Synopses & Reviews
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008. Human culture is now more dangerous to nonhuman animals than ever before. The destruction of natural habitats and the killing of animals for food, science, medicine or trophy -- sometimes to the point of extinction -- is the stuff of newspaper headlines. We live in a time when the idea of an animal's habitat has almost become irrelevant, except as a historical curiosity, yet also in a time when the public and philosophical acknowledgement of animal rights and environmental ethics is on the rise. Animals are enmeshed in human culture simply because people are so interested in them. Animals remain central to our sense of the natural world. Our pets are often seen as our closest companions through life. At the same time, the last century has seen the use of animals in scientific experimentation and the major changes in industrial-scale animal farming. Never has the relationship between human and non-human animals been more hotly contested. As with all the volumes in the illustrated Cultural History of Animals, this volume presents an overview of the period and continues with essays on the position of animals in contemporary Symbolism, Hunting, Domestication, Sports and Entertainment, Science, Philosophy, and Art. Volume 6 in the Cultural History of Animals edited by Linda Kalof and Brigitte Resl.
Synopsis
The Renaissance was an extraordinary period of change in the West, fuelled by changing cultural formations, shifting empires, the growth in exploration, and developments in science and technology. A Cultural History of Animals in the Renaissance presents a broad overview of the changing role of animals in the economy, culture and thinking of the period. Covering the period 1400 to 1600, the volume explores a wide range of topics: the symbolic role of birds in early modern writing; hunting rites and animal rights; the domestication of animals; the popularity of performing animals; the development of illustrated works of natural history; changing philosophical views of animal nature; and artistic practice in the visual representation of animals. As with all the volumes in the illustrated Cultural History of Animals, this volume presents an overview of the period and continues with essays on the position of animals in contemporary Symbolism, Hunting, Domestication, Sports and Entertainment, Science, Philosophy, and Art. Volume 3 in the Cultural History of Animals edited by Linda Kalof and Brigitte Resl
Synopsis
Human culture is now more dangerous to nonhuman animals than ever before. The destruction of natural habitats and the killing of animals for food, science, medicine or trophy -- sometimes to the point of extinction -- is the stuff of newspaper headlines. We live in a time when the idea of an animal's habitat has almost become irrelevant, except as a historical curiosity, yet also in a time when the public and philosophical acknowledgement of animal rights and environmental ethics is on the rise.
Animals are enmeshed in human culture simply because people are so interested in them. Animals remain central to our sense of the natural world. Our pets are often seen as our closest companions through life. At the same time, the last century has seen the use of animals in scientific experimentation and the major changes in industrial-scale animal farming. Never has the relationship between human and non-human animals been more hotly contested.
As with all the volumes in the illustrated Cultural History of Animals, this volume presents an overview of the period and continues with essays on the position of animals in contemporary Symbolism, Hunting, Domestication, Sports and Entertainment, Science, Philosophy, and Art.
Volume 6 in the Cultural History of Animals edited by Linda Kalof and Brigitte Resl
Synopsis
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008. Human culture is now more dangerous to nonhuman animals than ever before. The destruction of natural habitats and the killing of animals for food, science, medicine or trophy -- sometimes to the point of extinction -- is the stuff of newspaper headlines. We live in a time when the idea of an animal's habitat has almost become irrelevant, except as a historical curiosity, yet also in a time when the public and philosophical acknowledgement of animal rights and environmental ethics is on the rise. Animals are enmeshed in human culture simply because people are so interested in them. Animals remain central to our sense of the natural world. Our pets are often seen as our closest companions through life. At the same time, the last century has seen the use of animals in scientific experimentation and the major changes in industrial-scale animal farming. Never has the relationship between human and non-human animals been more hotly contested. As with all the volumes in the illustrated Cultural History of Animals, this volume presents an overview of the period and continues with essays on the position of animals in contemporary Symbolism, Hunting, Domestication, Sports and Entertainment, Science, Philosophy, and Art. Volume 6 in the Cultural History of Animals edited by Linda Kalof and Brigitte Resl.
About the Author
Bruce Boehrer is Professor of English at Florida State University, author of Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird and Shakespeare Among the Animals: Nature and Society in the Drama of Early Modern England.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Famous Animals in Modern Culture, Randy Malamud, Georgia State University 1. The Golden Spider and Her World-Wide Web: Sacred and Symbolic Animals in the Era of Change, Boria Sax, Mercy College 2. Hunting in the Modern Age, Garry Marvin, Roehampton University 3. The Present and Future of Animal Domestication, Margo DeMello, Albuquerque TVI College, New Mexico 4. Zoo Animals as Entertainment Exhibitions, David Hancocks, Royal Institute of British Architects,, Australia 5. Scientific Animals: The Laboratory and its Human-Animal Relations, from Dba to Dolly, Karen Rader, Virginia Commonwealth University 6. Animal Philosophy: Ethics and Zoontology, Ralph Acampora, Hofstra University 7. Animals in Twentieth Century Art, Jonathan Burt, Independent Scholar, UK Notes Bibliography Index