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SUMMARY:Monkeys and modernity in colonial Myanmar - Jonathan Saha (Univers
 ity of Leeds)
DTSTART:20200214T130000Z
DTEND:20200214T140000Z
UID:TALK137536@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jules Skotnes-Brown
DESCRIPTION:Animal studies scholars have long interrogated the ways in whi
 ch definitions of what it means to be human have rested upon comparisons w
 ith animal others. As this work has shown\, monkeys and apes have been piv
 otal in the history of these definitions. The taxonomical order of primate
  has been a site for much discussion over the place of humans within the a
 nimal kingdom\, as well as the grounds for disputes over what constitute d
 istinctively human traits. However\, these are often Eurocentric narrative
 s which examine the intellectual debates within Natural History as they pl
 ayed out in imperial scientific societies\, publications and research inst
 itutions. In contrast\, my paper focuses instead on a colonial context\, l
 ooking particularly at more ephemeral\, vernacular Burmese-language texts.
  It explores how Burmese\, British and wider understandings of monkeys int
 ermingled in early 20th-century Myanmar. Monkeys\, it will be argued\, wer
 e entangled with shifting discourse on Buddhism\, modernity and nationalis
 m. By focusing on Burmese anti-colonial thought\, the paper expands the am
 bit of animal studies scholarship and carefully attempts to better align i
 ts concerns with those of postcolonial and decolonial critique.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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