And what of the walking Carp which now infest Palestine?? Motives for Introducing Species: Palestine’s Carp as a Case Study Dan TaMIr Department of History, University of Zürich ABSTRACT: Species introductions might lead to biological invasions, which in turn pose a serious threat to global biodiversity. There is a good deal of research about the ecological and physiological aspects of introductions and invasions, but there has been relatively little research into the socio-cultural and economic motives which initiate such species’ introduction. One common assumption relates introductions to ethnic cultural traditions, while another assumption connects them to economic reasons. Taking the introduction of the common carp (Cyprinus carpio) to Palestine’s freshwaters in the 1930s, this article examines the contribution of such socio-cultural and economic motives to the process while suggesting a third motive, an ideological one. The article concludes by assessing the ways these three motives may still be intertwined in introduction. The carp, specifically, is a global invasive: it inhabits not only hundreds of freshwater bodies worldwide, but also tops the list of 100 worst invasive species. Carp is also considered an invasive in Israel, where invasive species are considered not only a threat to wild biodiversity, but as damaging crucial natural services such as keeping genetic banks of wild forms, pollination and food sources. as awareness of the problem increases, a recent Israeli governmental report recommended exterminating invasives and banning the import of new species. Carp’s introduction to Palestine is no exception, and detailed records are available from the archives of ‘The Jewish agency’, the main driving force behind the introduction process. The first part of this article, therefore, surveys the cultural background and the cultural elements which encouraged the importation of the carp to Palestine during the 1930s. The second part investigates the economic calculations and decision making regarding this introduction endeavour. The third part suggests a third, more theoretical motive, namely aspects of the ‘Spirit of the Time’: general ideological currents which promoted such introduction experiments. The article then concludes with an assessment of these three groups of explanatory factors, and an attempt to estimate their cumulative influence. https://academia.edu/9883652/Motives_for_Introducing_Species_Palestines_Carp_as_a_Case_Study?auto=download&campaign=weekly_digest
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:59:43 +0000