What does the concept of a ‘diaspora’ bring to understanding relationships between humans and other animals? By considering the larger diasporic processes of four camelid species native to the South American highlands (llama, alpaca, guanaco and vicuña), patterns of movement and traces of cultural exchange appear.
Emily Wakild, Cecil D. Andrus Endowed Chair for the Environment and Public Lands, published a chapter “What’s a Guanaco? Tracing the Llama Diaspora through and beyond South America,” on this concept in the collection “Traces of the Animal Past: Methodological Challenges in Animal History.” This book is edited by Jennifer Bonnell and Sean Kheraj and brings together seventeen original pieces of scholarship. A free download is available from the University of Calgary Press.