Ethnography Discussion

L.A. Zoo (:

My group and I decided to visit one of the well known places in Los Angeles, our city zoo. The Los Angeles Zoo is known for its attraction to tourists. The L.A. Zoo is visited a lot by local schools in the county as an educational place and also by locals to come enjoy a day “in the wild”. Though the animals are caged and able to be seen from afar, it doesn’t take anything away from children to feel like they’re outdoors in the animals’ habitats. The Zoo consists of a big, and open space, with lots of trees to give it that outdoor forest look. The Los Angeles Zoo happens to be placed in some of the hills of the local Griffith Park, definitely is a plus for the animals’ home.

            As I entered the L.A. Zoo in order to do my ethnography project I had to close my eyes and pretend that I was no longer at the zoo but at an unfamiliar place. I was able to do that and see the Zoo in a different form and way. The way it became to seem to me was that this place looked like a park or somewhere in the outdoors with all the trees and plants surrounding it. The use of the space sure fits its purpose like that, makes the animals feel possibly somewhat at a comfortable and stable place. It also helps the people who visit as tourists, students, or just locals; get a complete feel of what it might feel like if you were in the wild with all these animals.

            Some may say that the L.A. Zoo represents Los Angeles as a city but I personally couldn’t agree. Los Angeles isn’t really represented by the Zoo, but you can realize the diversity that there is if you visit the Zoo. You see different types of people, different ethnicities, races, ages, etc. That would be a good way to represent L.A. because Los Angeles is a very diverse city. There are even small parts of Los Angeles names after big countries like, Little Armenia, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Little Italy, and Little India. The city of Los Angeles is marked by many countries in which all these people now call home. At the zoo I saw that the souvenirs shops all had different names, represented by different countries or continents around the world. For example Australia, South American, Africa, etc. They all had different types of souvenirs for sale. This could have been a great way to represent Los Angeles, considering the fact that L.A. is definitely diverse.

            The Los Angeles Zoo was a great place to visit for this ethnography project. I was able to look at the different aspects of it by removing myself from the place and thinking that this place was no longer a zoo but just an unfamiliar zed space.