Locke, P.2016-06-142016-06-142015Locke, P. (2015) Multispecies Methodology, Transdisciplinary Collaboration, and Human-Elephant Relations. Christchurch, New Zealand: Aotearoa New Zealand Human-Animal Studies Conference 2015, 5-6 Nov 2015.http://hdl.handle.net/10092/12276This paper considers the methodological challenges of multispecies ethnography, and the limitations of disciplinary habituation through critical reflection on two cases of anthropological research on human-elephant relations. As a posthumanist approach to the agency of nonhuman species, and their social, historical, and ecological intersections with human life, multispecies ethnography is reconfiguring the ethnographic gaze and stimulating new kinds of research. Ethnoelephantology represents one such application; an attempt at an integrated approach that recognizes the subjective agency of elephants, their entanglements with human lives and landscapes, and the complementary role of the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Through reflection on studies of communities of elephants and mahouts in Nepal, and encounters with elephants at the fringe of field and forest in Assam, I note how we have profitably "poached" intellectual resources from other disciplines, especially animal behavior, ecology, physiology, and cognition. However, coming up against the limits of our disciplined capabilities as ethnographic researchers, I discuss our recognition of methodological inadequacy. While we have sought to expand our methodological toolkit, and while synergies between fieldwork in the social and the natural sciences can be productively exploited, I conclude with the suggestion of transdisciplinary collaboration to better achieve the goals of multispecies research.enAnthropologyHuman-Animal StudiesConference Contributions - PublishedFields of Research::31 - Biological sciences::3109 - Zoology::310901 - Animal behaviourField of Research::16 - Studies in Human Society::1601 - Anthropology::160199 - Anthropology not elsewhere classified