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Elephants and Empire in Colonial Burma: Exhibiting Historical Photographs in Myanmar and the UK

缅甸殖民地的大象与帝国：在缅甸和英国展出历史照片

基本信息

批准号：
AH/P005543/1
负责人：
Jonathan Saha
金额：
$ 3.22万
依托单位：
University of Leeds
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2016 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FP005543%2F1
关键词：
Elephants Empire Colonial Burma Exhibiting

项目摘要

Colonial rule precipitated dramatic ecological change in Myanmar during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. One of the consequences of this change is the current precarious position of Myanmar's elephant populations. Their insecurity is primarily the result of a loss of habitat, hunting and the capture of wild elephants for timber work. Both are legacies of imperial-era forestry policies. Today Myanmar has the second largest Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population, with an estimated 5000 working elephants kept in a state of semi-captivity and 4000 remaining in the wild. At its peak in the 1930s, there were between 7000 and 10000 working elephants in Myanmar. It is evident from the findings of my research fellowship 'An Animal History of Colonial Burma' (AH/L014939/1) that under British rule the balance of wild to working elephants shifted decisively against the former. More widely, Asian elephants are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as an endangered species. In this context, the form of semi-captivity in which working elephants are kept offers some prospect for helping to protect the species as whole. Ongoing research by the Myanmar Timber Elephant project at the University of Sheffield has looked into ways of improving the mortality and fertility of semi-captive elephants in the country. Through their research they hope to relieve some of the current pressures put on the remaining wild herds created by the demand to capture replacement working elephants. My project aims to raise awareness of the history of Myanmar's elephant population, and the role of British imperialism within it. It also seeks to frame ongoing attempts to protect elephants within debates around environmental justice and colonial legacies, facilitating a debate about former imperial powers' responsibility for ecological degradation in the Majority World. At the same time the project will signpost audiences to projects helping to protect Myanmar's elephants.The project will raise awareness of, facilitate debate about, and signpost support for, Myanmar's elephants through an exhibition displaying historical photographs of working elephants in colonial Burma in the interwar years. The free public exhibition will be held at the University of Leeds and then move to Yangon, where it will be hosted by the country's only not-for-profit gallery dedicated to photography, Myanmar Deitta. Following the end of the exhibition in Yangon, the photographs will go to the Green Hill Valley Elephant Camp, a sanctuary for retired working elephants near Kalaw in the Southern Shan States. Once there they will form part of an educational display. The photographs were uncovered during my fellowship whilst I was conducting research in the London Metropolitan Archives. The full collection of 64 photographs, from which the exhibits will be selected, are in the archives of Steel Brothers and Company Ltd., a British timber firm that operated in colonial Burma. In order to make all these images freely available for researchers they will be scanned and stored on an online archive hosted by the University of Leeds. The images held in this archive will be useful for environmental historians, imperial historians, visual culture scholars, and specialists working in Myanmar studies.

19世纪末和20世纪初，殖民统治促使缅甸发生了巨大的生态变化。这一变化的后果之一是缅甸大象种群目前的不稳定状况。他们的不安全主要是由于栖息地的丧失、狩猎和捕获野生大象用于木材工作。两者都是帝国时代林业政策的遗产。今天，缅甸拥有第二大亚洲象（Elephas maximus）种群，估计有5000头工作大象处于半圈养状态，4000头留在野外。在20世纪30年代的高峰期，缅甸有7000到10000头工作大象。从我的研究奖学金“殖民地缅甸的动物史”（AH/L014939/1）的发现中可以明显看出，在英国统治下，野生大象与工作大象的平衡决定性地转向了前者。更广泛地说，亚洲象被国际自然保护联盟列为濒危物种。在这种情况下，半圈养的形式，其中工作的大象保持提供了一些前景，以帮助保护物种作为一个整体。谢菲尔德大学的缅甸木象项目正在进行的研究，探讨了改善该国半圈养大象死亡率和生育率的方法。通过他们的研究，他们希望减轻目前因捕获替代工作大象的需求而对剩余野生象群造成的压力。我的项目旨在提高人们对缅甸大象种群历史以及英帝国主义在其中所扮演的角色的认识。它还寻求在围绕环境正义和殖民遗产的辩论中框架正在进行的保护大象的尝试，促进关于前帝国主义列强对生态的责任的辩论。多数世界的退化。与此同时，该项目将引导观众参与帮助保护缅甸大象的项目。该项目将通过展示两次世界大战期间缅甸殖民地工作大象的历史照片的展览，提高人们对缅甸大象的认识，促进有关缅甸大象的辩论，并为缅甸大象提供支持。免费的公开展览将在利兹大学举行，然后转移到仰光，在那里它将由该国唯一的非营利摄影画廊，缅甸迪塔主办。在仰光的展览结束后，这些照片将前往格林希尔山谷大象营地，这是南部掸邦卡劳附近退休工作大象的避难所。一旦到了那里，它们将成为教育展示的一部分。这些照片是我在伦敦大都会档案馆进行研究期间发现的。展品将从中选出的64张照片的全部收藏在钢铁兄弟有限公司的档案中，一家在缅甸殖民地经营的英国木材公司。为了使所有这些图像免费提供给研究人员，他们将被扫描和存储在一个由利兹大学主办的在线档案。该档案中保存的图像将对环境历史学家、帝国历史学家、视觉文化学者和从事缅甸研究的专家有用。