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ISE Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 1 December 2012 Ethnozoology of Human Elephant Relations Contributed by Kierin Mackenzie and Dr. Piers Locke Humans and elephants have been similarly coevolved in Africa from characterized as social earlier species. Humans have problems. Therefore, just Inside this issue: always lived alongside these like humans, elephant amazing beings, and we behaviour can be seen as Ethnozoology 1 share much in common with cultural. of Human Ele- them. Both elephant and Elephants and their kin, the phant Relations human young take a long mammoths, have been a time to mature. Both share Ethnobiological 5 successful taxonomic family, complex social networks. studies about covering much of the earth, Both communicate in a triatomines but their numbers declined myriad of ways with fellow as human populations The Sentimiel 7 species members. Both increased, with co-existence Initiative mourn their dead. in some areas, and extinction As with humans, elephant in others. We are the main Shepherding Lakshmi Kali Research 10 and newborn calf behaviour varies through driver pushing them towards Reports from the Field time and space via patterns extinction. We are wiping downwards, as we kill them of behaviour taught from them out, generation by for their tusks, drive them Wild Edible Plants 10 generation to generation. As generation. Elephant out of their homes, and fight in South India with humans, behaviour also numbers plummeted them for our crops th adapts as conditions change, throughout the 20 century, (Choudhury et al. 2008). Wild Edible plants 12 and breaking the flow of and although there are It isn’t all doom and gloom, in Ethiopia information leads to what success stories, the trend is (continued on page 2) The role of cere- 13 monies in pre- From the Editorial Team serving biocultural Ethnozoology, a sub- diversity and domestic animals. Field: on wild edible plants in discipline of ethnobiology, is South India and Ethiopia, the In past issues we have the study of the relationships role of ceremonies in A Note on the 14 included articles about between human cultures preserving biocultural Bribri and ethnoornithology. This issue Cabécar Peoples and the animals in their diversity among the Loita of the ISE Newsletter focuses environment and how Maasai, and reflections on Ethnobiologist’s on this interesting sub- 15 different cultures think the Bribri and Cabecares in Bookshelf discipline, as three ISE about those animals. It Costa Rica. includes classification and members share their We hope you enjoy! naming of zoological forms, research with elephants, understanding cultural triatomines and bees. Natasha Duarte, Sarah-Lan knowledge and documenting Also in this issue are Mathez-Stiefel and Leslie use and management of wild Research Reports from the Main Johnson Page 2 ISE Newsletter Ethnozoology of Human Elephant Relations (continued) however. Over the successful relations elephants, can not only generations of human- between them and us. bring clarity to the manifold elephant co-existence, Because of the long history ways in which humans there have been many of interaction, and the interact with elephants and examples of humans and complexity of engagement, make them meaningful, but elephants getting along. We a wide range of techniques also make a positive appear to have formed have been used to study contribution to elephant direct working relationships elephants and humans in conservation and elephant with elephants over 5000 the past. From India has welfare. years ago in India (Lahiri- emerged the Gajahshastra, Ethnoecology can be seen Satya Narayan and Choudhury, 1995) and in Paras Gaj a genre of literature of great as “…concerned with the order to maintain their antiquity concerning interaction between numbers for use in warfare, knowledge pertaining to the knowledge, practice, and construction, logging and management of elephants production and is oriented entertainment, we have in dating back to the fifth or toward applied research on the past set aside areas for sixth century BCE (Sukumar conservation and them, passed laws, and 1994), and with other community found other ways for giving Veterinarians, writings on elephants like development” (Martin room to them. the Rig Veda dating back 2001), and the beginnings of biologists, Whilst we have tamed 4000 years (Radhakrishna such work from an elephant elephants, we have never and Sinha, 2010). centric perspective has ecologists, poets, domesticated them (Kurt Veterinarians, biologists, begun. 2006). Friendly and philosophers, ecologists, poets, Ethnozoology, focussing on compliant as they may philosophers, saints, and the interactions between sometimes be, they always saints, and others have long told stories various cultural groups of remain wild, and an adult about elephants, our species with other non- others have long elephant can kill a human investigated their behaviour human animals is a field ripe easily. We take them and morphology, and for further differentiation told stories captive, but we are speculated on the nature of and cross pollination. Our ultimately in their care in their being. There are gaps, own research inaugurates about elephants. any working relationship. however. There always are. this nascent sub-field of We need to find ways of A multidisciplinary approach ethnoelephantology living with them, and one through ethnographic and way is to document would be fruitful. A new approach to the study of historical research into human-primate captive elephant interactions, shared space, management, which can be and co-ecologies has complemented by blossomed in the field incorporating the ecological known as ethnoprimatology and cognitive dimensions of (Fuentes 2010). We argue the human-elephant nexus. that something similar for Currently, the human-elephant relations is documentation of needed, something we call Indigenous knowledge ethnoelephantology. We about elephants is contend that the inadequate, despite perspectives of Indigenous peoples being ethnozoology and highlighted as making the Elephant teams going off to graze ethnoecology, applied to some of the best mahouts Volume 4, Issue 1 Page 3 Ethnozoology of Human Elephant Relations (continued) with long and ancient elephant, and on the fluid traditions (Lair 1997, Kurt and multiple status of 2006). Traditional territories elephants as animals, of Indigenous peoples persons, and gods as they continue to be the homes of articulate with the relational some of the healthiest modalities of domination, populations of wild companionship, and elephants. The range of veneration. information that cultures His most recent field with strong connections research has investigated with elephants accumulate the role of foreign NGOs in needs to be brought to the humane elephant training centre of elephant studies. programmes and in the Piers Locke has been treatment of elephant Cutting Narayani Kali's toenails working with elephant tuberculosis. He is currently handlers in the lowland developing a new project on the area. Tarai of Nepal since 2001. historical photography and For this he plans to apply His research has focussed human-elephant relations in the Use and Occupancy on the history of Nepali South Asia. methodology as outlined by captive elephant Kierin Mackenzie, in turn is Tobias (2000, 2009). Such management (Locke 2008, at the beginnings of work in an approach for gathering 2011a), apprenticeship Southern India with detailed traditional learning, professional mahouts in government knowledge of a single identity formation, and the camps where the species has been shown to significance of ritual be effective before in the practitioners are largely Traditional practice and religious belief Adivasi. He is working out work of Ferguson et al. in the occupational fieldwork plans for (2012). territories of subculture of the elephant documenting the The constituents for an stable as an enclaved, total knowledge, practices and ethnoelephantology are Indigenous institution (Locke 2007, Hart belief systems of traditional already present. Raman and Locke 2007, Locke elephant experts at these Sukumar has focussed on peoples continue 2011b). camps, who are known for the history of elephant to be the homes His film Servants of Ganesh their expertise with captive human relations with his (Dugas and Locke 2010), is a elephants and who come book “The Story of Asia's of some of the portrait of the lives of from a cultural milieu Elephants” (2011), and has humans and elephants and familiar with wild elephants spent years analysing healthiest the practice of training and the landscape they live human-elephant conflict, juveniles at the Khorsor in. and Asian Elephant ecology. populations of stable in the Chitwan Jamie Lorimer has looked at His previous work wild elephants. National Park. In relation to documenting traditional the biogeography of human- the developing field of land use of First Nations in elephant relations. Surendra multispecies ethnography Canada has led him to an Varma has looked at the (Kirksey and Helmreich approach that will place welfare of elephants and 2010), he is currently some emphasis on the the correlations with writing on elephant training spatial and temporal different methods of care. at the Khorsor Elephant dynamics of this knowledge, Richard Lair called for the Breeding Centre as a in an effort to add depth to need for more social multispecies rite of passage other elephant studies in scientists to study the skills for both trainer and and knowledge of Page 4 ISE