2011

I'm not going to report them and I don't doubt Hix's intentions. I just feel that given the history of anthropological shows and the displaying of people alongside animals in the past we should think about the context of our discussions.

The fact is that unlike National Geographic this website concerns itself overwhelmingly with zoos and animals; there is a definite qualitative difference and the context of the discussion is what troubles me.

I cannot view this apart from the baggage of cases such as that of Ota Benga, for example. Ethnographic displays 'placed indigenous people (particularly Africans) in a continuum somewhere between the great apes and humans of European descent' and I feel that we cannot ignore this legacy.

I'd just like to add that I'm not being hysterical, nor do I have a politically correct chip on my shoulder; I am simply trying to address an issue that has been troubling me in a sensitive and respectful way. I'm not going to be dragged into any toxic arguments with people unable to make their point with respect and I've said all I have to say on the matter.

23-07-2011

@Ituri: In some cases they are-may it be zoogiraffe or a child scared of a leopard...

You're making the same mistake as the people deliberately misinterpreting the African village at Augsburg Zoo in 2005:
German Zoo Scandal: 'African Village' Accused of Putting Humans on Display - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
What "legacy"???

This last passage of yours belies your alleged intention, just as your attempt to depict me as "toxic" and disrespectful only illustrates the limits of your very own tolerance and your (dis)ability to lead a sensitive discussion among adults.