Herds and Hierarchies: Class, Nature, and the Social Construction of Horses in Equestrian Culture (original) (raw)
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Humanimalia: a journal of human/animal interface studies, Volume 11, No. 2. , 2020
A new collection of essays edited by Kristen Guest and Monica Mattfeld, Equestrian Cultures: Horses, Human Society, and the Discourse of Modernity, responds to an increasingly robust literature on the horse in the fields of animal studies, literature, and history. The introduction challenges the speciesism implicit in the predominant periodization of modernity, which repeats "a narrative of dislocation and alienation" with respect to the natural and animal worlds at large, and the horse in particular. Titles like Farewell to the Horse (Ulrich Raulff, 2018) suggest the march towards the modern is proportionate to the declining relevance of horses, and while minding the past importance of equids, also serves as an honorable salute to their obsolescence. Guest
Introduction to Equestrian Cultures in Global and Local Contexts
Equestrian Cultures in Global and Local Contexts, 2017
The changing status of equines is revealing of the many important material and symbolic societal transformations ushered in by (post)modernityaffecting global and local contexts alike. However, few have asked if the changing status of equines is consistent across cultures near and far in time and place. In looking deeper into this question, we redress a concerning imbalance in existing social science literature on equestrian cultures and the equine industry, which has focused almost exclusively on European and North American contexts. The volume we have put together here mounts a convincing argument for the value of equines as subjects of academic study and drivers of public policy. In this introduction, we outline how the different chapters in this volume push current literature and discussion forward. Together they go beyond the work/sport horse divide, reformulate human-horse relations as they unfold socially and historically, and inquire into current equestrian configurations in a wide range of cultural contexts (contributions on Brazil, China, Iran, Morocco, and South Africa are included here). We identify key threads in the burgeoning field of equestrian social science to which our book contributes-gender in equestrian practices; concerns regarding the new equine market and new equine workforce; equestrianism throughout the human life course; class, race, and ethnicity; representations of tradition and modernity in equestrian culture; and performing identity for the self and others. Together, our contributors discuss how these threads intersect in, through and across global and local equestrian contexts.
Tools of the trade of part of the family? Horses in competitive equestrian sport
Society and Animals , 2014
The horse-human relationship is based on mutual respect and understanding, and the development of trusting partnerships may be particularly important in elite equestrian sport, where horses and humans rely on each other to tackle sporting challenges. The increasing commercialization of equestrian sport is eroding aspects of the horse-human relationship, as the commodity value of sports horses increases and the pressure for quick results threatens the formation of deep bonds between horse and rider. This article presents data from an ethnographic study of competitive equestrian sport in England, including interviews with 26 elite riders, to explore how the changing nature of elite equestrian sport is altering the basis of the horse-human relationship, changing the horse from a trusted partner in sporting pursuits to a commodity to be bought and sold for human commercial benefit.
Preview of Horse Breeds and Human Society
Horse Breeds and Human Society, 2019
This book demonstrates how horse breeding is entwined with human societies and identities. It explores issues of lineage, purity, and status by exploring interconnections between animals and humans. The quest for purity in equine breed reflects and evolves alongside human subjectivity shaped by categories of race, gender, class, region, and nation. Focusing on various horse breeds, from the Chincoteague Pony to Brazilian Crioulo and the Arabian horse, each chapter in this collection considers how human and animal identities are shaped by practices of breeding and categorizing domesticated animals. Bringing together different historical, geographical, and disciplinary perspectives, this book will appeal to academics, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students, in the fields of human-animal studies, sociology, environmental studies, cultural studies, history, and literature. Monica is currently interested in questions of breed, type, and purity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, along with questions relating to equine performance and nineteenth-century hippodrama. Eds. Kristen Guest and Monica Mattfeld.
Natural relations: Horses, knowledge, technology
2009
Maintaining the tensions and divisions between the human and non-human, nature and culture has been a mainstay of Euro-American thought. Drawing upon two studies of people's associations with horses, we examine how these divisions are being reworked in the social sciences as well in everyday life. We focus on how different ideas about 'horses', 'horsemanship' and how knowledge is acquired, accomplishes different social worlds. Specifically, what emerges in these differential discourses is that a paradox is put into play to make a distinction between traditional and contemporary ways of being in relation to nature and the animal; it is the paradox of what we want to refer to as 'natural technologies'. We suggest that the paradox of 'natural technologies' is a proliferating feature of Euro-American cultural life that troubles old divisions between nature and culture and propose that it indicates less about a politics of nature than a politics of culture. Specifically, we show that the preoccupation with bringing nature, and the non-human, more into alignment with the human promotes ethics and equality as matters of lifestyle choice to the exclusion of very specific ideas about tradition, hierarchy, evolution and socialization.
Natural relations: horses, knowledge, technology 1
Sociological Review, 2009
Maintaining the tensions and divisions between the human and non-human, nature and culture has been a mainstay of Euro-American thought. Drawing upon two studies of people's associations with horses, we examine how these divisions are being reworked in the social sciences as well in everyday life. We focus on how different ideas about ‘horses’, ‘horsemanship’ and how knowledge is acquired, accomplishes different social worlds. Specifically, what emerges in these differential discourses is that a paradox is put into play to make a distinction between traditional and contemporary ways of being in relation to nature and the animal; it is the paradox of what we want to refer to as ‘natural technologies’. We suggest that the paradox of ‘natural technologies’ is a proliferating feature of Euro-American cultural life that troubles old divisions between nature and culture and propose that it indicates less about a politics of nature than a politics of culture. Specifically, we show that the preoccupation with bringing nature, and the non-human, more into alignment with the human promotes ethics and equality as matters of lifestyle choice to the exclusion of very specific ideas about tradition, hierarchy, evolution and socialization.
In this chapter I will develop an ethnographic approach to analyze the translocal connections within the global network of contemporary Arabian horse breeders. The focus thus lies on the purebred Arabian horse, its changing meaning, commodification, and the specific locally-situated work and practice, not only connecting the horse with their human counterparts but also constituting the different groups of actors and their relations among each other. Methodically, I draw on theoretical concepts from the field of anthropology, traditionally concerned with human-animal-nature entanglements (through domestication studies, studies of nomadic pastoralist societies: e.g. Cassidy and Mullin 2007; Ingold 1988, 2011; Grasseni 2009; Leder and Streck 2005), concepts influenced by human-animal studies such as multispecies ethnography and the French tradition of science and technology studies and ANT, namely obligatory passage points (OPP) by Michel Callon (1986), attachment by Antoine Hennion (2007) and immutable mobiles by Bruno Latour (1999). I chose Egypt’s scene of Arabian horse breeders as the ethnographic center of this analysis.
Horses in leisure events: a posthumanist exploration of commercial and cultural values
Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events , 2021
Horses currently play a leading role in many leisure events worldwide. However, their involvement in leisure activities raises various ethical questions. Based on a posthumanist approach, this study sought to explore the use and treatment of horses in a leisure event in Mexico. A participant observation method was adopted to conduct the research, revealing that horses become quite instrumental and commodified for humans, fulfilling intersecting entertainment, economic and cultural purposes. These results thus provide evidence of the prevailing anthropocentric and speciesist nature of horse-human interactions in leisure events. The findings include that, when horse-human relations become highly commercialised and are institutionally recognised as cultural heritage, a complete embracement of posthumanism is needed to dissolve basic horse-human dichotomies, but this remains a utopian ideal in tourism and leisure practices.
Equestrian Cultures in Global and Local Arenas
International scholarship on equestrianism makes consistent reference to the importance of the horse and of horse-human relations in the dynamics of social life. The role of the horse in the building and sustenance of human cultures and civilizations in earlier periods of history is easy to