Pub Date : 2023-10-21DOI: 10.3828/096734023x16869924234840
JENNIFER EAGLIN
Today, Brazil relies on nuclear energy for three per cent of its energy needs while hydroelectricity accounts for over sixty per cent. However, Brazilian officials sought to aggressively incorporate nuclear energy into the country’s energy infrastructure at any cost in the second half of the twentieth century. This article examines the connections between hydroelectric and nuclear energy development between 1960 and 1985. I argue that water resources, both shortages and excess capacity, were critical to Brazil’s nuclear energy pursuits. While scholarly attention has often focused on Brazil’s diplomatic negotiations and exploitation of the country’s uranium deposits, this article shows how droughts played a pivotal role in legitimising Brazil’s nuclear aspirations in the face of extensive hydroelectric capacity. In the process, both Brazil’s nuclear power plant and enrichment plant relied heavily on Brazilian water resources, fundamentally linking these two separate electricity sources in Brazil’s diversified energy grid to this day.
{"title":"The Water Origins of Brazil’s Nuclear Energy Infrastructure","authors":"JENNIFER EAGLIN","doi":"10.3828/096734023x16869924234840","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/096734023x16869924234840","url":null,"abstract":"Today, Brazil relies on nuclear energy for three per cent of its energy needs while hydroelectricity accounts for over sixty per cent. However, Brazilian officials sought to aggressively incorporate nuclear energy into the country’s energy infrastructure at any cost in the second half of the twentieth century. This article examines the connections between hydroelectric and nuclear energy development between 1960 and 1985. I argue that water resources, both shortages and excess capacity, were critical to Brazil’s nuclear energy pursuits. While scholarly attention has often focused on Brazil’s diplomatic negotiations and exploitation of the country’s uranium deposits, this article shows how droughts played a pivotal role in legitimising Brazil’s nuclear aspirations in the face of extensive hydroelectric capacity. In the process, both Brazil’s nuclear power plant and enrichment plant relied heavily on Brazilian water resources, fundamentally linking these two separate electricity sources in Brazil’s diversified energy grid to this day.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135514092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-21DOI: 10.3197/096734023x16869924234831
George L. Vlachos
The article focuses on the land reclamation of the Philippi Marshes in eastern Greek Macedonia during the interwar period, in order to demonstrate the political implications of hydraulic engineering projects. It is argued that the land reclamation was not simply a technical project, but a tool for the Greek state to extend its grip across its northern frontiers and impose land management policies that aligned with its political goals. The article is divided into three parts. The first reconstructs the ecosystem and the interaction between the adjacent communities and the marshland. The second gives the historical context for the reclamation, and the third speculates on the course of the state’s land-management policies, hypothesising that these were an attempt to appease the radicalised communist and socialist threat in the area. The article adds to recent historiography exploring the dimensions involved in grand technical works and the role of technocrats in serving political agendas.
{"title":"A Lost Macedonian Ecosystem: The Land Reclamation and Politicisation of the Philippi Marshes in Interwar Greece","authors":"George L. Vlachos","doi":"10.3197/096734023x16869924234831","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3197/096734023x16869924234831","url":null,"abstract":"The article focuses on the land reclamation of the Philippi Marshes in eastern Greek Macedonia during the interwar period, in order to demonstrate the political implications of hydraulic engineering projects. It is argued that the land reclamation was not simply a technical project, but a tool for the Greek state to extend its grip across its northern frontiers and impose land management policies that aligned with its political goals. The article is divided into three parts. The first reconstructs the ecosystem and the interaction between the adjacent communities and the marshland. The second gives the historical context for the reclamation, and the third speculates on the course of the state’s land-management policies, hypothesising that these were an attempt to appease the radicalised communist and socialist threat in the area. The article adds to recent historiography exploring the dimensions involved in grand technical works and the role of technocrats in serving political agendas.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78220063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-21DOI: 10.3828/096734023x16869924234831
GEORGE L. VLACHOS
The article focuses on the land reclamation of the Philippi Marshes in eastern Greek Macedonia during the interwar period, in order to demonstrate the political implications of hydraulic engineering projects. It is argued that the land reclamation was not simply a technical project, but a tool for the Greek state to extend its grip across its northern frontiers and impose land management policies that aligned with its political goals. The article is divided into three parts. The first reconstructs the ecosystem and the interaction between the adjacent communities and the marshland. The second gives the historical context for the reclamation, and the third speculates on the course of the state’s land-management policies, hypothesising that these were an attempt to appease the radicalised communist and socialist threat in the area. The article adds to recent historiography exploring the dimensions involved in grand technical works and the role of technocrats in serving political agendas.
{"title":"A Lost Macedonian Ecosystem: The Land Reclamation and Politicisation of the Philippi Marshes in Interwar Greece","authors":"GEORGE L. VLACHOS","doi":"10.3828/096734023x16869924234831","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/096734023x16869924234831","url":null,"abstract":"The article focuses on the land reclamation of the Philippi Marshes in eastern Greek Macedonia during the interwar period, in order to demonstrate the political implications of hydraulic engineering projects. It is argued that the land reclamation was not simply a technical project, but a tool for the Greek state to extend its grip across its northern frontiers and impose land management policies that aligned with its political goals. The article is divided into three parts. The first reconstructs the ecosystem and the interaction between the adjacent communities and the marshland. The second gives the historical context for the reclamation, and the third speculates on the course of the state’s land-management policies, hypothesising that these were an attempt to appease the radicalised communist and socialist threat in the area. The article adds to recent historiography exploring the dimensions involved in grand technical works and the role of technocrats in serving political agendas.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":"86 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135514089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.3197/096734023x16869924234813
Santos Casado
The final years of Franco’s dictatorship and the subsequent transition to a democracy saw the unfolding of parallel processes of economic and scientific modernisation in Spanish society. An unexpected interference between both processes occurred in the fields of ecology and the environmental sciences, when environmentally minded scientists defended threatened ecosystems, rural landscapes and traditional land-use systems. At the time, prevailing discourses and policies considered these ecosystems and landscapes backward remnants of an undeveloped Spain, ready to be transformed by irrigation plans, afforestation schemes and urban development. From the early 1970s onwards, ecologist Fernando González Bernáldez consciously chose to take on a dual role, combining and mutually reinforcing two distinct yet associated personae: a highly respected scientist and an outspoken defender of the environment. This paper examines González Bernáldez’s various strategies to strike the right balance between both identities, and how his aims were challenged by the changing political context at the time.
{"title":"Ecology in Transition: Fernando González Bernáldez, Scientific Modernisation and Environmental Advocacy in Late Francoist Spain, 1960–1980","authors":"Santos Casado","doi":"10.3197/096734023x16869924234813","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3197/096734023x16869924234813","url":null,"abstract":"The final years of Franco’s dictatorship and the subsequent transition to a democracy saw the unfolding of parallel processes of economic and scientific modernisation in Spanish society. An unexpected interference between both processes occurred in the fields of ecology and the environmental sciences, when environmentally minded scientists defended threatened ecosystems, rural landscapes and traditional land-use systems. At the time, prevailing discourses and policies considered these ecosystems and landscapes backward remnants of an undeveloped Spain, ready to be transformed by irrigation plans, afforestation schemes and urban development. From the early 1970s onwards, ecologist Fernando González Bernáldez consciously chose to take on a dual role, combining and mutually reinforcing two distinct yet associated personae: a highly respected scientist and an outspoken defender of the environment. This paper examines González Bernáldez’s various strategies to strike the right balance between both identities, and how his aims were challenged by the changing political context at the time.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77637540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.3197/096734023x16702350656951
Eline Lathouwers, Y. Segers, G. Verstraeten
Transformations in river management that manifest diverse forms of (increased) human interference, evidenced by hydraulic ingenuity and associated ecosystem disturbance, are usually explained as successive water regimes. Researchers then analyse factors that triggered regime shifts and discuss (un)successful attempts by policymakers to juggle conflicting interests. Few studies, however, centre on medium-sized rivers that are nevertheless characterised by fragmented policies in which multiple stakeholder parties have a say. We discuss, through a close reading of archival records, the evolution of post-war water management in the Demer valley, Flanders. We conclude that agricultural interests prevailed until the 1970s, notwithstanding an early exploration of the valley’s industrial and recreational potential, whereupon nature organisations put forward an alternative approach that led to changing policies in the early 1990s. These conclusions do not fit into the reportedly global transferable, river management model proposed by Wolf et al.* By showcasing the Demer’s unique management developments and emphasising the individual aspects of the essentially rural Demer valley, we scrutinise the model’s generalisability and argue that it is especially valid for industrialised rivers. * S. Wolf et al., ‘Influence of 200 years of water resource management on a typical central European river: Does industrialization straighten a river?’ Environmental Sciences Europe 33, 15 (2021).
河流管理的转变表现出各种形式的(增加的)人为干扰，水力独创性和相关的生态系统干扰证明了这一点，通常被解释为连续的水制度。然后，研究人员分析了引发政权更迭的因素，并讨论了政策制定者平衡利益冲突的(不)成功尝试。然而，很少有研究集中在中型河流上，这些河流的特点是政策分散，多个利益相关者都有发言权。通过对档案记录的仔细阅读，我们讨论了战后法兰德斯德默尔山谷水管理的演变。我们得出的结论是，尽管对山谷的工业和娱乐潜力进行了早期探索，但直到20世纪70年代，农业利益仍占主导地位，因此自然组织提出了另一种方法，导致了20世纪90年代初政策的变化。这些结论并不符合Wolf等人提出的全球可转移的河流管理模型。*通过展示Demer独特的管理发展，并强调本质上是农村的Demer山谷的个别方面，我们仔细审查了该模型的普遍性，并认为它特别适用于工业化河流。* S. Wolf等人，《200年水资源管理对一条典型中欧河流的影响:工业化是否使河流变直?》欧洲环境科学33,15(2021)。
{"title":"Changing Course: Water Management in the Demer Valley, 1950s–1990s","authors":"Eline Lathouwers, Y. Segers, G. Verstraeten","doi":"10.3197/096734023x16702350656951","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3197/096734023x16702350656951","url":null,"abstract":"Transformations in river management that manifest diverse forms of (increased) human interference, evidenced by hydraulic ingenuity and associated ecosystem disturbance, are usually explained as successive water regimes. Researchers then analyse factors that triggered regime shifts and discuss (un)successful attempts by policymakers to juggle conflicting interests. Few studies, however, centre on medium-sized rivers that are nevertheless characterised by fragmented policies in which multiple stakeholder parties have a say. We discuss, through a close reading of archival records, the evolution of post-war water management in the Demer valley, Flanders. We conclude that agricultural interests prevailed until the 1970s, notwithstanding an early exploration of the valley’s industrial and recreational potential, whereupon nature organisations put forward an alternative approach that led to changing policies in the early 1990s. These conclusions do not fit into the reportedly global transferable, river management model proposed by Wolf et al.* By showcasing the Demer’s unique management developments and emphasising the individual aspects of the essentially rural Demer valley, we scrutinise the model’s generalisability and argue that it is especially valid for industrialised rivers. * S. Wolf et al., ‘Influence of 200 years of water resource management on a typical central European river: Does industrialization straighten a river?’ Environmental Sciences Europe 33, 15 (2021).","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90835846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.3828/096734023x16869924234813
SANTOS CASADO
The final years of Franco’s dictatorship and the subsequent transition to a democracy saw the unfolding of parallel processes of economic and scientific modernisation in Spanish society. An unexpected interference between both processes occurred in the fields of ecology and the environmental sciences, when environmentally minded scientists defended threatened ecosystems, rural landscapes and traditional land-use systems. At the time, prevailing discourses and policies considered these ecosystems and landscapes backward remnants of an undeveloped Spain, ready to be transformed by irrigation plans, afforestation schemes and urban development. From the early 1970s onwards, ecologist Fernando González Bernáldez consciously chose to take on a dual role, combining and mutually reinforcing two distinct yet associated personae: a highly respected scientist and an outspoken defender of the environment. This paper examines González Bernáldez’s various strategies to strike the right balance between both identities, and how his aims were challenged by the changing political context at the time.
{"title":"Ecology in Transition: Fernando González Bernáldez, Scientific Modernisation and Environmental Advocacy in Late Francoist Spain, 1960–1980","authors":"SANTOS CASADO","doi":"10.3828/096734023x16869924234813","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/096734023x16869924234813","url":null,"abstract":"The final years of Franco’s dictatorship and the subsequent transition to a democracy saw the unfolding of parallel processes of economic and scientific modernisation in Spanish society. An unexpected interference between both processes occurred in the fields of ecology and the environmental sciences, when environmentally minded scientists defended threatened ecosystems, rural landscapes and traditional land-use systems. At the time, prevailing discourses and policies considered these ecosystems and landscapes backward remnants of an undeveloped Spain, ready to be transformed by irrigation plans, afforestation schemes and urban development. From the early 1970s onwards, ecologist Fernando González Bernáldez consciously chose to take on a dual role, combining and mutually reinforcing two distinct yet associated personae: a highly respected scientist and an outspoken defender of the environment. This paper examines González Bernáldez’s various strategies to strike the right balance between both identities, and how his aims were challenged by the changing political context at the time.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":"179 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135666975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.3197/096734023x16788762163687
Anna Guasco
Eastern North Pacific gray whales are famed for their remarkable ecological history: from near extinction to recovery and from ‘devil-fish’ to ‘friendly whale’. This article critically examines the origins and development of the narrative framing of gray whales’ history as one in which the whales were long known as ‘devil-fish’, until they became ‘friendly whales’ in the 1970s. Drawing on archival sources from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, this article interrupts the premise of a smooth and linear transition from devil-fish to friendly whale. Instead, gray whale histories reveal much more complex and even contradictory human–whale encounters along the California coast. Throughout the time period examined, precursors of the familiar contemporary narrative of gray whale history emerged, each building on prior remembrances of gray whale pasts. More broadly, this article contributes to contemporary conversations in more-than-human historical studies about nonhuman agency, multispecies encounters, memory, and environmental histories of emotion.
{"title":"From Devil-Fish to Friendly Whale? Encountering Gray Whales on The California Coast","authors":"Anna Guasco","doi":"10.3197/096734023x16788762163687","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3197/096734023x16788762163687","url":null,"abstract":"Eastern North Pacific gray whales are famed for their remarkable ecological history: from near extinction to recovery and from ‘devil-fish’ to ‘friendly whale’. This article critically examines the origins and development of the narrative framing of gray whales’ history as one in which the whales were long known as ‘devil-fish’, until they became ‘friendly whales’ in the 1970s. Drawing on archival sources from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, this article interrupts the premise of a smooth and linear transition from devil-fish to friendly whale. Instead, gray whale histories reveal much more complex and even contradictory human–whale encounters along the California coast. Throughout the time period examined, precursors of the familiar contemporary narrative of gray whale history emerged, each building on prior remembrances of gray whale pasts. More broadly, this article contributes to contemporary conversations in more-than-human historical studies about nonhuman agency, multispecies encounters, memory, and environmental histories of emotion.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87357773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.3828/096734023x16702350656951
ELINE LATHOUWERS, YVES SEGERS, GERT VERSTRAETEN
Transformations in river management that manifest diverse forms of (increased) human interference, evidenced by hydraulic ingenuity and associated ecosystem disturbance, are usually explained as successive water regimes. Researchers then analyse factors that triggered regime shifts and discuss (un)successful attempts by policymakers to juggle conflicting interests. Few studies, however, centre on medium-sized rivers that are nevertheless characterised by fragmented policies in which multiple stakeholder parties have a say. We discuss, through a close reading of archival records, the evolution of post-war water management in the Demer valley, Flanders. We conclude that agricultural interests prevailed until the 1970s, notwithstanding an early exploration of the valley’s industrial and recreational potential, whereupon nature organisations put forward an alternative approach that led to changing policies in the early 1990s. These conclusions do not fit into the reportedly global transferable, river management model proposed by Wolf et al. * By showcasing the Demer’s unique management developments and emphasising the individual aspects of the essentially rural Demer valley, we scrutinise the model’s generalisability and argue that it is especially valid for industrialised rivers.
{"title":"Changing Course: Water Management in the Demer Valley, 1950s–1990s","authors":"ELINE LATHOUWERS, YVES SEGERS, GERT VERSTRAETEN","doi":"10.3828/096734023x16702350656951","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/096734023x16702350656951","url":null,"abstract":"Transformations in river management that manifest diverse forms of (increased) human interference, evidenced by hydraulic ingenuity and associated ecosystem disturbance, are usually explained as successive water regimes. Researchers then analyse factors that triggered regime shifts and discuss (un)successful attempts by policymakers to juggle conflicting interests. Few studies, however, centre on medium-sized rivers that are nevertheless characterised by fragmented policies in which multiple stakeholder parties have a say. We discuss, through a close reading of archival records, the evolution of post-war water management in the Demer valley, Flanders. We conclude that agricultural interests prevailed until the 1970s, notwithstanding an early exploration of the valley’s industrial and recreational potential, whereupon nature organisations put forward an alternative approach that led to changing policies in the early 1990s. These conclusions do not fit into the reportedly global transferable, river management model proposed by Wolf et al. * By showcasing the Demer’s unique management developments and emphasising the individual aspects of the essentially rural Demer valley, we scrutinise the model’s generalisability and argue that it is especially valid for industrialised rivers.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":"86 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135667102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.3197/096734023x16702350656960
B. Sarmah
The greater one-horned rhinoceros or Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) faced extinction in British India at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1908, the Government of Assam established the Kaziranga Game Reserve (KGR, now Kaziranga National Park) to preserve the vanishing rhino. As the twentieth century progressed, creating wilderness – by demonising the presence of the peasants and graziers – became a global panacea for protecting wildlife. Contrary to that belief, this article will show how the rhino population revived amidst human existence dictated by agro-ecological interactions and bureaucratic expediencies. The rhino’s ethology and its place in the imagination of rural people minimised its enemies. Moreover, in fluvial geography that constantly transformed the KGR’s boundaries, peasants and graziers creatively negotiated their usufruct rights and supported rhino preservation. Locating the KGR in the historical analysis of fluvial agro-ecology, this study illuminates how a critical interaction between different actors, i.e. human and non-human and coloniser and colonised, accentuated the cultural and material contestations amidst which the rhino eventually survived.
{"title":"Empire, Nature and Agrarian World: A History of Rhino Preservation in the Kaziranga Game Reserve, India (1902–1938)","authors":"B. Sarmah","doi":"10.3197/096734023x16702350656960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3197/096734023x16702350656960","url":null,"abstract":"The greater one-horned rhinoceros or Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) faced extinction in British India at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1908, the Government of Assam established the Kaziranga Game Reserve (KGR, now Kaziranga National Park) to preserve the vanishing rhino. As the twentieth century progressed, creating wilderness – by demonising the presence of the peasants and graziers – became a global panacea for protecting wildlife. Contrary to that belief, this article will show how the rhino population revived amidst human existence dictated by agro-ecological interactions and bureaucratic expediencies. The rhino’s ethology and its place in the imagination of rural people minimised its enemies. Moreover, in fluvial geography that constantly transformed the KGR’s boundaries, peasants and graziers creatively negotiated their usufruct rights and supported rhino preservation. Locating the KGR in the historical analysis of fluvial agro-ecology, this study illuminates how a critical interaction between different actors, i.e. human and non-human and coloniser and colonised, accentuated the cultural and material contestations amidst which the rhino eventually survived.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82679677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.3197/096734022x16552219786636
Atte Arffman, Antero Holmila
In August 1969 Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi coast. We argue that the disaster caused by the Hurricane was an outcome of the entanglement between human and non-human agents. As a non-human agent, Hurricane Camille thrust the prevailing socio-economic situation in the segregationist South into the spotlight, with all its political and cultural ramifications – much to the annoyance of the local political elite that had long sought to isolate southern politics from civil rights and the desegregation agenda. Consequently, it (re)invigorated and furnished the civil rights movement and the politics defining that era with new arguments and approaches that would have been impossible to develop from the perspective of human agency alone. By examining both local and national press discourses relating to the crisis caused by Hurricane Camille in the state of Mississippi in August 1969, we argue that historical agency should not be seen in purely anthropocentric terms but as an entanglement between human and non-human events.
{"title":"Race, Environment, and Crisis: Hurricane Camille and the Politics of Southern Segregation","authors":"Atte Arffman, Antero Holmila","doi":"10.3197/096734022x16552219786636","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3197/096734022x16552219786636","url":null,"abstract":"In August 1969 Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi coast. We argue that the disaster caused by the Hurricane was an outcome of the entanglement between human and non-human agents. As a non-human agent, Hurricane Camille thrust the prevailing socio-economic situation in the segregationist South into the spotlight, with all its political and cultural ramifications – much to the annoyance of the local political elite that had long sought to isolate southern politics from civil rights and the desegregation agenda. Consequently, it (re)invigorated and furnished the civil rights movement and the politics defining that era with new arguments and approaches that would have been impossible to develop from the perspective of human agency alone. By examining both local and national press discourses relating to the crisis caused by Hurricane Camille in the state of Mississippi in August 1969, we argue that historical agency should not be seen in purely anthropocentric terms but as an entanglement between human and non-human events.","PeriodicalId":45574,"journal":{"name":"Environment and History","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80615716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：