Despret. I shamelessly looted Stengers’ Cosmopolitics, as well as
Callon’s research on the anthropology of the market. During the two
years I spent writing this book, my constant aim was to do justice to
the truly historic experience of my friend David Western, then direc-
tor of the Kenya Wildlife Service at a critical juncture—although I re-
mained well aware of the immense distance separating the politics of
nature that I was drafting in my study among the meditative cows of
the Bourbonnais from the politics of nature that he practices every day
in the field among elephants, Masai, tourists, international donors, lo-
cal politicians, and herds of buffalo and gnus—not to mention his
“dear colleagues” and other meat-eating species...FortheEnglish
edition, I abstained from making any major modifications, except for
deleting the annex to Chapter 1. I edited and updated some of the foot-
notes, deleted those relevant only for the French, and added a few to
address objections made since the original publication. I made very
few changes in the body of the text, except for clarification. Those mi-
nor deletions and additions are entirely due to me and not to the
translator, Catherine Porter, from whose remarkable skill and benevo-
lence I was fortunate enough to profit once again.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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