Nancy J. Jacobs
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300209617
- eISBN:
- 9780300220803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209617.003.0006
- Subject:
- Biology, Ornithology
This chapter demonstrates how ornithologists reconciled their racial awareness and their dependence on African vernacular birders. With the establishment of the European empire over Africa, the ...
More
This chapter demonstrates how ornithologists reconciled their racial awareness and their dependence on African vernacular birders. With the establishment of the European empire over Africa, the number of ornithologists who held day jobs as colonial officials expanded, and their presence spread throughout the continent. With the expansion of colonial society, recreational birdwatching, a leisure activity of urban bourgeois classes, entered the constellation of birding practices in Africa. Living with Africans, Europeans became “whites,” with all the benefits and anxieties that racial definition brought them. While working in Africa, they needed to lay boundaries to protect their status. The history of European birders in Africa shows that the politics of race were powerful, but also that they were a realm for individual negotiations.Less
This chapter demonstrates how ornithologists reconciled their racial awareness and their dependence on African vernacular birders. With the establishment of the European empire over Africa, the number of ornithologists who held day jobs as colonial officials expanded, and their presence spread throughout the continent. With the expansion of colonial society, recreational birdwatching, a leisure activity of urban bourgeois classes, entered the constellation of birding practices in Africa. Living with Africans, Europeans became “whites,” with all the benefits and anxieties that racial definition brought them. While working in Africa, they needed to lay boundaries to protect their status. The history of European birders in Africa shows that the politics of race were powerful, but also that they were a realm for individual negotiations.
Nancy J. Jacobs
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300209617
- eISBN:
- 9780300220803
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209617.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Ornithology
This unique and unprecedented study of birding in Africa reconstructs the collaborations between well-known ornithologists and the largely forgotten guides, hunters, and taxidermists who worked with ...
More
This unique and unprecedented study of birding in Africa reconstructs the collaborations between well-known ornithologists and the largely forgotten guides, hunters, and taxidermists who worked with them. Drawing on ethnography, scientific publications, private archives, and interviews, the author asks: How did white ornithologists both depend on and operate distinctively from African birders? What investment did African birders have in collaborating with ornithologists? By distilling the interactions between European science and African vernacular knowledge, this stunningly illustrated book offers a fascinating examination of the colonial and postcolonial politics of expertise about nature.Less
This unique and unprecedented study of birding in Africa reconstructs the collaborations between well-known ornithologists and the largely forgotten guides, hunters, and taxidermists who worked with them. Drawing on ethnography, scientific publications, private archives, and interviews, the author asks: How did white ornithologists both depend on and operate distinctively from African birders? What investment did African birders have in collaborating with ornithologists? By distilling the interactions between European science and African vernacular knowledge, this stunningly illustrated book offers a fascinating examination of the colonial and postcolonial politics of expertise about nature.
