Cristin-resultat-ID: 2140193
Sist endret: 8. august 2023, 09:51
NVI-rapporteringsår: 2023
Resultat
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2023

Colonial entanglements in extinction narratives: The afterlives of two Saint Lucia giant rice rats

Bidragsytere:
  • Gitte Westergaard

Tidsskrift

Journal of Natural Science Collections
ISSN 2053-1133
e-ISSN 2053-1141
NVI-nivå 1

Om resultatet

Vitenskapelig artikkel
Publiseringsår: 2023
Volum: 11
Sider: 3 - 12
Open Access

Beskrivelse Beskrivelse

Tittel

Colonial entanglements in extinction narratives: The afterlives of two Saint Lucia giant rice rats

Sammendrag

European colonialism exposed islands to significant threatening processes that drove species to or near extinction. At the same time, they were regular sites of collecting living animals especially because of their high level of endemism. Natural history museums house animals that carry stories of colonial conquest over island ecologies. I argue that existing decolonising approaches to natural history museums do little to decolonise our human-non-human relationship with the species on display. Through a discussion of the extinction of Antillean rice rats in the Caribbean and the only two specimens remaining of the Saint Lucia giant rice rat (Megalomys luciae (Fortsyth Major, 1901)), I emphasise the importance of connecting extinction narratives to the colonial causes of their disappearance. Three lessons follow to show how natural history museums can address their inherited colonial legacies in displaying extinct animal remains collected from colonised lands.

Bidragsytere

Gitte Westergaard

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter
    ved Institutt for kultur- og språkvitenskap ved Universitetet i Stavanger
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