ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Burying Anthrax: The Making of an Animal Cemetery in Izmit in Early Republican Turkey

• In Event: Science and Empire in the Anthropocene: Towards an Environmental Shift 4 - Imperial Medicine Contested

English Abstract

In the 8 March 1937 issue of Cumhuriyet newspaper, it was reported that Ziya Tan, Director of the İzmit (a city on the northwestern Anatolia and eastern neighbor of Istanbul) Veterinary Office, introduced a new proposal to the Provincial General Assembly—one that was subsequently approved: the construction of an animal cemetery for the burial of animal carcasses, particularly those that had died of contagious diseases. Tan justified his proposal by explaining that the anthrax bacillus can survive on the surface of the soil for more than thirty years, whereas it dies within seven to eight months when deeply buried. This decision by the İzmit Provincial General Assembly generated widespread public reaction in the press. Some questioned whether at a time when modern, tree-lined, and enclosed cemeteries for humans were still lacking, it should be animals to have one; others considered the decision highly appropriate from a public health standpoint. As Bacillus Anthracis’ acquired an identity, its nature was unraveled, which followed by anthrax’s global fame —thanks to Koch, Pasteur, and other scientists— this expanding body of knowledge, combined with the early Republic’s public health agenda and its aim to create a controlled, disease-free built environment, appears to have strengthened the drive to shape the surrounding environment accordingly. By bringing to light this little-known effort in the Republican history, and by exploring the discussions that occupied the newspapers for several days—while focusing specifically on anthrax as the catalyst for this case—this paper asks what diseases reveal about human–animal relations (including similarities and divergences between state perspectives and those of ordinary people towards animals), and how knowledge on diseases changed these relations. It further explores how these varied dimensions of human–animal relations informed efforts to redesign the surrounding environment.

Author

• Zeynep Akçakaya, Kadir Has University