Explorations in Ethnoelephantology

Social, Historical, and Ecological Intersections between Asian Elephants and Humans

in Environment and Society
Author:
Piers Locke University of Canterbury piers.locke@canterbury.ac.nz

Search for other papers by Piers Locke in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Restricted access

Humans and elephants have lived together and shared space together in diverse ways for millennia. The intersections between these thinking and feeling species have been differently explored, for different reasons, by disciplines across the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Such disciplinary divisions, predicated on oppositions of human-animal and nature-culture, are integral to the configuration of modernist thought. However, posthumanist and biocultural thinking questions the underlying epistemological conventions, thereby opening up interdisciplinary possibilities for human-animal studies. In relation to issues of conflict and coexistence, this article charts the emergence of an interdisciplinary research program and discursive space for human-elephant intersections under the rubric of ethnoelephantology. Recognizing continuities between the sentient and affective lifeworlds of humans and elephants, the mutual entanglements of their social, historical, and ecological relations, and the relevance of combining social and natural science methodologies, the article surveys recent research from anthropology, history, and geography that exemplifies this new approach.

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Environment and Society

Advances in Research

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 3270 997 192
Full Text Views 188 33 0
PDF Downloads 215 25 0