Llamas Beyond the Andes : Untold Histories of Camelids in the Modern World / Marcia Stephenson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stephenson, Marcia, 1955- author.

Series:

William & Bettye Nowlin series in art, history, and culture of the Western Hemisphere.

William & Bettye Nowlin series in art, history, and culture of the Western Hemisphere

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International relations.

United States.

Europe.

Australia.

Andes.

Andes--Relations--United States--History.

Andes--Relations--Australia--History.

Andes--Relations--Europe--History.

Genre:

History

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (448 p.) : 23 b&w illustrations, 11 b&w photos, 1 map

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin, TX : University of Texas Press, [2023]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

"This study is the first book-length work to "identify and address the unexpected role the four species of Andean camelids (llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos) have played in shaping transatlantic relationships among Europeans, criollos, and Indigenous peoples, beginning with the first contact of the Spanish in the sixteenth century and extending through the mid-twentieth century." The author studies the animals' natural histories in their native environments and foregrounds their un-natural histories when they are hunted, captured, transported overseas, exhibited, and dissected. Her analysis shows that throughout the five centuries in question, camelid bodies constitute a surprising meeting point around which the discourses of medicine, religion, the decorative arts, visual aesthetics, travel literature, and instrumental science converge. This convergence appears to have almost no other counterparts in New World flora and fauna, making it a particularly rich area for inquiry about what happens in such "contact zones," in this case, from the Andes to Europe, Australia, and the U.S. and involving the broadest possible cast of characters, from herders to aristocrats and royalty"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction. "The most interesting animals in the world" : reconstructing histories of Andean camelids in transoceanic contact zones

From marvelous antidote to the poison of idolatry : the transatlantic significance of Andean bezoar stones during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries

Autopsy in the colonial camelid contact zone

From object of curiosity to object of commerce : early efforts to ship living camelids to Europe

The science of acclimatization : llamas and alpacas in nineteenth-century France

Andean itineraries of nineteenth-century camelid science : the case of Charles Ledger

Camelids in Australia : The rise and fall of Charles Ledger's alpaca ambitions

U.S. camelid contact zones in the twentieth century : authenticity, exoticism, and celebrity

Conclusion. The afterlives of camelid contact zones.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Jan 2024)

Description based on print version record.

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781477328422

1477328424

9781477328415

1477328416

OCLC:

1377502165