Human-Animal Relations Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The wider cultural universe of contemporary Eveny is a specific and revealing subset of post-Soviet society. From an anthropological perspective, the author seeks to reveal not only the Eveny cultural universe but also the universe of the... more

The wider cultural universe of contemporary Eveny is a specific and revealing subset of post-Soviet society. From an anthropological perspective, the author seeks to reveal not only the Eveny cultural universe but also the universe of the children and adolescents within this universe. The first full-length ethnographic study among the adolescence of Siberian indigenous peoples, it presents the young people’s narratives about their own future and shows how they form constructs of time, space, agency and personhood through the process of growing up and experiencing their social world. The study brings a new perspective to the anthropology of childhood and uncovers a quite unexpected dynamic in narrating and foreshadowing the future while relating it to cultural patterns of prediction and fulfillment in nomadic cosmology.

This paper offers a new comprehensive catalogue and discussion of Late Helladic III chariot kraters, and explores what they reveal about horse-human relations in Greece and Cyprus in the Late Bronze Age. The nearly  known examples of... more

This paper offers a new comprehensive catalogue and discussion of Late Helladic III chariot kraters, and explores what they reveal about horse-human relations in Greece and Cyprus in the Late Bronze Age. The nearly  known examples of chariot kraters were produced in mainland Greece and exported to Cyprus and the Levant. Although the vessels were surely adapted to local contexts, the motif of horses and chariot was part of the 'international' spirit of the Late Bronze Age and was meaningful throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Following a discussion of the chronological and geographical distribution of the kraters, alongside notes regarding changes in shape, we examine each of the elements of the characteristic horses-and-chariot motif in depth. This close analysis, supplemented by evidence from faunal remains, Linear B and other visual media, and combined with modern equine knowledge, allows us to understand some of the complexities of horsehuman relations in ancient Greece and Cyprus. Through this, we see a co-becoming and mutual training of horse and human in the endeavour to become a successful chariot team; we can also recognise elements of ancient acknowledgement of equine agency and personhood. Horses and humans acted and reacted to each other, thereby living and learning together. The images on the chariot kraters reflect both ancient observation and knowledge of horses and caballine behaviour and artistic conventions and developments. Finally, horses were expensive animals to breed, keep and train (with accompanying expensive gear), and direct physical contact would have been for the fortunate few. The chariot kraters allowed a broader segment of the population to engage with horses and chariots, albeit indirectly.

This is a draft of the introductory chapter of a book-in-progress entitled Lizard, which has been contracted for publication in the Animal series of Reaktion Books in London. It discusses the changing definitions of "lizard" throughout... more

This is a draft of the introductory chapter of a book-in-progress entitled Lizard, which has been contracted for publication in the Animal series of Reaktion Books in London. It discusses the changing definitions of "lizard" throughout history, and the methodological difficulties, together with their philosophical foundation, involved in settling on a single definition today. These are compared with the problems of settling on a single meaning for "humankind." It concludes that the meaning of "lizard" cannot be fixed, and the animal may only be understood within the context of an evolving tradition. I would be very interested in any comments or suggestions.

Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia inscribed UNESCO world cultural heritage sites in 2008. Under the city's honor, swiftlet farming was one of the trickiest issues in the inner city. The swiftlet is a species of birds that use their saliva to... more

Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia inscribed UNESCO world cultural heritage sites in 2008. Under the city's honor, swiftlet farming was one of the trickiest issues in the inner city. The swiftlet is a species of birds that use their saliva to make nests in humans' houses. These birds' nests can be cooked into soup considered a delicacy, making a lucrative business in Chinese food culture. Chinese Malaysian community started swiftlet farming systematically in the 1990s, when new birds' houses appeared across Malaysia, including Georgetown. In 2008, when Georgetown became a cultural heritage, controversies soon arose around bird farming in this city, and swiftlet farming was banned in order to improve the city for locals and tourist, and to preserve the old homes. Using 4 months of fieldwork by tracing these controversies, this study applies animal geography to demonstrate that the binaries of nature and culture, humans and animals, wild and domestication, are blurred, and the two things typically coexist in borderlands. This essay enables researchers to rethink how human-animal borderlands renew the local imagination for world cultural heritage and shape the meaning of heritage construction within daily practice.

Le zoonosi contemporanee ci costringono a porci una domanda che già gli antichi pensatori si erano posti più o meno esplicitamente. Le risposte sono spiazzanti e per molti versi attuali: mangiamo gli animali perché non siamo dèi (e quindi... more

Le zoonosi contemporanee ci costringono a porci una domanda che già gli antichi pensatori si erano posti più o meno esplicitamente. Le risposte sono spiazzanti e per molti versi attuali: mangiamo gli animali perché non siamo dèi (e quindi perché non siamo mai stati – o non siamo più – puri) o perché, semplicemente, siamo onnivori. Per Aristotele, nello specifico, mangiamo gli animali perché le tecniche a nostra disposizione ce lo permettono, anche se in ciò che ci viene permesso – secondo lui – dovrebbe sempre esserci una misura.

In emphasizing equivalences with conceptions of evil eye, accounts of Ethiopian buda understate the capacity of these beings to transform into hyenas. The case study presented here highlights how this element of the buda belief reveals a... more

In emphasizing equivalences with conceptions of evil eye, accounts of Ethiopian buda understate the capacity of these beings to transform into hyenas. The case study presented here highlights how this element of the buda belief reveals a social realm that extends beyond the strictly human.

Our storybooks are full of lizards, but we usually call them something else—dragons, serpents, dinosaurs or monsters. These stories vastly increase their size, bestow wings upon them, make them exhale flame, and endow them with magical... more

Our storybooks are full of lizards, but we usually call them something else—dragons, serpents, dinosaurs or monsters. These stories vastly increase their size, bestow wings upon them, make them exhale flame, and endow them with magical powers. Lizards stimulate the human imagination unlike most other animals, despite generally being small, soundless, and hidden from sight in burrows, treetops, and crevices. They can blend into a vast range of environments, from rocky coasts to deserts to rain forests. Their fluid motion can make us think of water, while their curvilinear form suggests vegetation. Their stillness suggests death, while their sudden arousal is like resurrection. This delightful book gives lizards their due, demonstrating how the story of lizards is interwoven with the history of human imagination. Boria Sax considers the lizard as a sensual being—a symbol, a myth, a product of evolution and an aesthetic form. He describes the diversity of lizards and traces the representation of the reptile in cultures including those of pre-conquest Australia, the Quiché Maya, Mughal India, and central Africa. Illustrated throughout with beguiling images, Lizard is a unique and often surprising introduction to a popular but little-understood reptile.

Menageries and zoological gardens have always served different publics, often several at once, and have also been places for doing science with animals. This chapter begins by outlining the emergence of modern zoological gardens as living... more

Menageries and zoological gardens have always served different publics, often several at once, and have also been places for doing science with animals. This chapter begins by outlining the emergence of modern zoological gardens as living natural history museums and sites of urban popular culture during the nineteenth century. The second section discusses the radical innovation introduced by Carl Hagenbeck around 1900, asking whether and how the open, apparently cage-less design that he patented in 1896 can be regarded as science-based, and what kind of science actually took place in his ‘animal park.’ The third section very briefly surveys continuities and changes in zoos’ cultural funtion, along with the emergence of two new zoo-related disciplines, ethology and zoo biology, during the twentieth century. The final section discusses responses by zoos to the challenges from the environmental and animal rights movements since the last third of the twentieth century.

The greatest cause of human disease is human culture, and the solution is to change that culture and the way we live. It has nothing to do with animals. A medical industry dedicated to animal research is corrupted by cruelty and cannot be... more

The greatest cause of human disease is human culture, and the solution is to change that culture and the way we live. It has nothing to do with animals. A medical industry dedicated to animal research is corrupted by cruelty and cannot be a truly healing profession.

This chapter highlights several criticisms of zoos, then provides a vision for new zoos: “nooz.” Offering a new name to these institutions makes a clear break from the old model, which is fundamentally exploitative. The common denominator... more

This chapter highlights several criticisms of zoos, then provides a vision for new zoos: “nooz.” Offering a new name to these institutions makes a clear break from the old model, which is fundamentally exploitative. The common denominator between zoos and nooz is that both foster nonhumans who are neither domestic pets nor farmed animals—they keep “wild” animals. Nooz are nonexploitative, benevolent, and are designed for nonhumans, to provide safe-haven for those individuals who have been misused by zoos or science, or injured by humans. This essay also explores “benevolent” reasons for keeping nonhuman animals in zoos, such as captive breeding programs and injured wildlife, and acceptable parameters for nooz, including such topics as retribution for previous exploitation and the problem of carnivory.

This paper extends recent work that has called for greater attention to be paid to nonhuman difference. The burgeoning animal geographies literature has been very successful in dissecting the concept of ‘nature’ and in examining the... more

This paper extends recent work that has called for greater attention to be paid to nonhuman difference. The burgeoning animal geographies literature has been very successful in dissecting the concept of ‘nature’ and in examining the myriad ways in which animal and human lives are intertwined. However, its focus is more often on collectivities, such as species and herds, than on individual animals. Through the brief case study of an octopus in The Deep, an aquarium in Kingston-upon-Hull, UK, the paper draws on and develops recently promoted notions of responsible anthropomorphism. It argues that future work might usefully pay greater attention to the lived experience of individual animals, and that further emphasis should be given to non-mammalian life forms. Doing so might not only shed light on these creatures' encounters with humans, but also help to give a greater sense of their lives beyond these direct encounters, challenging understandings of what it means to be ‘animal’.

This paper advocates a social approach to domestic animals in prehistory, one which situates herding practices in their (human) social context while also recognising the status of animals of social beings in their own right. Domestic... more

This paper advocates a social approach to domestic animals in prehistory, one which situates herding practices in their (human) social context while also recognising the status of animals of social beings in their own right. Domestic animals, it is argued, represent sentient property in the sense that despite being incorporated as ‘objects’ into property relations between humans they remain subjects whose social world overlaps with that of humans. This tension between the status of domestic animals as subject and as object is played out in highly context-specific ways, being linked both to human social organisation and to material/geographical aspects of herding practices. These ideas are used to develop a model for the role of cattle in a process of social change that took place during the later Neolithic Vinča period in the central Balkans.

"KEYWORDS: non-human animals, speciesism, animal rights, Tom Regan, utilitarianism, consequentialism, Peter Singer, animal liberation. Abstract:: Este libro milita en el campo de los partidarios de la existencia de deberes hacia los... more

In this essay I will look at the symbolism that meat holds within our ‘modern’ ‘Western’ society. I will begin by briefly introducing the study of food in general within the social sciences, setting a framework of reference for the... more

In this essay I will look at the symbolism that meat holds within our ‘modern’ ‘Western’ society. I will begin by briefly introducing the study of food in general within the social sciences, setting a framework of reference for the exploration of meat specifically. In
examining meat I will firstly set the context by turning to the global livestock sector and its relationship with the environment, before probing meat’s physical properties and their
ensuing symbolism, which, as we will see, is the basic foundation for meat’s high culinary and dietetic value in our culture. I will then continue to investigate meat’s symbolism by
asking what place, if any, may meat hold within our wider cultural cosmology, within our systems of social and moral ideas, before drawing some conclusions.

In a context of stark opposition between supporters and opponents to the wolf, the extent to which this particular predator is dangerous for humans is still an open question. What lies beneath the negative perception of the wolf? What... more

In a context of stark opposition between supporters and opponents to the wolf, the extent to which this particular predator is dangerous for humans is still an open question.
What lies beneath the negative perception of the wolf?
What should be the historian's contribution, based on historical sources and historical methods?
Thanks to a database of 4,700 cases of wolf attacks on human having occurred in France between 1580 and 1880, it is now possible to grasp the chronological evolution and spatial evolution of wolf related risks.
Undeniably real, though mostly belonging to a remote past, and statistically rare, though anthropologically intolerable, these attacks point to two opposite groups, predatory wolves occasionally preying on humans on one hand, rabid wolves striking indiscriminately a whole population on the other.
The attacks of the first kind occurred regularly in an unsafe environment, and gave rise to tales of "Ferocious Beasts" in times of dramatic crisis (1594-1600, 1691-1694, 1746-1750, 1764-1767, 1814-1819).
The second kind was spatially and chronologically less widespread, but sowed the seeds of mass hysteria, all the more persistent since the underlying sickness it forebode remained without a cure before the last third of the 20th century.
The conclusion between these two different realities gave Canis Lupus its negative aura, significantly dimmed recently however since it has entirely lost its material basis, at least in France.

With the help of archaeology and archaeozoology, art and image studies and with an analysis of written sources, the history of our domestic animals can be traced from their wild ancestors over their domestication and their further... more

With the help of archaeology and archaeozoology, art and image studies and with an analysis of written sources, the history of our domestic animals can be traced from their wild ancestors over their domestication and their further developments. Dogs as the oldest domesticated animals play a particular role: Like no other domesticated animal, they have centred on humans and are able to understand human facial expressions and gestures. The common history of humans and dogs goes back to the Palaeolithic whereas the cat which is the most popular companion animal in many European countries today was domesticated only many thousand years later. The living together of humans and dogs resp. cats in prehistoric and protohistoric times is complex and characterized by adoration as well as rejection, which has an impact on our society even today.

For centuries, animals have worked alongside humans in a wide variety of workplaces, yet they are rarely recognized as workers or accorded labour rights. Many animal rights advocates have argued that using animals for their labour is... more

For centuries, animals have worked alongside humans in a wide variety of workplaces, yet they are rarely recognized as workers or accorded labour rights. Many animal rights advocates have argued that using animals for their labour is inherently oppressive, and that animal labour should therefore be abolished. Recently, however, some people have argued that work can be a source of meaning, self-development and social membership for animals, as it is for humans, and that our goal should be to create good work for animals, not to abolish work. In this volume, an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars explores the benefits and drawbacks of animal labour as a site for interspecies justice. What kind of work is good work for animals? What kinds of labour rights are appropriate for animal workers? Can animals consent to work? Would recognizing animals as “workers” improve their legal and political status, or would it simply reinforce the perception that they are beasts of burden? Can a focus on labour help create bonds between the animal rights movement and other social justice movements? These and other questions are explored in depth. While the authors defend a range of views on these questions, their contributions make clear that the question of labour deserves a central place in any account of justice between humans and animals.

Cet article est une invitation à discuter la place de la science dans l'étude des relations anthropozoologiques. Nous soutenons que la « science », en tant qu'elle fait partie du fond culturel commun de l'Occident contemporain, doit être... more

Cet article est une invitation à discuter la place de la science dans l'étude des relations anthropozoologiques. Nous soutenons que la « science », en tant qu'elle fait partie du fond culturel commun de l'Occident contemporain, doit être prise en compte par qui-conque prétend documenter ce qui se joue « ici et maintenant » dans nos rapports aux ani-maux. Dans la lignée de la sociologie des sciences, nous suggérons que les manières qu'ont les scientifiques de penser le monde animal, de mobiliser les êtres animaux dans leurs pra-tiques et de produire des énoncés à leur propos, pourraient constituer autant d'objets pour une approche socio-anthropologique de ces rapports. Le propos est illustré par la présen-tation d'un travail bibliographique mené autour des Interactions avec l'Animal à but Thé-rapeutique. À travers l'analyse du développement de ce champ de recherche nouveau, nous avons décelé plusieurs « énoncés animaux » à l'oeuvre en son sein, chacun lié à des cultures épistémiques particulières. Mots clés : sociologie des relations anthropozoologiques, sociologie des sciences, thérapies assistées par l'animal, cultures épistémiques. Abstract : This paper is an invitation to discuss the role of science and scientific work in the studies of human/animal relationships. We argue that " science " , as a part of Western cultural background, has to be taken seriously into account if one wants to deeply understand what is at stake in our " here and now " relationships with animals. With a Science Studies approach, we suggest that the way science and scientists think about animals, use them in their work and write about them, might be explored by sociological animal studies. We illustrate the discussion using the example of Human-Animal Interactions in Health Care practices. Through a bibliographical research, we document the birth and growth of a new scientific field interested in the use of interactions with animals to improve human

New roles for dogs and humans Based on the archaeological finds during the Neolithic we interpret the relationship between humans and their dogs to have significantly changed. People gained an increased understanding of the dog's... more

New roles for dogs and humans
Based on the archaeological finds during the Neolithic we interpret the relationship between humans and their dogs to have significantly changed. People gained an increased understanding of the dog's different, unique properties. The dogs were stimulated by the work and collaboration, and probably developed mentally. Maybe, dogs specialized in different tasks?
The dogs were adapted to the new activities that occurred during this time. Depending on the daily life and needs, we conclude thus that dogs collaborated in various ways with the people. Certainly, watching dogs were
needed as well as good hunting dogs for different kinds of tracking down and hunting. Field mouses and mice were a constant threat to human storages of both the new, grown corn and gathered plants. The arable fields were fenced during this time and the domesticated animals were held outside. Having herding dogs to collect and keep the livestock assembled did the work for the pastoralists much easier. Hunting dogs were as necessary and important as before.