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

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

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

open-air museum An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings" ...

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 recr ...

Ethnographic village exhibitions

As early as in 1550 a mock

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian village was built by

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, on an occasion of the entry of king

Henry II of France Henry II (; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was List of French monarchs#House of Valois-Angoulême (1515–1589), King of France from 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I of France, Francis I and Claude of France, Claude, Du ...

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

Tabajara Tabajara (; Tabajaras) are an Indigenous people of Brazil who lived on the easternmost portion of the Atlantic coast of northeast Brazil in the period before and during Portuguese colonization. Their territory extended from Ilha de Itamarac ...

and

Tupinambá people The Tupinambá ( Tupinambás) are one of the various Tupi ethnic groups that inhabit present-day Brazil, and who had been living there long before the conquest of the region by Portuguese colonial settlers. The name Tupinambá was also applied t ...

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. 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 (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

Real settlements

Lithuania

In modern

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, an ethnographic village () 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