The chimpanzees' tea party was a form of public entertainment in which chimpanzees were dressed in human clothes and provided with a table of food and drink.
The first such tea party was held at the London Zoo in 1926, two years after the opening of Monkey Hill. They were put on almost daily during the summer until they were discontinued in 1972.
My project on stereotypical behaviour questions the way we behave as humans and presents historic examples of feral children who lack typical human behaviour. The Chimps' tea party, although now non-existant, demonstrates animals being taught how to behave like humans and inevitably failing - hence the connotations of the phrase with chaos and disorder.
No comments:
Post a Comment