Thomas R. Trautmann
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226264226
- eISBN:
- 9780226264530
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226264530.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Because of their enormous size, elephants have been irresistible for kings as symbols of their eminence. In the early civilizations—Egypt, Assyria and Mesopotamia, the Indus Civilization, China—kings ...
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Because of their enormous size, elephants have been irresistible for kings as symbols of their eminence. In the early civilizations—Egypt, Assyria and Mesopotamia, the Indus Civilization, China—kings have used elephants in royal sacrifice, spectacular hunts, public display of live captives, and the conspicuous consumption of ivory—all of them tending toward the elephant’s extinction. But the kings of India, as Thomas Trautmann writes in this book, found a use for elephants that actually helped preserve their habitat and numbers in the wild: war. Trautmann shows that because elephants eat such massive quantities of food, it was uneconomic to raise them from birth. Rather, in a unique form of domestication, Indian kings captured wild adults and trained them, one by one, through millennia. Kings were thus compelled to protect wild elephants from hunters and elephant forests from being cut down. Trautmann traces the history of the war elephant in India and the spread of the institution to the west—where elephants took part in some of the greatest wars of antiquity—and Southeast Asia (but not China, significantly), a history that spans 3000 years and a considerable part of the globe, from Spain to Java. By taking a wide-angle view of human-elephant relations over a such an expanse, he throws into relief the structure of India’s environmental history and the reasons for the persistence of wild elephants in its forests.Less
Because of their enormous size, elephants have been irresistible for kings as symbols of their eminence. In the early civilizations—Egypt, Assyria and Mesopotamia, the Indus Civilization, China—kings have used elephants in royal sacrifice, spectacular hunts, public display of live captives, and the conspicuous consumption of ivory—all of them tending toward the elephant’s extinction. But the kings of India, as Thomas Trautmann writes in this book, found a use for elephants that actually helped preserve their habitat and numbers in the wild: war. Trautmann shows that because elephants eat such massive quantities of food, it was uneconomic to raise them from birth. Rather, in a unique form of domestication, Indian kings captured wild adults and trained them, one by one, through millennia. Kings were thus compelled to protect wild elephants from hunters and elephant forests from being cut down. Trautmann traces the history of the war elephant in India and the spread of the institution to the west—where elephants took part in some of the greatest wars of antiquity—and Southeast Asia (but not China, significantly), a history that spans 3000 years and a considerable part of the globe, from Spain to Java. By taking a wide-angle view of human-elephant relations over a such an expanse, he throws into relief the structure of India’s environmental history and the reasons for the persistence of wild elephants in its forests.
Nurit Bird-David
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520293403
- eISBN:
- 9780520966680
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293403.003.0011
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
The problem of naming forager-cultivator peoples is well-known. They call themselves by terms of kinship and shared humanity, but other people give them a variety of confusing and often derogatory ...
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The problem of naming forager-cultivator peoples is well-known. They call themselves by terms of kinship and shared humanity, but other people give them a variety of confusing and often derogatory names. Yet ethnonyms underpin ethnographic writing and cross-cultural comparison. This interlude relates the author’s experience of choosing an ethnonym for her study group, whose members call themselves sonta (us, relatives). It shows the appellatory confusion arising in areas with a rich colonial history, like the Nilgiris, where generations of travelers, administrators, and scholars have tried to ethnically map scattered forest groups, ignoring local population sizes and locals’ imaginations of their communities.Less
The problem of naming forager-cultivator peoples is well-known. They call themselves by terms of kinship and shared humanity, but other people give them a variety of confusing and often derogatory names. Yet ethnonyms underpin ethnographic writing and cross-cultural comparison. This interlude relates the author’s experience of choosing an ethnonym for her study group, whose members call themselves sonta (us, relatives). It shows the appellatory confusion arising in areas with a rich colonial history, like the Nilgiris, where generations of travelers, administrators, and scholars have tried to ethnically map scattered forest groups, ignoring local population sizes and locals’ imaginations of their communities.
Peter Dauvergne
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034951
- eISBN:
- 9780262336222
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034951.003.0008
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
To further the understanding of the diversity and complexity of environmentalism, chapter 8 opens with the story of Bruno Manser, who in the 1980s left Switzerland to live with the Penan people in ...
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To further the understanding of the diversity and complexity of environmentalism, chapter 8 opens with the story of Bruno Manser, who in the 1980s left Switzerland to live with the Penan people in Sarawak, Malaysia. Before long he had joined with the Penan to oppose the logging of Borneo’s rainforests; in the 1990s he would emerge from Sarawak and bring the plight of the Penan to the world’s attention. Manser fought against the moderating tendencies within rainforest activism. Yet, as is true across the mainstream of environmentalism, these moderating tendencies within rainforest activism have only strengthened since 2000, with increasing support from nongovernmental certification organizations to export rainforest products. Examples include the Forest Stewardship Council (founded 1993) and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (founded 2004). As Manser worried, however, over the past two decades these market mechanisms have done little to help indigenous forest peoples or end tropical deforestation.Less
To further the understanding of the diversity and complexity of environmentalism, chapter 8 opens with the story of Bruno Manser, who in the 1980s left Switzerland to live with the Penan people in Sarawak, Malaysia. Before long he had joined with the Penan to oppose the logging of Borneo’s rainforests; in the 1990s he would emerge from Sarawak and bring the plight of the Penan to the world’s attention. Manser fought against the moderating tendencies within rainforest activism. Yet, as is true across the mainstream of environmentalism, these moderating tendencies within rainforest activism have only strengthened since 2000, with increasing support from nongovernmental certification organizations to export rainforest products. Examples include the Forest Stewardship Council (founded 1993) and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (founded 2004). As Manser worried, however, over the past two decades these market mechanisms have done little to help indigenous forest peoples or end tropical deforestation.
Meghan Laws, Richard Ntakirutimana, and Bennett Collins
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781786941992
- eISBN:
- 9781789623611
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941992.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The leading academic literature on Rwanda tends to focus on the Hutu-Tutsi dichotomy, either directly or indirectly, thus resigning the historical narratives of the Twa to a footnote, permanently ...
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The leading academic literature on Rwanda tends to focus on the Hutu-Tutsi dichotomy, either directly or indirectly, thus resigning the historical narratives of the Twa to a footnote, permanently buried in history. Based on interviews and focus groups, as well as personal testimony provided by three Twa civil society leaders, this chapter explores Twa perceptions and experiences of national unity and reconciliation during the post-genocide period. As a component of this, our chapter examines popular perceptions of the Historically Marginalized Peoples (HMP) label, a quasi-legal category generally associated with the Twa, within the broader framework of the government's unity-building and reconciliation campaign. This snapshot of Twa interactions with government policy and practice shows that Twa often feel excluded from efforts to foster national pride, unity and reconciliation. Equally, the majority of Twa object to the use of the HMP label, and many emphasize the continued relevance of Twa identity and culture at a community level.Less
The leading academic literature on Rwanda tends to focus on the Hutu-Tutsi dichotomy, either directly or indirectly, thus resigning the historical narratives of the Twa to a footnote, permanently buried in history. Based on interviews and focus groups, as well as personal testimony provided by three Twa civil society leaders, this chapter explores Twa perceptions and experiences of national unity and reconciliation during the post-genocide period. As a component of this, our chapter examines popular perceptions of the Historically Marginalized Peoples (HMP) label, a quasi-legal category generally associated with the Twa, within the broader framework of the government's unity-building and reconciliation campaign. This snapshot of Twa interactions with government policy and practice shows that Twa often feel excluded from efforts to foster national pride, unity and reconciliation. Equally, the majority of Twa object to the use of the HMP label, and many emphasize the continued relevance of Twa identity and culture at a community level.
Leonard Y. Andaya
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824831899
- eISBN:
- 9780824869403
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824831899.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter provides an analysis of the Malayu culture that developed in the early southeast Sumatran polities of Sriwijaya and Malayu, between the seventh and fourteenth centuries. While ...
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This chapter provides an analysis of the Malayu culture that developed in the early southeast Sumatran polities of Sriwijaya and Malayu, between the seventh and fourteenth centuries. While inscriptions and external sources are limited, there is sufficient linguistic and archaeological evidence to form the basis for a tentative reconstruction of the sociopolitical organization of these polities. Certain features of the society can be detected, including the role of family in government, a reliance on sea and forest peoples in assuring the collection of products and protection of routes for international trade, the maritime and riverine environment, the sacral quality of kingship, and the use of oaths as an important political and economic tool.Less
This chapter provides an analysis of the Malayu culture that developed in the early southeast Sumatran polities of Sriwijaya and Malayu, between the seventh and fourteenth centuries. While inscriptions and external sources are limited, there is sufficient linguistic and archaeological evidence to form the basis for a tentative reconstruction of the sociopolitical organization of these polities. Certain features of the society can be detected, including the role of family in government, a reliance on sea and forest peoples in assuring the collection of products and protection of routes for international trade, the maritime and riverine environment, the sacral quality of kingship, and the use of oaths as an important political and economic tool.
