The first three articles in this issue take innovative approaches to study human/nonhuman animal relations, conservation and waste management, and the development of atomic scientism, drawing on science and technology studies to analyze and interpret histories of practice in East and South Asia.
Based on extended field research in Pakistan, Muhammed A. Kavesh provides a critical analysis of the perceived threat that so-called “spy pigeons” pose to geopolitical stability, national security, and cultural understandings along a contested border. Tracing out the history of homing pigeons in Moghul South Asia and their military use as messengers during World War I, Kavesh shows how powerful preconceptions define a framework within which pigeons embody radically different ideas concerning self and other. By accidently flying from one side of the border to the other, losing their identity as high-flying tipplers to the misguided prejudice of those who see them as agents of...
