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Reassembling the strange : naturalists, missionaries, and the environment of nineteenth-century Madagascar / Thomas J. Anderson.
Van Pelt Library DT469.M32 A53 2018
By Request
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Anderson, Thomas J., 1978- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Nature--Social aspects--Madagascar.
- Nature.
- Natural history--Madagascar.
- Natural history.
- Colonial influence.
- Missionaries.
- History.
- Naturalists.
- Nature--Social aspects.
- Madagascar.
- Naturalists--Madagascar--History--19th century.
- Missionaries--Madagascar--History--19th century.
- Madagascar--Colonial influence.
- Genre:
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xi, 237 pages ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, [2018]
- Summary:
- This book examines how Westerners understood and processed Madagascar and its environment during the nineteenth century. Madagascar's unique ecosystem crafted its reputation as a strange place full of unusual species. Westerners, however, often minimized Madagascar's peculiar features to stress the commonality of its fauna and flora with the world. The attempt to understand the island through science led to a domestication of its environment that created the image of a tame and known world capable of being controlled and used by Western powers. At the heart of the exploration of Madagascar and its transformation in Western eyes from a strange world to a cash crop colony were missionaries and naturalists who relied upon global experiences to master the island by normalizing the peculiar qualities of Madagascar's environment. This book reveals how the environment played a dominant role in understanding the island and its people, and how current environmental debates have evolved from earlier policies and discussions about the environment.
- Contents:
- Chapter 1. Introduction
- Environmental origins
- Malagasy origins
- Framework of the book
- Chapter 2. Seeking the strange
- The tropical Eden and a scientific turn
- Exploration and the Malagasy
- The man-eating tree and scientific discovery
- Finding the strange
- Legitimizing folklore
- Conclusion
- Chapter 3. Interpreting the strange: global scientific theories
- The case of the aepyornis
- Normalizing fauna
- From lemuria to biogeography
- Chapter 4. The scientific community of the LMS
- Protestant missionaries as naturalists
- The Antananarivo annual and the scientific community
- A global and scientific audience
- Chapter 5. Defining the Malagasy: language and race on Madagascar
- Language as a civilizing tool
- Differentiating the Malagasy
- Missionary experiences
- Spreading the racial word
- The slave trade and the Merina kingdom
- Chapter 6. Redefining the environment
- The tropical becomes familiar
- Wresting control from the Malagasy
- Reshaping the environment
- A plantation once more
- Chapter 7. A French colonial world
- Creating a colony
- The creation of forest reserves
- A new scientific Madagascar
- Conclusion.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Other Format:
- Online version: Anderson, Thomas, 1978- Reassembling the strange.
- ISBN:
- 9781498576055
- 1498576052
- OCLC:
- 1047525347
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