Mapping Oysters and Making Oceans in the Northern Indian Ocean, 1880–1906

Abstract

At the turn of the twentieth century, most of the world’s pearls were extracted from rich oyster and coral reefs on the northern Indian Ocean rim. This paper returns to the sites of extraction, studying imperial maps made from 1889–1925 to delineate oyster reefs on the seafloor. Building from the submarine up, I draw on environmental, animal, and history of science studies to explore the work of mapping oceanic, animate space. Attending to the role of divers, whose labor was required to make the seafloor visible, and the lifecycles of oysters, which changed over time, I argue that the seafloor represents a kind of unruly terrain, out of both the reach and control of imperial authorities. The paper’s final section meditates on reading humans as part of Indian Ocean landscapes and the possibilities this offers for further comparative, transnational work in a materialist vein.

Historiographies of science and labor: From past perspectives to future possibilities

“…64 Among scholars modeling this approach, Tamara Fernando writes a "below the waterline" account of an Indian Ocean pearl fishery in which Gulf of Mannar divers and British colonial mapmakers constructed competing seafloor cartographies in conjunction with oceanic currents, sharks, parasitic tapeworms, and bivalves. 65 This spatial shift decenters laboratories, salons, and universities as the emblematic sites of science, taking us instead to sites like the ocean floor and making it easier to see scientific work mobilized across the widest spectrum of conditions: by freely made contract and violent extraction, with and without remuneration, through the market and within the household. The diversity of labor relations that science entails reflects the diversity of the spaces where it is practiced.…”