Caring for Strangers
Alterity, Alliances, and Reptile Conservation in the “Gecko Garden Refuges” in Manapany-les-Bains, La Réunion
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8079575 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lisa Jenny Krieg (0000-0002-3657-9443, Lisa Jenny Geographisches Institut der Universität Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 166, 53115 Bonn, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 108 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 176-176 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Geographische Zeitschrift (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0016-7479 • E-ISSN: 2365-3124 |
| Publisher | Franz Steiner Verlag (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.25162/gz-2020-0002 |
| OpenAlex | W3025767754 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Commonly seen as either dangerous or unsocial, reptiles represent a kind of alterity that is often deemed categorically different from warm-blooded mammals. In the village of Manapany-les-Bains, however, on the island of La Réunion in the Western Indian Ocean, care for the endangered gecko species Phelsuma inexpectata has taken an unexpected turn: initiated by a local NGO, village residents have declared their private gardens a gecko-friendly zone. Engaging concepts of multispecies care and alterity, this article explores what caring for a reptile means. Based on ethnographic field research in Manapany-les-Bains, I will discuss how the gecko’s otherness remains an ambivalent trope, being both reduced and capitalized on, and that new alliances are exclusionary and fragmented
Alterity · Ambivalence · Archaeology · Art · Biology · Ethnography · Ethnology · Gecko · Geography · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Trope (literature · Animal and Plant Science Education · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Psychology · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation · Ecology
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |