A Historiography of Great Animal Massacres

Saha, Jonathan

Abstract

One of the most lasting influences of Robert Darnton’s famous essay ‘The Great Cat Massacre’ is perhaps its title. Numerous journal articles, book chapters, and monographs have knowingly alluded to it in their own titles. Michael Vann’s ‘The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre’, Nancy Jacobs’ ‘The Great Bophuthatswana Donkey Massacre’, Ying-Kit Chan’s ‘The Great Dog Massacre in Late Qing China’, Ian Jared Miller’s book chapter, ‘The Great Zoo Massacre’, and Hilda Kean’s The Great Cat and Dog Massacre are a few prominent examples. Yet, in spite of this reoccurring reference, the term ‘massacre’ itself has not been historicised in these studies. In this essay, I use this conceit to interrogate the linkages and divergences between the mass killing of humans and of animals. I argue for animal historians to think through the political implications of naming episodes of the mass killing of animals ‘massacres’.

Citation

Saha, J. (2024). A Historiography of Great Animal Massacres. In M. J. Glover, & L. Mitchell (Eds.), Animals as Experiencing Entities: Theories and Historical Narratives (163-177). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46456-0_7

• Online Publication Date: Mar 5, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 24, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 6, 2025
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• Pages: 163-177
• Series Title: The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series
• Book Title: Animals as Experiencing Entities: Theories and Historical Narratives
• ISBN: 9783031464553
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46456-0_7
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2395315
• Contract Date: Feb 5, 2024