Interspecies Entanglements

This article focuses on the strained legacy of colonial botany and plant trafficking in the context of European expansion and colonisation. ‘Interspecies entanglements’ refers to the relationships of power, knowledge, accumulation, commodification and desire that are perceptible when humans talk about plants in the framework of colonialism. The example I take is the breadfruit tree (Artocarpus altilis), a member of the mulberry family dispersed widely across the Pacific, which was famously transplanted from Tahiti to the Caribbean in the 1790s. After elaborating its journey through cultural discourse (first as ‘bread of the Gods’, then as ‘food for slaves’), I focus on German naturalist Georg Forster’s essay, titled Vom Brodbaum (On the Breadtree, 1784). My underlying contention is that, while Forster redresses some damning stereotypes and misconceptions relating to the Pacific cultures, his interest in race and the attendant hierarchies places a question mark over the integrity of his scientific engagement with human and plant knowledge alike.