Speaker
Description
Mountain ranges cover most of Southeast Europe. They reach heights of over 2,500 metres and form a rugged relief of jagged rocks, deep gorges and isolated plains. This natural structure has always made transport within the region difficult. Until well into the second half of the 20th, the connection of high mountains, plains and coast — that is local, regional and global exchange — was almost entirely dependent on muscle power. Donkeys and mules in particular carried people, goods, news and ideas to and from Southeast Europe. It was only the diesel engine and the intensified road development with lorry traffic that very slowly put an end to the transport of loads on the backs of draft animals after the Second World War.
The importance of donkeys and mules for the reconstruction of agriculture, transportation and mobility in the Balkans was also recognized by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). From June 1945 to mid-1947, many thousands of animals were shipped from overseas to Europe and distributed to local farmers and businesses. However, the unfamiliar mustang mares and mules posed challenges for the local inhabitants in terms of handling and use.
Based on archival records, memoirs and visual material, I will focus on the transportation and distribution of donkeys and mules to Yugoslavia and Greece. Drawing on concepts of different temporalities of technology (H. Weber 2019), I conceive of donkeys and mules as a key technology in transportation and mobility in the Balkans. In doing so, I aim to provide a new perspective away from the overvaluation of machine work, large-scale infrastructure and “modern” innovations towards the persistence and polychrony of animal labour as living technology in times of transformation.
Biography
Ruža Fotiadis is a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer at the Chair for Southeast European History, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She is a historian of 19th and 20th century Southeast Europe and has published extensively on the history of Yugoslavia and Greece, as well as food history. Her current research project focuses on donkeys and mules as indispensable draft animals in the Balkans. At the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Human Animal Studies, the History of Transport and the History of Technology, Ruža argues that a greater inclusion of animal labour in everyday work provides new perspectives on technological change in the industrial age.
