Zoo Culture

by Bob Mullan, Garry Marvin, Robert Mullan

Book Overview

Why do people go to zoos? Is the role of zoos to entertain or to educate? In this provocative book, the authors demonstrate that zoos tell us as much about humans as they do about animals and suggest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0297792229
• ISBN13: 9780297792222
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Sociological Take on Zoos

Zoo Culture is a well researched and thoughtful book on the history, function, and cultural meaning of zoos in the world today. The authors do not simply accept the zoo as unproblematic. They attempt to show that zoos, rightly or wrongly, are used to define the difference between human and animal, a contention that the idea of being 'human' is not natural but socially constructed. Their account is certainly not an endorsement of zoos, perhaps even on the contrary, laying out the argument that zoos are ultimately expressions of power by a domineering society.