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- Convenors:
-
Csaba Mészáros
(Hungarian Research Network, Research Centre for the Humanities)
Eva Mihalovics (Durham University)
Miha Kozorog (ZRC SAZU)
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- Format:
- Panel
Short Abstract:
Ungulates are the most dominant family of vertebrates in Earth's ecosystem, measured by biomass. Due to their impact on Earth's ecosystem human-ungulate knowledge coproduction and distribution and the stories of shared and entangled human-ungulate lifeworlds are important fields to explore.
Long Abstract:
Cattle are the most dominant mammal species and ungulates (like cattle, sheep, pigs, wild game, etc.) are the most dominant family of vertebrates in Earth's ecosystem, measured by biomass. They are usually represented as an important part of local economies, serving as valuable “assets” for farmers, nomads, hunters, and agricultural entrepreneurs in anthropological literature. Research focusing on community resilience and adaptation in the Anthropocene era should aim to understand how local communities respond to rapid environmental and climatic changes by taking non-human animals and their knowledes, and skills into account.
Anthropocentric studies focus predominantly on human knowledge, leaving the knowledge, skills and behaviour of bovine and ungulate animals underrepresented in anthropological writing. It's important to recognize that the community of knowers and actors in a given environment includes more than just humans and that ungulate animals have a dominant impact on local ecologies. Despite this robust impact, anthropologists have limited knowledge about how the agency, knowledge, skills of these animals contribute to local decision-making. Studying interspecies knowledge co-production and distribution, shared spaces and lifeworlds of humans and ungulates are worth exploring.
This panel aims to explore the external and internal conditions of human- ungulate (cattle-sheep-pig-deer etc.) coexistence. It seeks to understand how the non-simultaneity (Ungleichzeitigkeit) of conflicting moralities and ontologies of humans and bovines/ungulates create unique frameworks and life paths in their coexistence. It also aims to address how it is possible to create histories and ethnographies of bovine/ungulate lifeways that do not solely revolve around human perspectives.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper Short Abstract:
The paper suggests that cold regions rather than problems present opportunities for the development of resilient organisms on this planet that can best adapt to changing climates. Data from human-animal livelihoods in Arctic pastoralism from Siberia, Finland and Greenland shows how partnerships of humans with animals navigate a fine line between the duty to protect and the desire for autonomy of animals. Negotiating that fine line involves as much intimate knowledge by people of their animals, as it involves agency by the animals to carve out the autonomy they strive for without compromising the services they offer to their people in exchange for protection.
Paper Abstract:
It is usually thought that the Arctic presents the most challenging environment for the sustainable survival and development of organisms. This paper will start from the other end and investigate what the benefit of a cold environment is for the development of organisms. Rather than emphasizing the deficit of the planet's cold regions, we show how humans and some ungulates such as reindeer, cattle, horses and sheep have used the benefit of their surrounding cold environment to develop some key adaptive traits that makes them resilient in extreme surroundings. We show how humans jointly with their animals have developed these adaptive capacities in relations of trust and partnership rather than in dominance and subjugation. This also means that humans carefully consider animal perception and agency in their decision making and selective breeding practices in their pastoralist livelihoods in the Arctic. On the one hand, the closeness of such partnerships involves a human duty to protect their domestic animals (in exchange for loyalty and service that the animals lend to people). On the other hand, autonomy is among the highest valued traits that people seek to strengthen in their animals: the more autonomous the animals are, the less expensive care they need from humans, while still providing basic services for their human partners (such as milk, transport, warmth, food). With data from Siberia, Finland and Greenland we show that extreme environments are not a problem but a benefit for boosting resilience of organisms in related livelihoods.
Paper Short Abstract:
The historical breed of the Kárpáti borzderes (Carpathian brown) cattle went almost extinct in Hungary during state socialism. Then with a recent revival program, several animals were imported into Hungary from areas where top predators live. This restoration overlaps with the reappearance of wolves in rural areas. The question is how can we find out about the bovine knowledges and experiences regarding predators and how can we learn from them?
Paper Abstract:
This presentation is based on my more than two years ethnographic field work aiming to explore the relationship(s) between humans and non-humans and different imaginaries of nature in rural Hungary. During this research I encountered the story of a bull who overruled the decision of the ‘gazda’ (farmer) when he wanted to herd the cattle to a new pasture. Putna, the Kárpáti borzderes (Carpathian Brown) bull did not allow the cows and calves to move to the new pasture, preventing them from going through the gate. Then, a few days later it turned out that there were wolves roaming in the area. Putna, the bull was raised and socialised in a Transylvanian pasture where there used to be wolves and bears present. In contrast with the gazda, Putna did have memories and experiences, and seemed to know how to deal with predators. I approach this story as an example of ‘multispecies semiosis going wrong’ where humans and non-humans both tried to communicate but failed to succeed. In this interpretation, this story is embedded in the broader context of the revival of the Carpathian Brown cattle which went almost extinct in Hungary during the years of state socialism. Then with the project aiming its restoration, animals were imported into Hungary from Romania and Ukraine – animals with significant knowledges about predators. The question is how can we find out what they know and think about those predators? And how can we learn from them?
Paper Short Abstract:
In the conflict surrounding the presence of the wolf in Spain, the scientific literature gives little or no importance to the role played by ungulates. This paper will focus on what their presence tells us about the so-called conflict between humans and wolves.
Paper Abstract:
Over the past decade, the return of large predators to Europe has been described and documented by conservation scientists (Chapron et al., 2014). Among these emblematic species, the return of the wolf is particularly controversial (Pates and Leser, 2021). The scientific literature on the subject tries to explain the factors that make the relationship between humans and wolves confrontational, without really considering the third party in this conflict: livestock. Devoured by wolves, butchered and sold by humans for consumption or exploitation, the flesh of certain ungulates is at the heart of the “conflict” between wolves and humans. Taking up the main lines of an anthropological investigation carried out in northern Spain, this paper proposes to approach the “wolf problem” in this country through the notion of necropolitics (Mbembe). Focusing on what the “ungulate presence”, both invisibilized and overlooked, tells us about this socio-environmental conflict, the focus will be on the management of the life, death and flesh of ungulates as a commodity. More specifically, certain survey results will be placed in dialogue with the existing literature on the conflict around the wolf, enabling us both to clarify the terms and to specify the specificities of the Spanish case.
Paper Short Abstract:
Sakha circular economy rely heavily on the knowledge and skills of ungulate animals; thus, understanding local environmental perception requires acknowledging more than just human knowledge. In my paper, I explore how local adaptation processes can be examined from a multi-species perspective amid rapid ecological and societal changes.
Paper Abstract:
Ungulate animals are essential in more than just human Sakha sociality in subarctic Yakutia. The lowlands of Central Yakutia are dotted with lentil-shaped thermokarst depressions, known as alaas in Sakha, which foster a rich array of meadow and herbaceous vegetation within the ever-present boreal forest of the taiga. This unique environment creates an interconnected network of habitats for both grazing ungulates and humans.
Humans engage with these animals by breeding, hunting, and consuming them, with venison, beef, and horse meat serving as staples of the local cuisine. The coexistence of ungulate animals and humans facilitates the sharing of knowledge and communication across species, leading to the formation of complex, multi-layered mental "maps." These maps arise from the different ways that species sense, perceive, and navigate through meadows.
The Sakha herders, hunters, and the local circular economy rely heavily on the knowledge and skills of ungulate animals; thus, understanding local environmental perception requires acknowledging more than just human knowledge. In my paper, I explore how local adaptation processes can be examined from a multi-species perspective amid rapid ecological and societal changes.