Anthropologist Profile: Dr. Radhika Govindrajan, Cultural Anthropology & Animal Studies

Radhika Govindrajan (Source: University of Washington)

 

Today’s blog post is dedicated to discussing the pivotal and award winning work of Dr. Radhika Govindrajan, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington.  Her current research interests are situated in political anthropology and sex and sexuality throughout India.  It is her previous interests and work in the sociocultural study of animal studies that is the focus of today’s post.  This blog post will discuss her previous studies, how they led her to this research, and how this research is applicable to contemporary issues globally.

 

Govindrajan did not initially study anthropology.  In fact, she was a student of history, which is what her Masters degree is in (from Jawaharlal Nehru University).  It was while she was studying wildlife conservation issues during colonial India that she noticed that the contemporary debates on this topic were very similar to and embedded in the foundation of that period.  At the same time she was conducting her research there were political arguments in India that framed certain groups, particularly poor, rural populations as deviant, whereas richer, urban populations were characterized as lawful and better able to make decisions about animal conservation on public and private lands. 

 

The tension between rural and urban/rich and poor drew her to anthropological studies to further understand the complexities of these contemporary issues.  She completed her Doctoral Studies at Yale University, which led to the publication of her first book, Animal Intimacies.  This book explored various cultural aspects of human-animal relations, ranging from religious (e.g., the ethics of animal sacrifice), political (e.g., laws pertaining to animal protections), and social, among central Himalayan groups of India.  She takes an ethnohistorical approach within this text, addressing questions about how human-animal relationships influence various decisions concerning animals.  These include selecting certain animals for food versus companionship versus work, specifically in performative functions.  She also digs into the origins of these relationships, their cultural importance, and why they continue today.  She argues that these relationships and the ethic surrounding them are negotiated daily as new cultural values and influences pierce the social fabric of these central Himalayan groups.

 

Animal Intimacies went on to be awarded two prestigious prizes: the 2017 American Institute of Indian Studies Edward Cameron Dimock Prize in the Indian Humanities and the 2019 Gregory Bateson Prize, by the Society for Cultural Anthropology.  The award announcements note the parallels between the book’s subject matter in understanding human-animal relations globally.  Govindrajan remarked on this in an interview she conducted wherein she noted how the same issues that exist at her field site in India exist within the million-dollar pet industry and animal husbandry industries in the United States.  She also commented on what she believed readers could learn from the book, which was:

“Writing this book gave me new appreciation for the ways in which our lives are constantly shaped by encounters with animals. It could give readers avenues to think about their own ways of being in the world, and what discussions of living ethically might look like. This book demonstrates how people live their lives through their relationships with others. There are relationships you might have with a particular animal that change the way you are oriented in the world. There’s something really powerful in that.”

 

References

Devrim Gürsel, Zeynep. "Radhika Govindrajan Awarded the 2019 Bateson Prize." 19 September 2019. Society for Cultural Anthropology. Electronic. 5 May 2022.

Eckart, Kim. "Anthropology professor focuses book on the bonds between humans, animals ." 12 June 2018. UW News. Electronic. 2 May 2022.

No Author. "Radhika Govindrajan." 2020. Department of Anthropology, University of Washington . Electronic. 5 May 2022.