Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures

Animals, History, Culture

by Nigel Rothfels

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."

Genres: History

256 pages, Hardcover

Published November 30, 2021

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I embarked upon the trail which Nigel Rothfels had set before me in this book; I was immediately awoken to the destructiveness by the hand of man upon an animal which I had only seen in zoos or books and which always seemed quiet and peaceful. I also learned that an Elephant can be of so many different types of emotions as we see them. However, the initial shock in this book is learning about the wanton genocide of a magnificent creature we are only now just learning more about. It brought my eyes to tears in parts...
Relating from writings from long ago, Rothfels brings us a clearer picture of how these animals were looked upon throughout millenia. Used for spectacle, war and work, the one thing they were consistently used for was supplying the world with ivory.
It was later that elephants were looked upon more than just sources of ivory but as objects of entertainment. Thus was born the beginnings of museums for the exhibit of animals throughout the world and also of zoos and circuses for open observance by regular people to marvel. Though "marvel" is a loose term as to how people sometimes reacted.
Strange is how the great white hunters of the 19th and early 20th centuries began the idea of conservation and awareness of the delicate balance in the animal world with the onset of human expansion and yet at the same time went on hunting sprees in Africa and in Asia killing virtually anything that moved in order to fill their museums with stuffed relics of a world they said was diminishing because of human intervention. No irony there...
The stories of many captive elephants throughout the years before and at the turn of the 20th century are both incredibly saddening and in moments horrifying. I wish there could have been more happier moments for these elephants in captivity but i'm afraid it never seemed to be the case regardless of how well meaning some of the keepers might have been. The bottom line for many was that they were big money makers living a life of confinenment equal to a prison sentence.
Rothfels writing is clear and informative. He does not mix much of his own personal views but allows the stories he has researched speak for themselves. His final words are that there is much we as humans do not know or understand about elephants and most animals for that matter but that there are those who try to discern understanding for us to learn and hopefully through that discernment are better able to care for those animals put into our charge.
He makes his point clearly that he is not anti-zoo nor does he see them as being generally bad for animals but does see them sadly, as a kind of last outpost as our world confines them in the wild to ever more smaller areas of existence. He also aknowledges that those involved in zoos today are genuinely very involved in the lives of the animals they care for and do so with the utmost honesty of good intentions seeking to make the lives of those animals as safe, healthy, comfortable and as close to nature as they possibly can knowing that for some it is their home of last resort.
He does not lose sight of hope but does see it as tenuous. The lives of all living things are in our hands and what we do with this charge, how we treat it, what we think of it and how we pass this down to future generations is where the trail fades into the future.
The trail that this book takes you through I highly recommend for a sobering journey into what it means to be human and how our culture has interwoven itself throughout time with that of the animal world and the consequences it has had upon us and them and how the tears of one animal, the elephant, can seem to be tears shed for all of us.

[Scott Cinsavich · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Great Book but Expensive

Well written and excellently researched. It opened my eyes to the long history of humanity's relationship with elephants. A wonderful introduction to these much misunderstood beasts.