ABSTRACT
This chapter draws from a multispecies ethnography among mine detection rats and their human handlers in Cambodia to investigate the extent to which ethnography can showcase the rats’ point of view. Using participant observation, videography and audio recordings of handlers and rats in Cambodia, the author shows how both species learned to negotiate the mine detection objectives with each other: the rats learned to navigate a new work environment, and foreign supervisors trained the Cambodian demining team. Based on insights during field research, the chapter demonstrates the utility of sensory ethnography methods – visual, tactile, olfactory and auditory representational modes – through descriptive text, video and audio to achieve multispecies perspectives in ethnography. From these visual and visceral methods, the author follows the learning curve of the deminers handling the rats, including often contradictory perspectives of the same experiences. Finally, the chapter also examines previous sensory ethnographic work that engages with animals as interlocutors, such as Lucien-Castaing Taylor’s films, and it attends to the ethical issues of portraying conflict in a development NGO, as well as the need to properly understand animals in mine detection.
