This book examines trades in animals and animal products in the history of the Indian Ocean World (IOW). An international array of established and emerging scholars investigate how the roles of equines, ungulates, sub-ungulates, mollusks, and avians expand our understandings of commerce, human societies, and world systems. Focusing primarily on the period 1500-1900, they explore how animals and their products shaped the relationships between populations in the IOW and Europeans arriving by maritime routes. By elucidating this fundamental yet under-explored aspect of encounters and exchanges in the IOW, these interdisciplinary essays further our understanding of the region, the environment, and the material, political and economic history of the world.
"This volume is the first of a series of multi-themed studies on the Indian Ocean World (Iow) ... . a self-conscious 'entry into the tent of the Iow to positively expand our understanding of the relationships between animals, human beings, commerce, and world systems' ... . The wealth of detail supporting this interpretive stance-such as how animal products turned into items as disparate as 'hair ornaments, eye-glass frames, and dildos' ... will be enjoyable for readers to discover for themselves." (Myfel D. Paluga, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Vol. 178, 2022)
"The numbers of animals, commodities, places, and groups of (human) agents are impressive, the volume is nevertheless quite coherent ... . Animal Trade Histories in the Indian Ocean World not only greatly enhances our knowledge of the tradewith and use of animals and animal commodities, but also highlights, by using this prism, the interconnectivity, shifting agency, and resilience of polities and trading communities across the IOW in an era of increasing European influence." (Samuël Coghe, Comparativ -Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung, Vol. 32 (3-4), 2022)
"The numbers of animals, commodities, places, and groups of (human) agents are impressive, the volume is nevertheless quite coherent ... . Animal Trade Histories in the Indian Ocean World not only greatly enhances our knowledge of the tradewith and use of animals and animal commodities, but also highlights, by using this prism, the interconnectivity, shifting agency, and resilience of polities and trading communities across the IOW in an era of increasing European influence." (Samuël Coghe, Comparativ -Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung, Vol. 32 (3-4), 2022)