Human-Animal Relationship

Modern society is beginning to re-examine its whole relationship with animals and the natural world. Until recently issues such as animal welfare and environmental protection were considered the domain of small, idealistic minorities. Now, these issues attract vast numbers of articulate supporters who collectively exercise considerable political muscle. Animals, both wild and domestic, form the primary focus of concern in this often acrimonious debate. Yet why do animals evoke such strong and contradictory emotions in people - and do our western attitudes have anything in common with those of other societies and cultures? Bringing together a range of contributions from distinguished experts in the field, Animals and Society explores the importance of animals in society from social, historical and cross-cultural perspectives.

The multiple ways in which people relate to animals provide a revealing window through which to examine a culture. Western cultures tend to view animals either as pets or food, and often overlook the vast number of roles that they may play within a culture and in social life more generally: their use in medicine, folk traditions and rituals. This comprehensive and very readable study focuses on Malawi people and their rich and varied relationship with animals -- from hunting through to their use as medicine. More broadly, through a rigorous and detailed study the author provides insights which show how the people's relationship to their world manifests itself not strictly in social relations, but just as tellingly in their relatioships with animals -- that, in fact, animals constitute a vital role in social relations. While significantly advancing classic African ethnographic studies, this book also incorporates current debates in a wide range of disciplines -- from anthropology through to gender studies and ecology.

"Gene Myers, writing in a very clear style, opens a special window on children's relations with animals. I expect that Children & Animals will be enjoyed by developmental, moral, cognitive, & environmental social scientists, as well as by more than a few parents." John Snarey Emory University; author of How Fathers Care "This book presents a radical reappraisal of the importance of animals in human development. Through his observations of preschoolers' relations with classroom pets, Myers posits that animalhuman interaction plays a uniquely significant role in the growth of preverbal self-awareness & moral sense." James A. Serpell School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

In this wonderful book, the famous scientist and best-selling author, Konrad Lorenz, 'the man who talked with animals', enlightens and entertains us with his illustrated account of the unique relationship between humans and their pets. Displaying Lorenz's customary humanity and expert knowledge of animals, Man Meets Dog is also a deeply personal and entertaining account of his relationships with his own four-legged friends. With charming sketches on almost every page, Man Meets Dog offers a delightful insight into animal and human thinking and feeling. An essential companion for all lovers of dogs (and cats!).

In this work Tim Ingold offers a persuasive approach to understanding how human beings perceive their surroundings. He argues that what we are used to calling cultural variation consists, in the first place, of variations in skill. Neither innate nor acquired, skills are grown, incorporated into the human organism through practice and training in an environment. They are thus as much biological as cultural. The twenty-three essays comprising this book focus in turn on the procurement of livelihood, on what it means to 'dwell', and on the nature of skill, weaving together approaches from social anthropology, ecological psychology, developmental biology and phenomenology in a way that has never been attempted before. The book is set to revolutionise the way we think about what is 'biological' and 'cultural' in humans, about evolution and history, and indeed about what it means for human beings - at once organisms and persons - to inhabit an environment. The Perception of the Environment will be essential reading not only for anthropologists but also for biologists, psychologists, archaeologists, geographers and philosophers.

This book explores the history and nature of our dependency on other animals and the implications of this for human and animal health. Writing from an historical and sociological perspective, Joanna Swabe's work discusses such issues as: * animal domestication * the consequences of human exploitation of other animals, including links between human and animal disease * the rise of a veterinary regime, designed to protect humans and animals alike * implications of intensive farming practices, pet-keeping and recent biotechnological developments. This account spans a period of some ten thousand years, and raises important questions about the increasing intensification of animal use for both animal and human health.

More than the story of how people and rats live together, this book takes a serious and intriguing look at science and scientists, the problems they solve and fail to solve, and the scope and imperfections of our scientific knowledge of the world. It answers questions such as: Are rats still a threat to human health? Do rats think? Is it true that wild rats sometimes die, unwounded, from social stress? Can studies of rat societies tell us anything useful about our own social lives? This compelling historical and social study will capture the interest of all readers—from those fascinated by rats to those who cringe—by explaining the delicate and sometimes volatile impacts humans and rats have had on each other over the centuries and into the modern age.