ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Insect Temporalities: Entomology, “Malay Insects,” and Plantation Work in Colonial Sumatra

• In Event: Shaping Nature 2: Insects 20thC

English Abstract

This paper examines the plural epistemic worlds that shaped colonial entomology in Sumatra during the early 20th century, focusing on how entomological knowledge was produced, translated and contested across linguistic, ecological and colonial boundaries. It traces epistemic frictions that emerged when European scientific categories encountered Malay/Indonesian vocabularies and plantation labour knowledges. By centring Bahasa Melayu/Indonesia sources through anticolonial newspapers, the analysis foregrounds alternative ways of thinking about the environmental histories of this island as well as colonial knowledge production about so-called pests and agricultural damage.
The paper argues that tobacco moth encounters constituted a key site of epistemic and temporal tension: the life rhythms and feeding behaviour of the moths shaped not only colonial scientific engagements with these tiny non-human animals but also the labour regimes of the plantations. Because the moths laid their eggs in the evening, plantation workers were compelled to adjust daily routines such as covering and uncovering seedlings, showing how insect temporalities set the rhythm for entomological practices and plantation work. At the same time, the categories of leeches, parasites or night-butterflies served in Malay/Indonesian both as political vocabulary and as insect classifications deeply connected to the colonial reality of Sumatra.
By emphasising plurality in Sumaterian knowledge forms, environmental relationships and modes of critique on colonial extractivism, the paper demonstrates how histories of science in colonial Sumatra were contested. It highlights forms of epistemic disobedience articulated through newspaper articles and everyday ecological engagements, which challenged linear narratives of scientific progress and colonial control.

Author

• Alexander Silaen, University of Vienna