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Paper short abstract:

This paper highlights the importance of indigenous knowledge in human-animal conflict management contexts. The study will therefore illustrate how indigenous groups from various African communities use their knowledge and folk narratives to manage conflicts arising from human-animal contact.

Paper long abstract:

This paper highlights the importance of indigenous knowledge in human-animal conflict management contexts. Land is recognized in this paper as the space where human-animal conflicts occur, so its relevance to indigenous groups will be studied. The study will briefly discuss the relationship between the Igbo indigenous group and their land, drawing examples from the author’s personal experience. The study will therefore illustrate how indigenous groups from various African communities use their knowledge and folk narratives to manage conflicts arising from human-animal contact. Folk narrative traditions such as these may offer pathways as we try to develop benevolent stewardship of nature.

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Paper short abstract:

How is wilderness – as an environmental domain that humans do not engage with perceptually – imagined and represented in oral narratives? Two case studies about humanlike figures from Italy and India will elucidate the local relationships and engagements between humans and wilderness.

Paper long abstract:

In his 2000 book “The Perception of the Environment”, the anthropologist Tim Ingold describes the perception of an organism – both human and nonhuman – as directly tied to the presence of an environment of other living and non-living beings that surrounds and interacts with them. In this regard, he mentions repeatedly the concept of “perceptual engagement with the environment”, mostly referring to humans who need to deal with their environment and its sensorial perception for their living processes.

Despite the undeniable anthropic influence on the world that we inhabit, wilderness is still a crucial element of our planet and biosphere. Wilderness, in this sense, can be defined as an environmental domain that humans do not engage with perceptually, due to physical distance or geographical barriers. Conversely, wilderness is a consistent part of human imagination and narrative.

In this paper, two case studies – from the Italian Alps and from the Karbi Indigenous community of Northeast India – will illustrate how wilderness has been imagined and represented through humanlike figures within local narratives, namely the Italian “uomo selvatico” and the Karbi “Kenglong-Po”. Both figures are connected to wilderness and the idea of wild in the respective geographical areas, articulating the relationship between humans and the wild environments that they cannot access physically and/or perceptually.

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Paper short abstract:

Focusing on two instances of ‘touch’ over cows’ bodies in Turkey, this paper differentiates between veterinary and zootechnical care. While veterinary care and caring forms of touch create a reciprocal indeterminacy that can undo the commodity form, zootechnical care solidifies control.

Paper long abstract:

In defining cows as globally traded commodities, legal and veterinary regulations allocate the legitimacy of touch over their bodies. While the legal regulations distinguish between “licit” and “illicit” forms of touch (Rosenberg 2017), veterinary medicine often legitimizes tactile interventions on cows' bodies by emphasizing the notion of care. In both contexts, touch becomes desirable as it contributes to the (re)production of cows for/as a commodity. Yet, the touch also introduces uncertainty in specific contexts, where care can disrupt or create a dent in the productivity regime. By analyzing two instances of ‘touch’ over cows’ bodies in Turkey's production and circulation process, I would like to explore the uncertainty introduced by touch, establishing a differentiation between veterinary and zootechnical care. While veterinary care and caring forms of touch create a reciprocal indeterminacy that can suspend the commodity form, zootechnical care solidifies control. The indeterminacy introduced by veterinary care can both undo and reinstitute the commodity form, aligning care with the broader "economies of touch" (Ahmed 2000) governing cows' bodies through zootechnical means.

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Paper short abstract:

We analyze discourses on captivity and nature in zoos and demonstrated that conservation, welfare, and rights actors frame them as (1) carceral, (2) encounter spaces, and (3) refuges, suggesting wild animals have true conservation value in nature and welfare practices are for captive animals.

Paper long abstract:

Compassionate conservation’s principle of ‘inclusivity’ affirms conservation value as the intrinsic value of collectives and advocates for the consideration of all species and populations regardless of genetics, rarity, or endemism. Zoos complement in situ conservation through ex situ efforts that emphasize divisions between captivity and nature, seemingly violating this principle. We first aimed to determine how actors in conservation, animal welfare, animal rights represent ‘inclusivity’ when they talk about in situ and ex situ practices. Next, we sought to understand how actors frame zoos as spaces that increase or diminish the conservation value of captive populations. Through qualitative fieldwork analyzing interviews with professionals in zoos, conservation, animal welfare and rights, we distilled two discourses (nativism and anthropocentrism) on divisions between captivity and nature and demonstrated that actors frame zoos as (1) carceral spaces, (2) encounter spaces, and (3) refuges. Our analysis shows that actors viewed the in situ context as the only setting where wild populations have true conservation value and often associated welfare practices with captive animals in ex situ settings.