Pratiques ethno-vétérinaires sur les éléphants au Laos

This article aims to report on a set of ethnoveterinary practices of mahouts and elephant health specialists (mo) in Laos. It is based on an ethnographic survey conducted in the villages of Tai-Lue and Tai-Lao in Sayabouri province in the northwest of the country. The corpus presented highlights sim...

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Main Author: Nicolas Lainé
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Laboratoire Éco-anthropologie et Ethnobiologie 2020-06-01
Series:Revue d'ethnoécologie
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/5917
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author Nicolas Lainé
author_facet Nicolas Lainé
author_sort Nicolas Lainé
collection DOAJ
description This article aims to report on a set of ethnoveterinary practices of mahouts and elephant health specialists (mo) in Laos. It is based on an ethnographic survey conducted in the villages of Tai-Lue and Tai-Lao in Sayabouri province in the northwest of the country. The corpus presented highlights similarities in the treatment of others both in terms of ritual medicine and remedies. The survey also shows that in villages the men in charge of these animals do not claim to have any influence on the overall health of the pachyderms. According to them, elephants have a rich knowledge of the forest world, and are able to complete their treatments on their own. This aspect invited me to broaden the survey to focus on the elephant diet, based on the mahouts' knowledge of it. The conclusion emphasizes the need to include local knowledge in elephant conservation, in addition to biomedical knowledge. Drawing on the long cohabitation of humans and elephants in Asia, it also suggests hypotheses on the sharing and co-constuction of medical knowledge between humans and elephants, as well as their epistemological implications for apprehending local knowledge in anthropological inquiry.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2267-2419
language English
publishDate 2020-06-01
publisher Laboratoire Éco-anthropologie et Ethnobiologie
record_format Article
series Revue d'ethnoécologie
spelling doaj-art-41dca9288c784ddab194a2772fa481122025-02-05T16:24:53ZengLaboratoire Éco-anthropologie et EthnobiologieRevue d'ethnoécologie2267-24192020-06-011710.4000/ethnoecologie.5917Pratiques ethno-vétérinaires sur les éléphants au LaosNicolas LainéThis article aims to report on a set of ethnoveterinary practices of mahouts and elephant health specialists (mo) in Laos. It is based on an ethnographic survey conducted in the villages of Tai-Lue and Tai-Lao in Sayabouri province in the northwest of the country. The corpus presented highlights similarities in the treatment of others both in terms of ritual medicine and remedies. The survey also shows that in villages the men in charge of these animals do not claim to have any influence on the overall health of the pachyderms. According to them, elephants have a rich knowledge of the forest world, and are able to complete their treatments on their own. This aspect invited me to broaden the survey to focus on the elephant diet, based on the mahouts' knowledge of it. The conclusion emphasizes the need to include local knowledge in elephant conservation, in addition to biomedical knowledge. Drawing on the long cohabitation of humans and elephants in Asia, it also suggests hypotheses on the sharing and co-constuction of medical knowledge between humans and elephants, as well as their epistemological implications for apprehending local knowledge in anthropological inquiry.https://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/5917ethno-veterinary practicesknowledge (human and non-human)pharmacopeiaelephantLaos
spellingShingle Nicolas Lainé
Pratiques ethno-vétérinaires sur les éléphants au Laos
Revue d'ethnoécologie
ethno-veterinary practices
knowledge (human and non-human)
pharmacopeia
elephant
Laos
title Pratiques ethno-vétérinaires sur les éléphants au Laos
title_full Pratiques ethno-vétérinaires sur les éléphants au Laos
title_fullStr Pratiques ethno-vétérinaires sur les éléphants au Laos
title_full_unstemmed Pratiques ethno-vétérinaires sur les éléphants au Laos
title_short Pratiques ethno-vétérinaires sur les éléphants au Laos
title_sort pratiques ethno veterinaires sur les elephants au laos
topic ethno-veterinary practices
knowledge (human and non-human)
pharmacopeia
elephant
Laos
url https://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/5917
work_keys_str_mv AT nicolaslaine pratiquesethnoveterinairessurleselephantsaulaos