Llamas Beyond the Andes

Untold Histories of Camelids in the Modern World

Marcia Stephenson (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

448 Seiten

2023
University of Texas Press (Verlag)
978-1-4773-2840-8 (ISBN)

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Camelids are vital to the cultures and economies of the Andes. The animals have also been at the heart of ecological and social catastrophe: Europeans overhunted wild vicuÑa and guanaco and imposed husbandry and breeding practices that decimated llama and alpaca flocks that had been successfully tended by Indigenous peoples for generations. Yet the colonial encounter with these animals was not limited to the New World. Llamas beyond the Andes tells the five-hundred-year history of animals removed from their native habitats and transported overseas.

Initially Europeans prized camelids for the bezoar stones found in their guts: boluses of ingested matter that were thought to have curative powers. Then the animals themselves were shipped abroad as exotica. As Europeans and US Americans came to recognize the economic value of camelids, new questions emerged: What would these novel sources of protein and fiber mean for the sheep industry? And how best to cultivate herds? Andeans had the expertise, but knowledge sharing was rarely easy. Marcia Stephenson explores the myriad scientific, commercial, and cultural interests that have attended camelids globally, making these animals a critical meeting point for diverse groups from the North and South.

Marcia Stephenson is an associate professor of Spanish at Purdue University. Her book Gender and Modernity in Andean Bolivia received the A. B. Thomas Award for Excellence.

List of Abbreviations
Introduction. “The Most Interesting Animals in the World”: Reconstructing Histories of Andean Camelids in Transoceanic Contact Zones
Chapter 1. From Marvelous Antidote to the Poison of Idolatry: The Transatlantic Significance of Andean Bezoar Stones during the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries
Chapter 2. Exploring the Body-Interior: Autopsy in Colonial Camelid Contact Zones
Chapter 3. From Curiosity to Commodity: Early Efforts to Ship Living Camelids to Europe
Chapter 4. The Science of Acclimatization: Llamas and Alpacas in Nineteenth-Century France
Chapter 5. Andean Itineraries of Nineteenth-Century Camelid Science: The Case of Charles Ledger
Chapter 6. Camelids in Australia: The Rise and Fall of Charles Ledger’s Alpaca Ambitions
Chapter 7. US Camelid Contact Zones in the Twentieth Century: Authenticity, Exoticism, and Celebrity
Conclusion. The Afterlives of Camelid Contact Zones
Acknowledgments
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	14.12.2023
Zusatzinfo	23 b&w illustrations, 11 b&w photos, 1 map
Verlagsort	Austin, TX
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	767 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Natur / Ökologie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-4773-2840-8 / 1477328408
ISBN-13	978-1-4773-2840-8 / 9781477328408
Zustand	Neuware