Best wishes for the new year !
We are pleased to announce the next session of the Technological Globalization from Below Online Seminar Series, scheduled for Wednesday, January 14th, from 10h to 11h30 (CET, Paris time), online.
Our distinguished guest, Dr. Liz P.Y. Chee (PhD in history and social anthropology, assistant professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), will present her talk entitled « Drinking Antelope : Making Saiga Antelope Traditional, Chinese, and Medicine ».
Liz P.Y. Chee researches the medicinal uses of animals. Her talk will document the medicinal uses and becomings of the horns of the saiga antelope, widely used as medicine in China and the Chinese diaspora. This has been a major factor in the near-extinction of the species at various points in the last century and a half, though their numbers have recently recovered due to strengthened regulation. In line with the recent turn towards multi-species justice, and prior calls for the just treatment of animals by Tang Dynasty Chinese physician Sun Simiao, she will argue that the medicalization of the saiga antelope is a particularly egregious case of a classificatory injustice. This began in the 18 th century with the misrepresentation of the saiga species as the ‘antelope’ (lingyang) of ancient and medieval Chinese medical classics. 20 th century research by Chinese doctors corrected the perception that saiga horn was uniquely powerful compared to that of animals of the same genus, a finding subsequently ignored, however, given the collapse of the Soviet Union and the flooding of China with poached saiga horns from the Central Asian steppes. Saiga then became the medico-legal substitute for rhinos as trade in the later species became illegal. The last injustice was to expand the market for saiga horn beyond the sick to those who could afford ‘supplements’ to simply maintain the condition of good health. Though not unique, the case of the saiga antelope is a particularly clear illustration of how a non-Chinese species became at once traditional, Chinese, and medicine, and the work that went into maintaining and embellishing that role in the modern period.
Zoom link
- https://u-paris.zoom.us/j/829154955...
Meeting ID : 829 1549 5570
code : 133495
The yearly program is below, we hope to see you there.
The organizing team
Nassima ABDELGHAFOUR, Javed Mohammad ALAM, Mady BARBEITAS, Henry CHAVEZ, Renata FREITAS MACHADO, Bérénice GIRARD, Sofia GUEVARA, Mahamat Nour Moussa ILYASS, Koichi KAMEDA, James Christopher MIZES, Cecilia PASSANTI, Yves-Marie RAULT-CHODANKAR, Mathieu QUET and Aamod UTPAL
PROGRAM 25-26
- 15 October 2025, 17 h : Andrea Ballestero, Anthropology Department, University of Southern California. Online session.
- 10 December 2025 : Myriam Amri, Emmanuel College, Cambridge University
- 14 January 2026 : Liz Chee, Division of Humanities, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- 11 February 2026 : Guilherme Moura, Département d’Anthropologie sociale, Université de São Paulo.
- 11 March 2026, 10am : Jatin Dua, Department of Anthropology, Michigan University
- 8 April 2026, 10am : Robyn D’Avignon, Department of Anthropology and Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
- 28-29 May 2026 : Study day on the forest with Eduardo Romero Dianderas, Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University (and others !). on site : UMR Devsoc, Nogent sur Marne
- 10 June 2026 : (to be confirmed)