Biologies of betrayal: Judas goats and sacrificial mice on the margins of Mexico

Wanderer, Emily

doi:10.1057/biosoc.2014.13

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(26 reference statements)

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“…Taylor, National Park Service (retired), oral comm., 2020 andJ.P. Parkes, Kurahaupo Consulting, Christchurch, New Zealand, written comm., 2020;Umland, 1941;Utley, 1944;Wanderer, 2015). Although the Taylor and Katahira (1988) publication has been erroneously cited as documenting the inception and initial application of the technique and terminology (Bonsey, 2011;Wanderer, 2015), it remains a primary citation for researchers employing the Judas technique, especially for research on management of nuisance species.…”

Section: Etymology Of Judas Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Parkes, Kurahaupo Consulting, Christchurch, New Zealand, written comm., 2020;Umland, 1941;Utley, 1944;Wanderer, 2015). Although the Taylor and Katahira (1988) publication has been erroneously cited as documenting the inception and initial application of the technique and terminology (Bonsey, 2011;Wanderer, 2015), it remains a primary citation for researchers employing the Judas technique, especially for research on management of nuisance species. Table 1 provides a list of articles detailing research that employed the Judas technique beginning with the first scientific use of Judas that we were able to locate, although as above a previous description of the technique did not specifically use the term Judas [animals] (Johnsen & Hasler, 1977), and the technique may have been developed and tested concurrently in different locations (Johnsen & Hasler, 1977;Parkes, 1984;Taylor & Katahira, 1988;Thomas, 1982).…”

Section: Etymology Of Judas Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

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Identifying negative sentiment polarity in the Judas technique

Fitzgerald

Josimovich

Robinson

et al. 2021

Conservat Sci and Prac

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In the context of conservation science and management, the Judas technique refers to outfitting an animal (a Judas animal) with a radio transmitter or other identifier so that its movements can be tracked to locate conspecifics. Although this term is commonly used, some consider it offensive due to historical associations of the word Judas with anti-Semitic sentiments. Thus, the term has a negative sentiment polarity (i.e., the assertion that words can have positive, negative, or neutral connotations). We investigated the etymology of the Judas term in peer-reviewed scientific literature to outline its contextual introduction and use. Prior to the term being co-opted by conservation scientists Judas [animal] was a common term in the livestock industry to describe animals used to lead herds to slaughter. Subsequently, the term has been published and promulgated through conservationrelated research and the literature. Due to a negative sentiment polarity linked to this term, especially among members of the public, alternative nomenclature may be preferred to increase objective and dispassionate scientific communication.

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Section: Etymology Of Judas Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Etymology Of Judas Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying negative sentiment polarity in the Judas technique

Fitzgerald

Josimovich

Robinson

et al. 2021

Conservat Sci and Prac

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Social scientists have argued that while invasive species are socially "productive" (Everts & Benediktsson, 2015, p. 134), the concepts are faulty, and the native-invasive dichotomy cannot be upheld, as it is impossible to pin down exactly in space and time when and where something is native or invasive (Warren, 2007). Additionally, the language surrounding invasive species is criticized as racist, as masking economic and political interests, and as fraught with normative ideas about nature and culture (Ogden, 2015;Robbins & Moore, 2013;Subramaniam, 2001;Wanderer, 2015;Warren, 2007).…”

Section: Creating Isolation By Fighting Invasive Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entangling (non)human isolation and connectivity: island nature conservation on Ile aux Aigrettes, Mauritius

Krieg¹

2018

ISJ

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This article discusses the Mauritian offshore islet and nature reserve Ile aux Aigrettes as an example of how the tension between isolation and connectivity of small islands plays out in the context of nature conservation. Combining approaches from island studies, anthropology, and geography, and based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, the article enquires into how 'pristine' nature on Ile aux Aigrettes is produced. It shows how the selective mobility of humans, animals, and plants is part and parcel in producing a seemingly isolated island, e.g. in the case of visiting scientists, species translocation, and invasive species. This shows how the production of the isolated 'pristine' island is dependent on global connections and flows. Isolation and connectivity of islands, I argue here, depend on each other, and are significantly co-constituted by nonhuman mobilities. Nature conservation on Ile aux Aigrettes will be looked at as a reference towards an ideal past or a utopian future, protected as signifiers for a world in socio-ecological balance.

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“…In showing the continuum between tending and caring for tortoises and intervening in and taking care of goats, I consequently question not only the assumption of care's benevolent means but also its goals. Anthropologists and science and technology studies scholars have reflected on forms of care that take place in hunting (Nadasdy ; Willerslev ), eradication (Nading ; Wanderer ), and animal mass killing (Mol, Moser, and Pols ). John Law has uncovered the moral dilemmas of U.K. farmers and veterinarians responding to the foot‐and‐mouth epidemic in the spring 2001.…”

Section: Mattering Carementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet PI presents a different scenario: care was instrumental in scaling up the number of dead goats, rather than delivering a good death. Caring for the tortoises’ survival translated and extended into technologies to make goats die: care's ability to reach and respond to, and to gather knowledge about and harness control over, the animal (see Giraud and Hollin ; Wanderer ) was subsumed under a logic of extermination. If care is the practical orientation that “attunes to the mortal bodies” (Mol , 31), PI's care attuned to goats not to attend to their mortality but rather to exalt it, to make it thrive and contagiously proliferate.…”

Section: Mattering Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Tangles of Care: Killing Goats to Save Tortoises on the Galápagos Islands

Bocci

2017

Cult. Anthropol.

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If calls to care for other species multiply in a time of global and local environmental crisis, this article demonstrates that caring practices are not always as benevolent or irenic as imagined. To save endemic tortoises from the menace of extinction, Proyecto Isabela killed more than two hundred thousand goats on the Galápagos Islands in the largest mammal eradication campaign in the world. While anthropologists have looked at human engagements with unwanted species as habitual and even pleasurable, I discuss an exceptional intervention that was ethically inflected toward saving an endemic species, yet also controversial and distressing. Exploring eradication’s biological, ecological, and political implications and discussing opposing practices of care for goats among residents, I move past the recognition that humans live in a multispecies world and point to the contentious nature of living with nonhuman others. I go on to argue that realizing competing forms of care may help conservation measures—and, indeed, life in the Anthropocene—to move beyond the logic of success and failure toward an open-ended commitment to the more-than-human.

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Biologies of betrayal: Judas goats and sacrificial mice on the margins of Mexico

Cited by 10 publications

References 38 publications

Identifying negative sentiment polarity in the Judas technique

Identifying negative sentiment polarity in the Judas technique

Entangling (non)human isolation and connectivity: island nature conservation on Ile aux Aigrettes, Mauritius

Tangles of Care: Killing Goats to Save Tortoises on the Galápagos Islands

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