Connecting Cultural Values to the Natural World At the San Diego Zoo

The USD Anthropology Club, joined by students from across disciplines, spent an afternoon at the San Diego Zoo examining the layered relationships between humans, animals, plants and place.

“We had such a great time at the San Diego Zoo–it was so great to be able to take students interested in anthropology to learn about how the study of primates fits into the study of people,” exclaimed Anthropology major Taylor Newton. This off-campus visit invited students to critically engage with the zoo not merely as a site of leisure, but as a constructed cultural landscape shaped by narratives of conservation, education and entertainment.

Throughout the day, students considered the zoo as a curated environment where horticultural design, exhibit language and spatial organization actively shape public understandings of nature and cultural identity. "We wanted students to see the zoo as a living exhibit of human values and cultural production," said Anthropology Club President Madeleine Turco, a political science and internal relations major with an anthropology minor. While observing animal behavior and skeletal displays, the group explored questions surrounding species representation, primate social structures and the ethical complexities of captivity.

By integrating biological, cultural and archaeological perspectives, the trip offered a hands-on opportunity to apply classroom theories to a real-world setting. "Spaces like the San Diego Zoo reflect not only biological diversity but also the ways societies construct ideas about wilderness, stewardship and the human relationship to the natural world," explained Turco.

“This has always been one of my favorite trips that the Anthropology Club offers, and I’m grateful we were able to bring it back after a 2 year hiatus,” shared Newton. The club hopes to continue organizing events that foster interdisciplinary exploration and encourage students to see everyday spaces as sites of anthropological inquiry.