Bont, Raf de (Author)
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 113
Issue: 3
Pages: 491-512
The twentieth century witnessed the rise of zoo biology. Such a discipline might seem anchored in a specific spatial setting (that of the zoological garden), but if historians want to understand its development they should not limit their view to the confines of the zoo grounds. After all, understanding animals and their behavior at the zoo often involved thinking about them in other spaces as well. Notably, the “artificial” state of animals in captivity invited reflection on their “natural” condition in the wild. In order to study the changing relation between science performed at the zoo and in the field, this essay conceptualizes a “zoo–field border”—arguing that movements across this border are crucial to understanding practices on both sides. In particular, the essay analyzes a field expedition to the national parks of the Belgian Congo set up in 1948 by Heini Hediger, the Swiss zoologist who is often credited as the pioneer of zoo biology. Hediger’s expedition, it argues, involved conceptual, methodological, and logistical border-crossing. The combination of these forms, then, ultimately enabled a rethinking of animals and their behaviors on both sides of the border.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Raf De Bont;
(July 2017)
A World Laboratory: Framing the Albert National Park
Article
Kutschera, Ulrich;
(2005)
Predator-Driven Macroevolution in Flyingfishes Inferred from Behavioural Studies: Historical Controversies and a Hypothesis
Article
Poreau, Brice;
(2011)
Commensalisme, mutualisme, parasitisme, une preuve de l'Evolution pour Etienne Rabaud?
Article
Cain, Joe;
(2010)
Julian Huxley, General Biology and the London Zoo, 1935--42
Thesis
Marissa Helene Petrou;
(2016)
Disciplines of Collection: Founding the Dresden Museum for Zoology, Anthropology and Ethnology in Imperial Germany
Article
Nils Güttler;
(2024)
The Airport and the Zoo: Behavioral Knowledge, Animal Transport, and the Technical Environments of Aviation, 1940s–1970s
Article
Ahmed Alwishah;
(2016)
Avicenna on Animal Self-Awareness, Cognition and Identity
Article
Stefano Gensini;
(2017)
"E io in Napoli vidi un cane polacco…": ancora sui linguaggi animali, da Gesner a Campanella
Book
Smellie, William;
(2001)
Philosophy of Natural History
Chapter
Milam, Erika Lorraine;
(2009)
“The Experimental Animal from the Naturalist's Point of View”: Behavior and Evolution at the American Museum of Natural History, 1928--1954
Thesis
Ilerbaig, Juan Francisco;
(2002)
Pride in Place: Fieldwork, Geography, and American Field Zoology, 1850--1920
Book
Bont, Raf de;
(2015)
Stations in the Field: A History of Place-Based Animal Research, 1870--1930
Book
Dathan, Patricia Wendy;
(2012)
The Reindeer Botanist: Alf Erling Porsild, 1901--1977
Article
ANDREW FLACK;
(2016)
'In Sight, Insane': Animal Agency, Captivity and the Frozen Wilderness in the Late-Twentieth Century
Book
Gary Bruce;
(2017)
Through the Lion Gate: A History of the Berlin Zoo
Article
Lawrence, Natalie;
(2012)
The Prime Minister and the Platypus: A Paradox Goes to War
Article
Belozerov, Oleg P.;
(2009)
From a Zoological Garden to a Zoo: The Moscow Zoological Garden in the First Post-October Decade
Book
Markwell, Kevin;
Cushing, Nancy;
(2010)
Snake-Bitten: Eric Worrell and the Australian Reptile Park
Book
Ash, Mitchell;
(2008)
Mensch, Tier und Zoo. Der Tiergarten Schönbrunn im internationalen Vergleich vom 18. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart
Article
Sleeboom-Faulkner, Margaret;
Kumar Patra, Prasanna;
(October 2011)
Experimental stem cell therapy: Biohierarchies and bionetworking in Japan and India
Be the first to comment!