Paul G. Keil, "The Presence of Elephants: Shared Lives and Landscapes in Assam" (Routledge, 2024)
Mar 2, 2025
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Paul G. Keil, a human-animal anthropologist from the Czech Academy of Sciences, dives into the delicate interplay of human-elephant coexistence in Assam. He shares insights from his two years of ethnographic research, exploring how humans and elephants navigate shared landscapes and cultural significances. The conversation highlights the challenges of urban development, the vulnerabilities of both species, and critiques conventional conservation approaches. Keil emphasizes the need for nuanced understanding amidst the cultural and environmental intricacies of this human-elephant relationship.
The podcast underscores the intricate dynamics of human-elephant relationships, emphasizing that coexistence is often marked by negotiation and emotional connection.
It highlights the importance of ethnographic research in understanding the cultural and ecological implications of living alongside elephants in Assam's urban edgelands.
The discussion reveals how colonial legacies continue to shape human-elephant interactions, complicating coexistence amid evolving environmental challenges and urban pressures.
Deep dives
Interspecies Dynamics and Teamwork
The discussion emphasizes the significance of interspecies dynamics, particularly the relationships between humans and elephants. The speaker's journey began with research on sheepdogs and human teamwork, which sparked an interest in exploring collaboration between species. Elephants were identified as a focal point due to their social intelligence and deep connections with humans, especially in regions like Assam, where cultural practices intertwine with ecological knowledge. By examining these interactions, the research aims to shift perspectives from merely understanding conflict scenarios to appreciating the multifaceted ways in which humans and elephants coexist.
Field Site and Methodology
Research was conducted in the urban edgelands of Guwahati, Assam, an area that experiences ongoing changes due to urban development yet remains home to elephant populations. The investigation leveraged ethnographic methods, allowing the researcher to follow those who interact with elephants and capture their complex relationships with the environment. The ethnographic approach enabled the exploration of how these interactions shape people's lives amidst the backdrop of cultural diversity and ecological pressures. As elephants navigate these landscapes, the study highlights their continuous presence and interactions with local communities despite increasing urban pressures.
Vulnerability and Shared Existence
Vulnerability in human-elephant relationships extends beyond mere physical interactions; it encompasses the complexities of shared existence in a fragile environment. The study reveals how both humans and elephants experience vulnerabilities, shaped by their size difference and differing life-worlds, leading to both conflict and cooperation. The embodied experiences of humans, influenced by the presence of elephants, underscore how close encounters can instill a sense of awe, caution, and respect. This perspective challenges anthropocentric views by positioning elephants as influential actors within human social dynamics.
The Concept of Co-presence
The notion of co-presence is explored as a more nuanced understanding of relationships between humans and elephants, departing from the general concept of coexistence. Co-presence captures the embodied interactions and affects that arise when different species share spaces, highlighting the emotional and perceptual connections that inform these relationships. This term reflects the complexity of human-elephant interactions, emphasizing the need for reciprocity and mutual understanding. By investigating these interactions through a localized lens, the research reveals the rich tapestry of shared experiences that define life alongside elephants.
The Impact of Colonialism on Human-Elephant Relations
The discussion highlights how colonial legacies still influence present-day human-elephant interactions, shaping landscapes and relationships in nuanced ways. Historical divisions imposed during colonial times, such as demarcating human and wildlife spaces, continue to generate conflicts as evolving environmental conditions challenge these rigid boundaries. The implications of environmental changes, stemming from both colonial practices and contemporary urbanization, exacerbate uncertainties in human-elephant coexistence. By examining these historical contexts, the research sheds light on the ongoing challenges faced by communities cohabiting with elephants in an increasingly fragmented world.
How to dwell in a forest alongside giants, avoid disturbing a living god, assist an animal with their manners, and help an elephant cross the road. The Presence of Elephants: Sharing Lives and Landscapes in Assam (Routledge, 2024) is an anthropological consideration of coexistence, grounded in people’s everyday interactions with Asian elephants. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork in Assam, Northeast India, this book examines human-elephant copresence and how minds, tasks, identities, and places are shared between the two species. Sharing lives and landscapes with such formidable beings is a continuously shifting and negotiated exchange inherently composed of tensions, asymmetries, and uncertainties – especially in the Anthropocene when breakdowns in communication increasingly have a violent effect. Developing a multifaceted picture of human-elephant relations in a postcolonial setting, each chapter focuses on a different dimension of encounter, where elephants adapt to human norms, people are subject to elephant projects, and novel interspecies possibilities emerge at the threshold of nature and society. Vulnerability is a common experience intensified in contemporary human-elephant relations, felt through the elephant’s power to disrupt and transform human lives, as well as the risks these endangered animals are exposed to. This book will be of interest to scholars of multispecies ethnography and human-animal relations, environmental humanities, conservation, and South Asian studies.
Rituparna Patgiri is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati. Her research interests lie in the areas of food, media, gender and public. She is also one of the co-founders of Doing Sociology. Patgiri can be reached at @Rituparna37 on Twitter.
