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History writing, anthropomorphism, and birdwatching in colonial india
Author(s) -
Mishra Saurabh
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/hic3.12404
Subject(s) - unpacking , colonialism , argument (complex analysis) , context (archaeology) , psychology , intervention (counseling) , task (project management) , history , anthropology , sociology , archaeology , biology , linguistics , philosophy , engineering , biochemistry , systems engineering , psychiatry
This paper makes an intervention into the rapidly growing and increasingly interdisciplinary field of Animal Studies, examining the challenges of writing histories of non‐humans. It does this in the context of the colonies where the task of decoding the archives presents an even greater challenge due to the new ways in which both animal species and human races were imagined. Using the example of scientific tracts about birds in colonial India, it highlights the manner in which affinities or contrasts between humans and animals were discussed. In the process, it also makes the argument that unpacking the category of “anthropomorphism” may lead us to new ways of understanding the human‐animal relationship.