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Trinity College

Publication Date

Fall 2022

Program Name

Nepal: Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples

Abstract

For the nearly 100 Asian Elephants (elephas maximus) in and around Chitwan National Park, life revolves and often depends around their interactions with humans. Since the advent of elephant tourism for the masses in around the 1980s, the elephants in and around the park have had a dramatic shift in their ways of life. This shift has also affected those who work intimately with these animals, the mahouts, or elephant keepers / riders, have also seen a complete shift in their role and livelihood. For those involved with this industry elephants are seen through different lenses; as an investment, as a dangerous occupation, as a status activity, and as animals in need of help.

This Independent Study Project seeks to dive into these lenses, in explaining how and why these elephants are conceptualized in this fashion. Additionally, through this analysis, the human perspective will be brought in, to illustrate what one NGO worker described as “the cycle of violence” with those within the industry. Through a multispecies ethnographic approach, this study will examine each of the ‘actors’ within the system, and how in concert, they affect both the elephants and their keepers.

Disciplines

Animal Studies | Asian Studies | Social and Cultural Anthropology | Sociology of Culture | Work, Economy and Organizations

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