Trading Animals / Animals that act
Human-Animal-Relations between the Horn of Africa, Germany and the World
Living elephants, giraffes, ostriches, and camels, baboons, and donkeys unknown in Europe – the list of animals traded globally in the 19th century was extensive. Besides the numerous animals, various individuals were involved in this enterprise, bringing animals from interior Africa to European zoos or transporting animals to other African regions for use in colonial projects. German animal trader and catcher Josef Menges (1850–1910) was engaged in this business for more than thirty years, hunting, capturing, transporting, and selling thousands of large and small, living and dead animals during this period.
By addressing the theoretical and methodological challenges of Human-Animal Studies, informed by post-colonial studies, the project aims to enrich the history of the Horn of Africa, the animal trade, and recent colonial history with an animal historical perspective.
The dissertation project focuses on the animal trade around 1900. Its aim is to examine, through a microhistorical approach to the animal trading enterprise of Josef Menges, how colonial and economic logics structured and influenced human-animal relationships. Additionally, it explores how these specific human-animal relationships had an impact on the configuration of colonial power structures. The project investigates how the animal trade operated, who was involved, and what networks and practices emerged from it.
The project places a special emphasis on African perspectives, identifying specific African actors and their actions and logics. This approach allows for the examination of non-European human-animal relationships and practices, bringing attention to the asymmetrical power dynamics, especially during animal hunting and trapping, which were not always exclusively in favor of Europeans. Another focus is on the animals themselves – individual animals, specific actions by animals, cooperation, the contribution of animals to the animal trade, as well as their resistance.
Drawing on previously unpublished and overlooked sources such as the travel diaries of Josef Menges and the correspondence between Menges and the renowned animal trader and zoo director Carl Hagenbeck, the project provides a direct insight into the practices and actors involved in the animal trade. Theoretical and methodological inspiration is derived from the field of Human-Animal Studies, particularly incorporating the concept of a history of entanglements developed within post-colonial studies. This expands the understanding of the history of the animal trade as a doubly entangled narrative, where not only the colonial metropolis and periphery but also animals and humans are examined on an analytical level.
Informed by post-colonial studies, the project addresses the theoretical and methodological challenges of Human-Animal Studies. It aims to enrich the history of the Horn of Africa, the animal trade, and contemporary colonial history with an animal historical perspective.
Image: „Ausladung einer Sendung afrikanischer Thiere aus dem Schiffe „Urano“ in Triest. Nach der Natur aufgenommen von H. Leutemann.“ In: Die Gartenlaube, 1874.
PhD-Project
Annika Dörner, M.A.
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