White ants: biotic borders to biocultural frontiers

Shinozuka, J. N. and Deb Roy, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6836-990X (2024) White ants: biotic borders to biocultural frontiers. Isis, 115 (1). pp. 131-135. ISSN 1545-6994 doi: 10.1086/728889

Abstract/Summary

Establishing biotic borders was part and parcel of empire building. The question of which kinds of biological species were permitted to make their way into North American and West European territories shaped transregional border control in the imperial age. Biotic borders were intensely biocultural in that stereotypes around race and ethnic differences shaped them. Drawing on examples from the history of white ants (also known as termites) in the American and British empires, this essay argues that insects had a sustained and global presence in modern imperial imaginations of borders and frontiers.