Historian Antoinette Burton recently published a thought-provoking new edited collection titled Biocultural Empire: New Histories of Imperial Lifeworlds, co-edited alongside Renisa Mawani and Samantha Frost. This groundbreaking volume challenges traditional histories of empire by questioning human supremacy and exploring the intricate connections between human and nonhuman worlds.
Burton embarked on this project over a decade ago, inspired by a lecture on biology and the humanities by political scientist Samantha Frost. Her collaborations with Frost and, later, with Renisa Mawani from the University of British Columbia, ignited rich conversations, leading to the realization that humans should be seen fundamentally as "biocultural creatures." Building on Frost's influential 2016 work, Biocultural Creatures: A New Theory of the Human, the trio sought to compile essays that delve deeply into the implications of this biocultural perspective within imperial histories.
Burton describes the biocultural framework as a crucial lens for understanding empire, emphasizing the inseparable entanglements between humans and the natural world. The collection brings forward numerous case studies to illustrate this dynamic. For instance, Burton's own essay examines 19th-century British imperial political cartoons, highlighting how allegorical imagery blurred distinctions between humans and creatures like birds, horses, and scorpions, thus showcasing how deeply embedded biocultural ideas were in imperial consciousness. In another compelling example, historian Debjani Bhattacharyya reveals how natural elements like silt in the Bengal Delta directly influenced the British empire's legal and economic systems in India, demonstrating how material ecological forces actively shaped historical outcomes.
The volume also connects significantly to anticolonial scholarship and Indigenous, Black, and scholars of color's longstanding recognition of biocultural connections. Burton notes that scholars such as Sylvia Wynter, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Zoe Todd have long underscored biocultural dimensions of existence. This perspective predates the topic’s mainstream recognition and offers crucial insights for reframing imperial narratives.
Ultimately, Burton hopes this collection will help dismantle enduring myths around imperialism, particularly the interconnected ideologies of white supremacy and species supremacy. By revealing how empire relied fundamentally on controlling natural environments, she underscores that recognizing biocultural entanglements can radically reshape our understanding of imperial histories and present conditions.
This ambitious work encourages future historians to adopt a biocultural approach, further integrating ecological and human histories to understand the past and its legacies better. Burton emphasizes that this collection is just the beginning, serving as both an invitation and a foundation for scholars and educators to reshape how imperialism is studied, taught, and ultimately understood.