Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures
Why have elephants—and our preconceptions about them—been central to so much of human thought?

From prehistoric cave drawings in Europe and ancient rock art in Africa and India to burning pyres of confiscated tusks, our thoughts about elephants tell a story of human history. In Elephant Trails, Nigel Rothfels argues that, over millennia, we have made elephants into both monsters and miracles as ways to understand them but also as ways to understand ourselves.

Drawing on a broad range of sources, including municipal documents, zoo records, museum collections, and encounters with people who have lived with elephants, Rothfels seeks out the origins of our contemporary ideas about an animal that has been central to so much of human thought. He explains how notions that have been associated with elephants for centuries—that they are exceptionally wise, deeply emotional, and have a special understanding of death; that they never forget, are beloved of the gods, and suffer unusually in captivity; and even that they are afraid of mice—all tell part of the story of these amazing beings.

Exploring the history of a skull in a museum, a photograph of an elephant walking through the American South in the early twentieth century, the debate about the quality of life of a famous elephant in a zoo, and the accounts of elephant hunters, Rothfels demonstrates that elephants are not what we think they are—and they never have been. Elephant Trails is a compelling portrait of what the author terms "our elephant."

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Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures
Why have elephants—and our preconceptions about them—been central to so much of human thought?

From prehistoric cave drawings in Europe and ancient rock art in Africa and India to burning pyres of confiscated tusks, our thoughts about elephants tell a story of human history. In Elephant Trails, Nigel Rothfels argues that, over millennia, we have made elephants into both monsters and miracles as ways to understand them but also as ways to understand ourselves.

Drawing on a broad range of sources, including municipal documents, zoo records, museum collections, and encounters with people who have lived with elephants, Rothfels seeks out the origins of our contemporary ideas about an animal that has been central to so much of human thought. He explains how notions that have been associated with elephants for centuries—that they are exceptionally wise, deeply emotional, and have a special understanding of death; that they never forget, are beloved of the gods, and suffer unusually in captivity; and even that they are afraid of mice—all tell part of the story of these amazing beings.

Exploring the history of a skull in a museum, a photograph of an elephant walking through the American South in the early twentieth century, the debate about the quality of life of a famous elephant in a zoo, and the accounts of elephant hunters, Rothfels demonstrates that elephants are not what we think they are—and they never have been. Elephant Trails is a compelling portrait of what the author terms "our elephant."

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Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures

Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures

by Nigel Rothfels
Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures
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Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures

Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures

by Nigel Rothfels

Overview

Why have elephants—and our preconceptions about them—been central to so much of human thought?

From prehistoric cave drawings in Europe and ancient rock art in Africa and India to burning pyres of confiscated tusks, our thoughts about elephants tell a story of human history. In Elephant Trails, Nigel Rothfels argues that, over millennia, we have made elephants into both monsters and miracles as ways to understand them but also as ways to understand ourselves.

Drawing on a broad range of sources, including municipal documents, zoo records, museum collections, and encounters with people who have lived with elephants, Rothfels seeks out the origins of our contemporary ideas about an animal that has been central to so much of human thought. He explains how notions that have been associated with elephants for centuries—that they are exceptionally wise, deeply emotional, and have a special understanding of death; that they never forget, are beloved of the gods, and suffer unusually in captivity; and even that they are afraid of mice—all tell part of the story of these amazing beings.

Exploring the history of a skull in a museum, a photograph of an elephant walking through the American South in the early twentieth century, the debate about the quality of life of a famous elephant in a zoo, and the accounts of elephant hunters, Rothfels demonstrates that elephants are not what we think they are—and they never have been. Elephant Trails is a compelling portrait of what the author terms "our elephant."

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781421442594
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 11/30/2021
Series: Animals, History, Culture
Pages: 256
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.92(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Nigel Rothfels is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He is the author of Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures and the editor of Representing Animals.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction. Blind Men's Elephants
Chapter 1. First among Monsters
Chapter 2. Afraid of Mice
Chapter 3. A Serpent for a Hand
Chapter 4: The Most Friendly Creature
Chapter 5: A Descendant of Mastodons
Chapter 6: The Last of Its Kind
Chapter 7: Trails of History
Notes
For Further Reading
Index

What People are Saying About This

Sandra Swart

This is a beautiful book. It is as wise and gentle and enduring as (our fantasies impose on) elephants. A monumental work.

Janet M. Davis

This pathbreaking book traces the transnational history of contemporary ideas about elephants. Elephant Trails is essential reading for anyone who cares about these charismatic—and imperiled—creatures.

Mieke Roscher

Nigel Rothfels's brilliantly written and empathic account of the largest living land mammal shows how the enlivening presence of elephants helped humans to make sense of the world around them.

Steve Baker

Elephant Trails is a major contribution to the understanding of animals and cultures from a figure of real authority in the field of animal studies.

Bernard Unti

Rothfels's thoughtful wandering through elephant histories, elephant biographies, elephant science, and elephant bone collections turns up the ironies in our lasting fascination with Loxodonta.

Ben A. Minteer

Why do we think about elephants the way we do? Nigel Rothfels burrows deep into this question, exploring elephants both real and imagined across a sweep of places and narratives, from stately museums and wild thickets to lurid circuses. The result is that rarest of beasts in the scholarship on animals and society: a page turner.

Don Kulick

What makes this gracefully written book so moving is the author's careful, quiet portraits of individual elephants. Enchanting and disquieting, in equal measure.

Ken Kawata

Well-researched from wide-ranging resources, this book covers a rich history of encounters between humans and elephant from a realistic yet thoughtful perspective.

From the Publisher

Why do we think about elephants the way we do? Nigel Rothfels burrows deep into this question, exploring elephants both real and imagined across a sweep of places and narratives, from stately museums and wild thickets to lurid circuses. The result is that rarest of beasts in the scholarship on animals and society: a page turner.
—Ben A. Minteer, Arizona State University, author of The Fall of the Wild: Extinction, De-Extinction, and the Ethics of Conservation

This is a beautiful book. It is as wise and gentle and enduring as (our fantasies impose on) elephants. A monumental work.
—Sandra Swart, Stellenbosch University, author of Riding High: Horses, Humans and History in South Africa

An extraordinary book. Rothfels draws upon archival work, field research, and deep personal reflections to explore the human encounter with elephants. The results are convincing, artful, and often breathtaking.
—Jason Colby, University of Victoria, author of Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator

Nigel Rothfels's brilliantly written and empathic account of the largest living land mammal shows how the enlivening presence of elephants helped humans to make sense of the world around them.
—Mieke Roscher, University of Kassel, coeditor of Animal Biography: Re-framing Animal Lives

Well-researched from wide-ranging resources, this book covers a rich history of encounters between humans and elephant from a realistic yet thoughtful perspective.
—Ken Kawata, Director Emeritus, Staten Island Zoo, author of New York's Biggst Little Zoo: A History of the Staten Island Zoo

What makes this gracefully written book so moving is the author's careful, quiet portraits of individual elephants. Enchanting and disquieting, in equal measure.
—Don Kulick, Uppsala University, author of A Death in the Rainforest: How a Language and a Way of Life Came to an End in Papua New Guinea

Elephant Trails is a major contribution to the understanding of animals and cultures from a figure of real authority in the field of animal studies.
—Steve Baker, author of Artist Animal

This pathbreaking book traces the transnational history of contemporary ideas about elephants. Elephant Trails is essential reading for anyone who cares about these charismatic—and imperiled—creatures.
—Janet M. Davis, University of Texas at Austin, author of The Gospel of Kindness: Animal Welfare and the Making of Modern America

Rothfels's thoughtful wandering through elephant histories, elephant biographies, elephant science, and elephant bone collections turns up the ironies in our lasting fascination with Loxodonta.
—Bernard Unti, Humane Society of the United States

Jason Colby

An extraordinary book. Rothfels draws upon archival work, field research, and deep personal reflections to explore the human encounter with elephants. The results are convincing, artful, and often breathtaking.

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