ABSTRACT Whereas zoological gardens and animal collections in North America and Western Europe are well researched from historical, philosophical, and cultural perspectives, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the history and legacy of these modernizing institutions in Eastern Europe. To bridge this gap in scholarship, I investigate the traffic in exotic animals to this region with a focus on a particular species. Historically, elephants have been considered prime symbols of the power and triumph of the colonial empire, and were thus often the jewels of colonial animal collections across Europe. In this article, I explore how the colonial origin of elephants as both big game and charismatic megafauna translates into a geopolitical context without direct overseas colonies, in order to trace the material links between species, race, transnational commodity networks, and structures of identity formation. Based on archival and bibliographic research focused on the Poznań Zoo in years 1871–1945, this article offers a critical analysis of the role of elephant performance in zoos, circuses, and travelling shows in mediating and mobilizing imperial longings. From this vantage point I suggest that studying public zoos in Eastern Europe offers a unique insight into a physical presence of colonial imperialism (via traffic in exotic species) in an area without overseas colonies, through a site where modernist models of citizenship, nationhood, and Europeanness are forged at the interface between science, education, and transnational politics. Given that zoos were crucial for the development of the biological perspective in the West, I posit a reconfiguration of zoos as ‘contact zones’ and primary sites for colonial encounter within the empire from a semi-peripheral perspective.

中文翻译：

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大象帝国：东欧的动物园和殖民地

摘要尽管从历史，哲学和文化的角度对北美和西欧的动物园和动物馆进行了深入研究，但令人惊讶的是，很少有人对东欧这些现代化机构的历史和遗产给予关注。为了弥补这一奖学金缺口，我研究了该区域的外来动物贩运，重点是特定物种。从历史上看，大象一直被认为是殖民帝国权力和胜利的主要象征，因此经常是整个欧洲殖民地动物收藏的瑰宝。在本文中，我将探讨大象（既是大型猎物又是超凡脱俗的大型动物）的殖民起源如何转化为没有直接海外殖民地的地缘政治背景，以追溯物种，种族，跨国商品网络和身份形成结构。基于1871年至1945年间针对波兹南动物园的档案和书目研究，本文对大象表演在动物园，马戏团和巡回演出中的作用进行了批判性分析，以调解和调动帝国的渴望。从这个有利的角度，我建议研究东欧的公共动物园，通过一个现代的公民身份，民族和国家模式的网站，对殖民帝国主义（通过贩运外来物种）在没有海外殖民地的地区的实际存在提供独特的见解。欧洲性是在科学，教育和跨国政治之间的联系上形成的。鉴于动物园对于西方生物学观点的发展至关重要，