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Aisher (2016) Scarcity, Alterity and Value.pdf (2.26 MB)

Scarcity, alterity and value: decline of the pangolin, the world’s most trafficked mammal

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posted on 2023-06-09, 04:41 authored by Alex Aisher
The pangolin, now recognised as the world’s most trafficked mammal, is currently undergoing population collapse across South and Southeast Asia, primarily because of the medicinal value attributed to its meat and scales. This paper explores how scarcity and alterity (otherness) drive the perceived value of these creatures for a range of human and more-than-human stakeholders: wildlife traffickers, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners, Asian consumers of their meat and scales, hunters and poachers, pangolin-rearing master-spirits, and conservation organisations. Based on archival research and long-term ethnographic study with indigenous hunters in the Eastern Himalayas, the paper analyses the commodity chains linking hunters and consumers of pangolin across South, Southeast and East Asia. It shows that whilst the nonlinear interaction of scarcity, alterity and value is driving the current overexploitation of pangolins, for some indigenous hunters in the Eastern Himalayas, these same dynamics interact to preserve these animals in the forests where they dwell.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Conservation and Society

ISSN

0972-4923

Publisher

Medknow Publications

Issue

4

Volume

14

Page range

317-329

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Centre for World Environmental History Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-01-12

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2017-01-12

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-01-12

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