The Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation and British Imperialism (Studies in Imperialism (Manchester Univ Pr))

Changing approaches to hunting constitute an important theme in human history. This book uses hunting as one focus for the complex interaction of Europeans with Africans and Indians. It seeks to illuminate the nature of imperial power when exercised in the relationship between humans and the natural world. The main geographical emphasis is on southern, Central and East Africa, as well as South Asia, but reference is made to other parts of Africa and Asia and to the effects of white settlement elsewhere. The great hunters of the ancient world offered protection to their subjects' life and limb and to their crops by destroying wild predators. In Britain the nineteenth-century hunting cult had an extraordinary range of cultural manifestations. Pheasant covert, grouse moor and deer forest, explored and dominated by humans in the Hunt, became prime elements in nineteenth-century Romanticism. Hunting was an important part of the pre-colonial economy and diet of many African peoples. The importance of hunting was very apparent at the court of Mzilikazi, king of the Ndebele. As the animal resources of southern Africa became more important to the international economy in the first decades of the nineteenth century they came to be studied and hunted for science and sport. This apotheosis of the hunting mentality survived at least into the inter-war years and was indeed inherited by the Indianised Indian Civil Service and army in the years leading up to independence. Hunting remains important to those who continue to exercise global power. This study assesses the significance of the hunting cult as a major element of the imperial experience in Africa and Asia. Through a study of the game laws and the beginnings of conservation in the 19th and early-20th centuries, the author demonstrates the racial inequalities which existed between Europeans and indigenous hunters. Africans were denied access to game, and the development of game reserves and national parks accelerated this process. Indigenous hunters in Africa and India were turned into "poachers" and only Europeans were permitted to hunt. In India, the hunting of animals became the chief recreation of military officers and civilian officials, a source of display and symbolic dominance of the environment. Imperial hunting fed the natural history craze of the day, and many hunters collected trophies and specimens for private and public collections as well as contributing to hunting literature. Adopting a radical approach to issues of conservation, this book links the hunting cult in Africa and India to the development of conservation, and consolidates widely-scattered material on the importance of hunting to the economics and nutrition of African societies. This study assesses the significance of the hunting cult as a major element of the imperial experience in Africa and Asia. Through a study of the game laws and the beginnings of conservation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the author demonstrates the racial inequalities which existed between Europeans and indigenous hunters. Africans were denied access to game, and the development of game reserves and national parks accelerated this process. Indigenous hunters in Africa and India were turned into poachers and only Europeans were permitted to hunt. In India, the hunting of animals became the chief recreation of military officers and civilian officials, a source of display and a symbolic dominance of the environment. Imperial hunting fed the natural history craze of the day and many hunters collected trophies and specimens for private and public collections as well as contributing to hunting literature. John MacKenzie also connects hunting and game conservation to concepts of masculinity, attitudes towards diet, and the development of western tourism In this pioneering work John M. MacKenzie assesses the significance of the hunting cult as a major element of the imperial experience in Africa and Asia. Through a study of the game laws and the beginnings of conservation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he demonstrates that Africans were denied access to game: the development of game reserves and national parks accelerated this process. Indigenous hunters in Africa and India were turned into "poachers" and only Europeans were permitted to hunt. In India, the hunting of animals became the chief recreation of military officers and civilian officials, a source of display and a symbol of dominance over the environment. In the end, MacKenzie argues, the hunting cult in Africa and India actually led to the development of the natural conservation movement. Front matter Contents List of illustrations General introduction Abbreviations Preface Dedication Hunting: themes and variations The nineteenth-century hunting world Hunting and African societies Hunting and settlement in southern Africa Game and imperial rule in Central Africa Exploration, conquest and game in East Africa The imperial hunt in India From preservation to conservation: legislation and the international dimension Reserves and the tsetse controversy National parks in Africa and Asia Shikar and safari: hunting and conservation in the British Empire Appendices Bibliography Index In The Empire of Nature, John M. MacKenzie assesses the significance of the hunting cult as a major element of the imperial experience in Africa and Asia