The spectacle of the Filipino exhibits at the 1904 World Fair notoriously sketched Filipinos in exotic yet "uncivilized" manifestations. Filipino tribes, invoked as representatives of the whole Filipino people, were exhibited as savages, headhunters, and dog eaters, a name that has stuck until today.

The 1904 fair, which up to that time was the largest in the world ever recorded took place at an historical juncture when the U.S. was beginning to wield its imperialistic weight as a world power, having recently acquired new territories overseas, including the Philippine Islands.

The Filipino Reservation was one of the most expensive projects of the setting, costing almost 2 million dollars. It was spread over 47 acres and covered with nearly 100 structures.

The Reservation was reported to have 75,000 cataloged exhibits and 1,100 representatives of the different peoples of the archipelago" consisting specifically, the popular exhibition of "18 Tinguians, 30 Bagobos, 70 Bontoc Igorots, 20 Suyoc Igorots, 38 Negritos and Mangyans, 79 Visayans, and 80 Moros (Vergara, 1995).

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Taken from www.review.mai.ac.nz/index.php/MR/article/viewFile/131/146

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