Animals and Imperialism: Recent Historiographical Trends

Abstract

In the last decade or so, an increasing number of historians have written about the relationship between animals and imperialism. Their work builds on pioneering scholarship by environmental historian Alfred Crosby and cultural historians Harriet Ritvo and John MacKenzie, among others. Recent writing on animals and imperialism, influenced by wider trends in animal studies and history, has taken this topic in new directions. Namely, history writing on animals and imperialism has become more concerned with actual animals and their relationship with people, the metaphorical deployment of creatures, animal agency, and sources that give voice to animals. Work on animals and imperialism will likely benefit from becoming less Western-centric and more transnational and transimperial.Animals and imperialism are two topics that have (separately) attracted a tremendous amount of attention from historians for over a decade. Already in 2004, Harriet Ritvo noticed an increasing interest among fellow historians in animals and declared that "animals have been edging toward the mainstream" of the discipline.

American Cows in Antarctica: Richard Byrd's polar dairy as symbolic settler colonialism

“…He concludes by pointing to some directions for future studies of animals and imperialism, such as the need for "more histories of all kinds and places … many other geographic contexts and aspects of the relationship between animals and imperialism remain to be explored." 85 Our account of the Antarctic journey of Deerfoot, Klondike and Southern Girl -and, later, Iceberg -can readily be placed in Skabelund's first two categories, and to a certain extent in the third. Brief instances of the cows' foiling of human plans and even their voices are certainly evident in the records of their journey: Klondike's delivery of her calf out of the camera's view; Southern Girl's attempt to reboard the ship; Iceberg's refusal to perform his expedition "duties" and his vociferous grunting during formal speeches.…”

Using animal history to inform current debates in gene editing farm animals: A systematic review

“…To avoid the challenges associated with live animal quarantine, Leibig's Extract of Meat Company in German South West Africa (modern-day Namibia) began exporting beef extract and cubes in 1906 made from "scrub" Zebu cattle . Veterinary knowledge about animals served to ameliorate perceived and real challenges that came with the imperial expansion of animals (Krätli, 2010;Skabelund, 2013;Brown, 2016;Ford, 2018;Conz, 2020;Wedekind, 2021).…”

Predicting the legitimacy of wolf recovery

“…History. Environmental histories also play an important role in human perspectives about wolf conservation (Biehler 2011, Skabelund 2013). In the case of the red wolf, natural resource conflict in the area has less to do with bloodthirsty wolves than the amount of public land that exists or USFWS-induced variations in Lake Mattamuskeet water levels (Serenari et al 2018).…”