Open AccessPlacing Wild Animals in Botswana: Engaging Geography’s Transspecies Spatial Theory
Author(s) -
Andrea K. Bolla,
Alice J. Hovorka
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
humanimalia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2151-8645
DOI - 10.52537/humanimalia.10048
Subject(s) - realm , human animal , environmental ethics , non human , value (mathematics) , sociology , geography , epistemology , ecology , biology , archaeology , livestock , philosophy , computer science , machine learning
This paper engages transspecies spatial theory to illuminate the dynamics of human ‘placement’ of animals and resulting human-animal encounters through a case study of wild animals in Kasane, Botswana. It details the ways in which human conceptual imaginings and material fixing of wild animals are mutually constituted and grounded in human wonderment of and economic use value associated with nonhuman animals. Resulting interspecies minglings reinforce such placements through human’s fear-based responses and ‘problem animal’ discourses, ultimately re-placing animals into spaces where-they-belong. This paper highlights specifically geographical perspectives to further explorations of human-animal relations within the realm of critical animal studies.