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

这个项目通过法国殖民帝国的养牛业的例子，探讨了边缘殖民空间融入不断扩大的资本主义世界经济的问题。1890-1960年）。在世纪之交，许多兽医、行政人员和企业家开始相信，在法属殖民地，特别是在法属西非、马达加斯加和印度支那，已经存在的养牛业具有巨大的经济潜力。然而，为了将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，他们经常批评这些做法和态度是不合理的，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，从改良当地品种和新的牛病管理方法到对牛征税、牧民定居、建立肉类加工厂和新的牛贸易网络，本项目根据广泛的出版物和档案资料，分析了这些干预措施的理由、动态和后果。它表明，这些经济进程与社会变革、新的主体性和新形式的专业知识密切相关。因此，它特别注意兽医科学家往往具有矛盾的作用，以及他们与土著行为者就知识发生的冲突和谈判。总的来说，本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没有完全成功地改变当地牧民的经济做法和世界观，但在整个殖民时期，这些干预往往还引发了其他意想不到的深远后果。该项目有望对全球资本主义、农业发展和殖民知识制度的历史提供宝贵的新见解。与许多关于殖民地经济作物的研究相比，本报告集中于其他方面，特别是牧民、土著行为者和社会、其他专家群体和知识做法、其他空间和冲突。此外，通过研究法国在非洲和亚洲不同地区的殖民地，该项目不仅可以揭示各个殖民地之间的差异和相似之处，而且还超越了区域研究的通常界限，并提供了一个更全球化的法国殖民主义观点。与此同时，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一个更加差异化的图景。

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.