Donkey Work: The Ethical Challenges of Studying Animals on Victorian and Edwardian Geographical Expeditions

With Ed Armston-Sheret, Royal Holloway University of London.

Part of the Cultural and Historical Seminar Series.

Abstract

The role of animals in geographical fieldwork has been the subject of growing academic interest. There is now an acknowledgement of the various roles that animals played on expeditions (as companions, transport, zoological specimens, and food etc). But writing a multi-species history of exploration raises profound historical and ethical questions, because of the ways in which many white explorers wrote about people of colour. In numerous instances, British travellers wrote more about animals on their expeditions than they did about the African and Asian people on whom they relied. Moreover, expedition leaders frequently humanised certain animals – describing their personalities and attributes – and animalised certain humans, portraying embodied labour as sub-human. In this paper, I chart a path through these challenges and highlight strategies for writing an anti-racist and multi-species history of exploration.