Do Camelids Know They Are “Camelids”? An Ethnographic and Anthropological Analysis of “Species” Native Notions at a Zoo

https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n51.06

Tatiana Balbontín Beltrán
orcid
Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina
tatianabalbontinbeltran@gmail.com  

Abstract:

This article is part of a broad ethnographic and anthropological investigation on the practices and interactions between “humans” and “animals” at the Córdoba Zoo, in Argentina. This paper has two aims: (1) to analyze how the Zoo has an organizational-administrative structure based on the “Species” category, and (2) to show how biological practices become entangled with the “cages”, “quarters”, and “tiny houses” which, as we will see, get to constitute the different native conceptions of “species”. This was evident in specimen transportation, particularly in the case of camelids. Thus, we will see how all Zoo members’ life is determined by a “species” category from biology, through biologist practices and administrators’ decisions. Conversely, keepers deploy a discourse that reflects their lived experiences with the animals and their relationship with them as singular creatures, overflowing the notion of species.

Keywords: species, animals, zoo, camelids, animal transportation.