Reflections on Human-Elephant Multispecies Culture in Northern Thailand
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Peer-Reviewed Research Article Gajah 53 (2021) 4-19 Speaking with an Upside-Down Tongue: Reflections on Human-Elephant Multispecies Culture in Northern Thailand Alexander M. Greene1,2 1Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Guyane, France 2Centre for Biocultural Diversity, University of Kent, Canterbury, U.K. Author’s e-mail: [email protected] Abstract. In Karen villages in northern Thailand, humans often coexist with captive wild Asian elephants, in what can be described as a multispecies culture. A variety of ethnographic data is presented here as evidence of this culture, including an elephant origin story, rituals performed throughout elephant lives, and associated beliefs and practices. Together these rituals and beliefs mediate and define the human-elephant relationship. This relationship exists not only on physical, intellectual and emotional levels, but also within the spiritual worldview of Karen people. In this worldview, elephants are entangled in the same complex relations with spirits, both within their bodies and within the landscape in which they live, that influence Karen human lives. The shared life between humans, elephants and spirits can be understood as a form of multispecies culture resulting from a long process of cultural co-evolution. Introduction (Singh 1963; Lobban & de Liedekerke 2000; Clarence-Smith 2019). A branch of Ayurvedic “The fourteenth-century lexicographer Mu- medicine, Gaja Ayurveda, was developed hammad al-Damiri suggested that the elephant’s specifically for the care of elephants, who were tongue is upside down and if only it could be an indispensable part of armies and the retinues turned around this animal would be able to of kings (Somvanshi 2006). But the connection speak… Until such time, however, human beings goes deeper still: the widespread archaeological are left to recount the life story of this species, evidence of proboscidean hunting, bones used even as we intrude upon the telling of the tale.” in construction, and the carving of elephant (Stephen 2004) figurines in the upper Paleolithic indicates that elephants and mammoths were not only a key The human-Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) food source for ancient humans but likely played connection is one of the most complex, dynamic a significant role in their cosmology (Lev & and idiosyncratic relationships that have ever Barkai 2016; Barkai 2019). evolved between human and more-than-human beings. As Lorimer (2010) puts it, elephants are Today, this ancient relationship continues, despite “too social and sagacious to be objects; too strange significant changes in the nature of humanity’s to be human; too captive to be wild, but too wild material entanglement with elephants. Two to be domesticated”. Asian elephants have been populations continue to exist: those who live free entangled in human lifeways for more than 4,000 lives in the ‘wild’, and those who are raised and years as captives and companions, participating live in a state of constant companionship with directly in all the strands of knowledge and humans. Yet the elephant-human relationship practice that collectively comprise human culture: perfectly encapsulates the changing winds of religion, art, construction, commerce, and war. modern scholarship and the steadily unravelling Wild and captive elephants were present in ancient dependency on a nature/culture duality. Captive Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Central Asia and China, or companion elephants are not domesticated and and at the dawn of the Aryan conquest of India never have been. Leery of breeding in captivity, © 2021 The Author - Open Access 4 the elephants in human care often mate with conservationists directly inform the analysis free-roaming elephants (Locke 2014; Lainé presented here. After an introduction to Karen 2018), producing offspring that are hybrids of the and elephant lifeways, I present an elephant ori- postulated ‘wild’ and ‘captive’ elephant cultures. gin story, then proceed through an elephant’s life Capturing free-roaming elephants is no longer cycle, discussing relevant practices and beliefs at common, but the ‘wild’ populations that roam each stage. Finally, I argue that this material is the lowland and mountain forests of Asia not evidence of a dynamic, coevolving multispecies only thrive in human-altered landscapes but also culture that continues to shape the lives of humans constantly interact with humans, often in conflict and elephants in Karen villages today. and sometimes in peace (Fernando 2000; Lainé 2017a). To understand this complex entanglement The Karen requires us to shed the nature/culture divide and adopt a more flexible discursive space, A highland people of Thailand and Myanmar, the one that recognizes the ‘ambivalent intimacies’ Karen have traditionally lived in small villages in that weave together human and elephant lives mountainous areas cultivating rotating swiddens (Münster 2016). of upland rice (Fukushima et al. 2007). Their connection with elephants is long-standing, as It is in this spirit of reaching for new modes of this colonial-era quote attests to: “In some of the understanding that Locke (2013) has proposed backward jungle districts especially amongst the a novel approach, ethnoelephantology, which Karen, elephants take a place somewhat akin to is premised on the recognition of human the horse or ox, living with their owner on easy and elephant sentience and coevolution and terms of intimacy and liking” (Giles 1929). In the employs inter- and multidisciplinary tools. This period in which this was written, and continuing study takes inspiration from the principles of today in some areas, one of the major practical ethnoelephantology to explore the multispecies roles elephants played in daily life was in culture of Asian elephants and the Karen, a agriculture. They were indispensable in bringing highland people of Southeast Asia. As with rice from the fields back to the village during the all attempts to arrive at an ‘anthropology harvest, and also assisted during planting and beyond humanity’ (Ingold 2013) by conducting other times of strenuous labour (Schliesinger ‘multispecies ethnography’ (Kirksey & Helmreich 2010). 2010), the challenge is clear: elephants cannot tell their own story. Cursed, or blessed, with an The Karen are the largest ethnic minority group in upside-down tongue, one half of the multispecies northern Thailand, but they are far more numerous culture to be discussed remains mute, and so, as in neighbouring Myanmar, where Karen military the quote that introduces this paper points out, groups control Kayin State in opposition of the we must ‘intrude upon the telling of the tale.’ Myanmarese government. Decades of conflict in Kayin State have internally displaced hundreds To do so, I rely on a range of ethnographic of thousands of people, many of whom have material: stories, beliefs and practices of Karen fled to refugee camps on the Thai side of the people in relation to their elephant companions. border (Bartholomew et al. 2015). In the face This material, which forms the backbone of of pressure from the governments of Thailand my argument for the existence of an elephant- and Myanmar, many Karen have also responded Karen multispecies culture, comes from four with forms of non-violent resistance (Isager & Sgaw Karen communities in the highlands Ivarsson 2002), including grassroots activism and of northern Thailand. I interpret this material millenarian religious movements (Gravers 2001). from the perspective of an American researcher In Thailand, Karen groups have successfully without a cultural connection to Asian elephants opposed the appropriation of their ancestral lands or elephant husbandry; however, my experiences by Thai government bodies (Trakansuphakorn in northern Thai elephant camps and friendships 2008). In Myanmar, a partnership between with mahouts, elephant owners and elephant Karen communities, the Karen National Union 5 (KNU) and the Karen Environmental and Social healing practices, and beliefs that Karen people Action Network (KESAN) has recently founded hold about elephants, themselves, and their the Salween Peace Park as a means of both landscape. de-escalating military tensions and promoting sustainable livelihood development in the Karen Asian elephants homeland (Kamiński et al. 2019). A common ecological claim is that Asian Karen people have often been perceived in elephants have a profound impact on the Thailand as environmentally friendly due to their ecosystems they inhabit. Their voracious feeding use of sustainable and ecologically responsible and herd movements create patches of disturbance methods of rotational agriculture and forest within the forest, which play an important role in management (Santasombat 2004). But in promoting plant succession. As they feed, travel recent decades, Thai government policies and and defecate, they redistribute undigested seeds in market forces have pushed many communities convenient packages of fertilizer, thus promoting to adopt intensive corn agriculture, resulting in seed dispersal and nutrient cycling (Harich et al. deforestation and environmental degradation 2016). Some of the Karen knowledge holders (Buergin 2002). These changes are due to the interviewed during this study believe that as cascading effects of growth in population and elephant populations decrease in Thailand, the per capita income throughout Asia, which mountain forests are becoming denser and more has increased meat consumption, leading to impenetrable, because