New British Academy Network Project 2001-2004

The Archaeology of Zoos

 

Although exotic animals have been kept in 'menageries' in various parts of the world for at least five millennia, zoos are essentially a phenomenon of the modern Western world. In fact, zoos have been among the most intriguing institutions of urban civilization. As uniquely popular apparatuses that channel exotic animals right into the heart of Western society-the cities-they represent an exemplary locus of debate not only about 'man's place in nature' but also about the West's place in the world. The zoo is the site par excellence where ideas about human uniqueness and human-animal relationships, about colonialism and exoticism, about identity and otherness are communicated, consumed and negotiated. Zoo architecture in particular exemplifies how humans have experienced and represented the natural world generally and animals in particular. Today's zoos show a fascinating number of paradoxes, which result partly from the confrontation of earlier agendas with new social-political challenges, partly from the inherent frictions within the definition of the institution itself. Designed by adults but particularly popular among children, directed by academic insight but consumed mainly as entertainment, based on the idea that captivity and display may raise respect and secure survival but increasingly subjected to ethical objections, zoos of the third millennium are a rich, if contentious, field of study. Allowing visitors to experience wild animals near their own homes, zoos problematise our understandings of, and behaviour towards the natural heritage on Earth.

It is surprising that until recently zoos have attracted so little attention from sociologists, anthropologists, historians, or archaeologists alike. Thus far, scholarly attention on zoos has been limited largely to ethological studies of animal behaviour, institutional histories of individual zoos, and, most recently, ethical debates about the rightness of keeping animals in captivity. Now several scholars in the humanities and social sciences have independently begun to turn their attention to zoos as a socio-cultural phenomenon deserving further study. Among them are a number of archaeologists. Their interests include material culture in the zoo, the 'zoo experience' as a landscaped theme park, specific animal appeals to visitors, and the legitimation and purpose of the zoos as a (natural) heritage attraction, an educational institution and a centre of conservationist agendas. Some of these topics find interesting parallels in the recent 'heritage' debates about the history and current role of the cultural (and archaeological) heritage in our society. Looking at zoos promises to create new perspectives on issues such as the authenticity of artifacts, techniques of contextualization, the creation of rich visitors' experiences, the engineering of collective human identities, the management of visitors in general and educational activities in particular, and branding of the institution as an attraction. But a study of zoos also promises to add to our understanding of material culture and its modifications in the light of specific requirements and their changes over time.

The aim of the network is to bring this small group of young archaeologists from different countries in contact both with each other and with a small number of colleagues from Anthropology, History and Philosophy. A core group of eight project participants from various European countries and North America, fruitfully combining forces for approximately three years (starting in December 2001). This group of scholars will arrange several joint workshops in different parts of Europe, each dedicated to one special theme and associated with a visit to one or two key local zoos nearby, present its ideas on appropriate academic gatherings, and work towards a collective publication. Research topics dealt with include:

Each topic will be directly related to equivalent themes to do with archaeological heritage sites and archaeological open-air museums.

Project participants:

Tony Axelsson, Department of Archaeology, University of Göteborg, Sweden

Dr Sarah Cross, English Heritage, Portsmouth, U.K.

Dr Kathryn Denning, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Canada

Dr Cornelius Holtorf, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, U.K. (co-leader)

Koen Margodt, Department of Philosophy, University of Gent, Belgium

Oscar Ortman, Bohusläns Museum, Uddevalla, Sweden

Dr David Van Reybrouck, Department of History, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (co-leader)

Dr Sofia Åkerberg, Department of History of Ideas, University of Umeå, Sweden

The project begun with a joint session at the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) Conference in Dublin, 13-15 December 2001. It continued with two joint sessions for the Annual Conference of the International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ) in London, 20-21 August 2002 (programme and conference info here).