Commodifying Cattle. The Transformation of Livestock Economies and Knowledge Regimes in the French Colonial Empire, 1890-1960

该项目以法国殖民帝国(约1890-1960年)的养牛业为例，探讨了周边殖民空间如何融入不断扩张的资本主义世界经济。在二十世纪之交，许多兽医、管理人员和企业家开始相信，法国殖民地已经存在的养牛场，特别是在法属西非、马达加斯加和印度支那，蕴藏着巨大的经济潜力。然而，为了把牛变成有利可图的商品，他们认为有必要改变当地牧民的做法和态度，他们经常批评这种做法和态度是不理性的，并使整个价值链现代化。因此，他们设计了一系列广泛的干预措施，从改良当地品种和牛病管理的新方法到对牛征税、牧民定居以及建立肉类工厂和新的牛交易网络。该项目基于广泛的出版和档案来源，分析了这些干预措施的理由、动态和后果。它表明，这些经济过程与社会变化、新的主观性和新的专业知识形式密切相关。因此，委员会特别注意兽医科学家经常扮演的矛盾角色，以及他们与土著行为者在知识问题上的冲突和谈判。总体而言，这个项目的主要工作假设是，由于土著机构和实际问题，殖民干预在许多情况下并不完全成功地改变了当地牧民的经济做法和世界观，但在整个殖民时期，殖民干预往往还引发了其他意想不到的深远后果。与关于殖民经济作物的众多研究相比，它聚焦于其他方面，特别是牧民、土著行为者和社会、其他专家组和知识做法、其他空间和冲突。此外，通过研究非洲和亚洲不同地区的法国殖民地，这个项目不仅可以暴露出各个殖民地之间的差异和相似之处，而且还可以超越通常的地区研究边界，提供对法国殖民主义的更全球化的看法。同时，它超越了对大英帝国的共同史学关注，从而为全球南方的殖民资本主义和农业发展提供了更具差异性的图景。

This project explores the integration of peripheral colonial spaces into an expanding capitalist world economy through the example of cattle farming in the French colonial empire (ca. 1890-1960). At the turn of the twentieth century, many veterinarians, administrators and entrepreneurs came to believe that the already existing cattle farming in the French colonies, especially in French West Africa, Madagascar and Indochina, harboured a great economic potential. Yet, in order to turn cattle into a profitable commodity, they believed it would be necessary to change the practices and attitudes of the local pastoralists, which they often criticized as irrational, and to modernize the entire value chain. Therefore, they devised a broad series of interventions, ranging from the improvement of local breeds and new methods of cattle disease management to the taxation of cattle, the sedentarization of pastoralists and the establishment of meat factories and new cattle trading networks.Based on a wide range of published and archival sources, this project analyses the rationales, dynamics and consequences of such interventions. It shows that these economic processes were closely linked to social changes, new subjectivities and novel forms of expert knowledge. It thereby pays particular attention to the often ambivalent role of veterinary scientists and their conflicts and negotiations over knowledge with indigenous actors. Overall, the main working hypothesis of this project is that colonial interventions were in many cases not entirely successful in changing the economic practices and world views of local pastoralists, due to indigenous agency and practical problems, but that throughout the colonial period they often also triggered other, unintended and far-reaching consequences.By analysing the barely researched history of colonial livestock, this project promises valuable new insights into the history of global capitalism, agricultural development and colonial knowledge regimes. Compared to the numerous studies on colonial cash crops, it zooms in on other, notably pastoralist, indigenous actors and societies, other groups of experts and knowledge practices, other spaces and conflicts. Moreover, by examining French colonies in different parts of Africa and Asia, this project not only allows to lay bare differences and similarities between individual colonies, but also to transcend the usual boundaries of area studies and to provide a more global view on French colonialism. Simultaneously, it moves beyond the common historiographical focus on the British Empire and thus contributes to a more differentiated picture of colonial capitalism and agricultural development in the Global South.