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Article ID: CBB416961739

Introduction: Putrefaction and the Ecologies of Life: Enter the Vulture (2017)

Cole, Lucinda (Author)

Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology
Volume: 25
Issue: 2
Pages: 137-143

URI: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/652737

DOI: 10.1353/con.2017.0009

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Extinction (biology) Conservation biology Vultures Necrophagy Biodegradation; decomposition (biology); decay

Thom van Dooren’s book Vulture begins with a description of dokhmenishini, the Parsi funerary practice in which the human body is left on altars for vultures and other scavenging birds to consume. This practice has been threatened if not “broken down” by a rapidly disappearing vulture population. The culprit in this event is diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory veterinary drug ingested by the vultures who feed on animal carcasses. Since diclofenac causes kidney failure in vultures, several species in India—“once one of the most thriving vulture populations in the world”—may be headed toward extinction. By telling the story of the vulture, van Dooren hopes that his Western audience “will get to know these feathered scavengers a little better,” ideally “so that we all might be able to develop more caring and, ultimately, more sustainable relationships with these feathered birds.” He has an uphill journey. The ability to perceive the vulture as a necessary part of a sustainable system is deeply embedded in Indian culture in ways that distinguish it sharply from European descriptions. These differences may be explained in many ways, but what makes the vulture so despised by some is precisely what makes it valuable for others: its capacity to feed on carcasses, to seek out decay and rot.

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