An ethnographic village is a real or artificial settlement which portrays historical and

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

characteristics of life of a certain ethnic group. The concept is close to that of an

open-air museum An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere� ...

or "

living museum A living museum, also known as a living history museum, is a type of museum which recreates historical settings to simulate a past time period, providing visitors with an experiential interpretation of history. It is a type of museum that recrea ...

Ethnographic village exhibitions

As early as in 1550 a mock

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian village was built by Rouen,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, on an occasion of the entry of king

Henry II of France Henry II (french: Henri II; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder bro ...

. For this purpose, Brazilian flora and fauna were imported, and typical Amerindian dwellings were built. The village was populated by 50 original

Tabajara Tabajara were one of the Tupi tribes of indigenous people who lived on the easternmost portion of the Atlantic coast of northeast Brazil in the period before and during Portuguese colonization. Their territory included portions of the modern s ...

and

Tupinambá people The Tupinambá are one of the various Tupi ethnic groups that inhabited present-day Brazil since before the conquest of the region by Portuguese colonial settlers. In the first years of contact with the Portuguese, the Tupinambás lived in the wh ...

as well as about 250 French dressed as "natives".Alison Griffiths, "Wondrous difference: cinema, anthropology & turn-of-the-century visual culture", Columbia University Press, 2002, , p. 52 Similar " Negro villages" has become increasingly common in various places, becoming a staple feature of international exhibitions of late 19th-early 20th centuries, such as the

1889 Paris Exposition The Exposition Universelle of 1889 () was a world's fair held in Paris, French Third Republic, France, from 5 May to 31 October 1889. It was the fourth of eight expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It attracted more than thirty-two ...

. Since these villages commonly emphasized the backwards, "savage" ways of life as compared to European civilization, the concept was criticized as a manifestation of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

Real settlements

Lithuania

In modern Lithuania, an ethnographic village ( lt, etnografinis kaimas) is defined as a

rural settlement The definition of a rural settlement depends on the country, in some countries, a rural settlement is any settlement in the areas defined as rural by a governmental office, e.g., by the national census bureau. This may include even rural towns. ...

which maintains traditional, historical, ethnic cultural characteristics specific to the particular region. These characteristic include traditional architecture, farmstead planning, relation to the natural landscape, as well as traditional life, including farming traditions, arts and crafts."Lietuvos etnografinių kaimų išlikimo ilgalaikės programos projektas"
(Project of the long-term program for preservation of Lithuanian ethnographic villages)

References

Ethnography Types of museums Types of village {{ethnography-stub

Ethnographic village exhibitions

Real settlements

Lithuania

See also

References