[Sci-tech-public] Modern Times, Rural Places seminar, April 8, 2005

[Margo Collett]

Modern Times, Rural Places:

Seminar Series at MIT



Janet Browne
Professor of History of Medicine
  University College London



"Safari Culture:  Gorilla Expeditions in the African Highlands or 
Domesticating the Wild from Paul du Chaillu to Dian Fossey"



This talk addresses some of the main shifts in twentieth century thought 
relating to safari culture and encounters with gorillas in the field. It 
draws on Carl Akeley (1864-1926), taxidermist to the American Museum of 
Natural History in New York, who made important collecting expeditions in 
the early years of the century and established the first national reserve 
for gorillas in Rwanda in 1926. From the 1970s onwards, Dian Fossey's 
purpose was neither to kill or capture but to watch. Ultimately she came to 
regard gorilla society as her family, in a sense domesticating the imagery 
of these wild animals and the local environment.



Friday, April 8, 2005

2:30 to 4:30 pm

MIT, Building E51 Room 095



Sponsored by MIT's History Faculty and the Program in Science, Technology, 
and Society
For more information or to be put on the mailing list, please contact Margo 
Collett at <mailto:mcollet at mit.edu>mcollett at mit.edu
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