Faculty Member, Archaeology and Anthropology
Lecturer in Social Anthropology
Thesis Title: History, Practice, Identity: An Institutional Ethnography of Elephant Handlers in Chitwan, Nepal
Peter Parkes
About
Dr Piers Locke is a social anthropologist at The University of Wales, Lampeter, specialising in human-animal relations (anthrozoology), occupational communities, apprenticeship learning, and the anthropology of South Asia. His primary field research comprises the first ever ethnographic study of captive elephant management. He has recently given a paper at the meeting of the Association of Asian Studies (AAS) meeting in Chicago and co-convened a panel at the Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA) meeting in Bristol, where he also gave a paper and presented his film 'Servants of Ganesh: Inside The Elephant Stable'. He is writing a book titled 'Servants of Ganesh: Elephant Handlers in Nepal'. His forthcoming articles are on topics including: practice, enclavement and identity; commitment and personhood; the history of the elephant stable and the Nepali state; elephant training as a rite of initiation for elephant and trainer; and the elephant in relation to understandings of domestication.
In collaboration with Professor David Zeitlyn, he is also currently conducting a research project on anthropologists' careers, the history of anthropology at Kent, and the effects of the audit culture.
He is also developing further projects in Nepal on knowledge and the politics of expertise, and a life-history study of a senior elephant handler.
Contact Information
http://www.lamp.ac.uk/archanth/staff/piers.htm
