Çanan Çakirlar

Two species from different domestication centres — the Bactrian camel from central Asia and the Dromedary from Arabia — were deliberately brought together and bred to create new, more powerful, animals. Larger than both parents and double the strength of its contributory species, the hybrid camel was the world’s first engineered hybrid transportation. Creating the hybrid camel required ceremonial transfers of technological knowhow and revolutionized trade networks across Eurasia. Through these networks not only goods were quickly spread, but also traditions, languages and ideas, leading to unprecedented forms of cultural hybridisation. In effect, the hybridization of camels led to the hybridization of humanity. The emergence of camel hybridization is woefully under-researched. This project will develop new methods to explore the emergence of camel hybridization in Southwest Asia from an integrated human-animal studied perspective.