ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The Tales That Turn Upon Turtles

• In Event: What Are Protocols For? Strategies for Knowing More-Than-Humans in History and Science

English Abstract

In this paper, I examine the issue of protocols as they obtain in both a social and a scientific sense, framed historically across frames in the classical and the near past, in relation to sea turtles. For the former, I consider lines of religious thought, particularly with the turtle serving as one of the avatars (incarnations) of Vishnu, the Preserver in the triune conceptualisation of the Hindu God-head, along with Brahma, the Creator, and Shiva, the Destroyer. The chelonian avatar bears the name ‘Kurma’ and is the second of the ten avatars (Dashavatara) of Vishnu. The key element of the role of the turtle is that in the cosmic fight between the forces of light and darkness, the celestial mountain Mandara is held upon the back of the turtle so that it does not sink into oblivion. I am interested in how religious practice and concomitant protection afforded to turtles following this lead serves as a protocol, particularly in such places of worship as the temple dedicated to the ‘Kurma’ avatar in the village of Srikurmam near Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, where the indication is that the species of mountain bearing chelonian may well be an olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), given the number of individuals of that species that nest in the region, both there and in far greater abundance in the northern neighbouring state of Orissa/Odisha. I would like to contrast this with the idea of scientific protocols as adopted in modern conservation of sea turtles in India, particularly on the East Coast (Orissa/Odisha and Tamil Nadu) and the southern West Coast (Kerala), admixed with locale-specific differences based upon decisions made by the scientific practitioners in consultation (where it occurs) with local communities. In this sense I am inspired by the work of Michel Callon (1986) through multiple and diverse participants in the study and utilisation of scallops in Saint-Brieuc, France, as well as Madhav Gadgil and V. D. Vartak (1974), on sacred groves in India with a view to their continued conservation, in this case, extended in ambit to the coast and coastal waters. As an exercise in the history of science as well as science and technology studies, it would, in my opinion, be fruitful to discuss the notion of protocols both in religious and scientific practice, imbricated in the entity of the sea-turtle, and ask where there is coalescence in terms of outcomes for conservation.

Author

• John Mathew, Asian University for Women