Llamas Beyond the Andes: Untold Histories of Camelids in the Modern World by Marcia Stephenson (review)

Reviewed by: Llamas Beyond the Andes: Untold Histories of Camelids in the Modern World by Marcia Stephenson Regina Horta Duarte Marcia Stephenson Llamas Beyond the Andes: Untold Histories of Camelids in the Modern World. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2023. x + 380 pp. Illustrations, photos, map, notes, references, index. $45 hardcover (978-1-4773-2840-8); $45 e-book (978-1-477-32842-2). The french naturalist isidore Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire got excited when a flock of alpacas and llamas arrived in the port of Bordeaux in 1860. They had been brought by traveler/naturalist/businessman Eugène Roehn, who dedicated years of massive effort to obtaining, managing, and transporting these animals from the Andes in South America to Europe. Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire was a professor at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris and held the chair of mammals and birds zoology. He was also the president of the Société Impériale Zoologique d'Acclimatation, inaugurated in 1854. The South American camelids seemed to fit his goals perfectly, including increasing the variety of domestic animals in French farms and supplying meat, transport, fibers, and fertilizers as benefits for the progress of industry, commerce, and society. These camelids would be acclimatized from the Andes to the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the plains. Science would provide conditions for that geographical expansion over time, with human needs as the only limit. During years of hard work to get those animals, Roehn faced several obstacles. Among them, the hostility of Indigenous pastoral communities who refused to sell [End Page 209] their animals was indeed significant. Camelids assumed a crucial role in the foundational myths of Andean cosmology. Local peoples were confident that, despite domesticating and selective breeding of llamas and alpacas since immemorial times, the animals did not belong to them, as the divinities had only loaned them to humans, who from then on were obliged to guarantee their well-being and perform regular religious ceremonies. The fate of humanity and camelids was intertwined; if the divinities took back the camelids, humanity would no longer be able to survive. Therefore, humans were part of an intricate network of beings. Through plenty of histories and narratives, Llamas Beyond the Andes, by Marcia Stephenson, highlights South American camelids as a privileged contact zone between diverse human and non-human actors in a long, complex history of competitive worldviews. This is an elegant and attractive narrative built upon an impressive array of primary historical sources collected in archives in several countries: correspondences, reports, official documents from different institutions and authorities, scientific writings, medical prescriptions, natural history collections, inventories, popular magazines, photos, and illustrations. The methodological approach to analyzing sources is meticulous; mainly Stephenson conducts an insightful analysis of 32 images in seven chapters, in addition to an introduction and conclusion. The geohistorical scope is broad, encompassing about five centuries full of adventure histories in countries in South and North America, Europe, and Australia. The edition opens with a map that depicts the major camelid extraction routes when these animals were compulsorily involved in transoceanic and imperialistic projects. The book is a myriad of accounts about llamas, alpacas, guanacos, and vicuñas on the move in multiple arenas and surprising new bio-geographies. A chronological approach highlights the growing role of these animals as global commodities throughout the centuries. However, this is by no means a linear perspective, as the author diligently explores the complex and sometimes paradoxical function of camelids as a meeting point for different cultures, whether in the production of knowledge, in the commodification of exotic products, in projects of national agricultural development, or commercial exchanges. Herein lies the originality of Stephenson's book, which explores how camelids have integrated centuries-old trails of interactions with other humans and non-humans, not only in their original habitat (the Andes), but over much larger itineraries and distances. Inspired by the "contact zone" concept proposed by Mary Louise Pratt, Stephenson argues that camelids' bodies became intercultural meeting points in a complex web of encounters and confrontations, due to their exotic characteristics and possibilities for use and consumption. She considers "camelid contact zones" a precious investigative tool in a strategic...