Animals in Person Cultural Perspectives on Human-Animal Intimacies

About this book

Our relationship with animals is complex and contradictory; we hunt, kill and eat them, yet we also love, respect and protect them. This ambivalent relationship is further complicated by the fact that we attribute human emotions and intelligence to animals. We even go as far as likening them to children and treating them as family members. Drawing on a diverse range of case studies, Animals in Person attempts to unravel our close and fascinating link with the animal kingdom. This book highlights the theme of cross-species intimacy in contexts such as livestock care, pet keeping, and the use of animals in tourism. The studies draw on data from different parts of the world, including New Guinea, Nepal, India, Japan, Greece, Britain, The Netherlands and Australia. Animals in Person documents the existence of relations between humans and animals that, in many respects, recall relations among humans themselves.

Contents

Introduction John Knight 1. Care, Order and Usefulness: The Context of the Human-Animal Relationship in a Greek Island Community Dimitrios Theodossopoulos 2. Person, Place or Pig: Animal Attachments and Human Transactions in New Guinea. Peter D. Dwyer and Monica Minnegal 3. Disciplined Affections: The Making of an English Pack of Foxhounds Garry Marvin 4. On 'Loving Your Water-Buffalo More Than Your Own Mother': Relationships of Animal and Human Care in Nepal Ben Campbell 5. Loved to Death? Veterinary Visions of Pet-keeping in Modern Dutch Society Joanna Swabe 6. From Trap to Lap: The Changing Sociogenic Identity of the Rat Birgitta Edelman 7. The Unbearable Likeness of Being: Children, Teddy-bears and The Sooty Show Candi Forrest, L. Goldman and M. Emmison 8. The Elephant-Mahout Relationship in India and Nepal: A Tourist Attraction Lynette A. Hart 9. Loving Leviathan: The Discourse of Whale Watching in Australian Ecotourism Adrian Peace 10. Enchanting Dolphins: An Analysis of Human-Dolphin Encounters Vronique Servais 11. Feeding Mr Monkey: Cross-species Food 'Exchange' in Japanese Monkey Parks John Knight 12. Anthropomorphism or Egomorphism? The Perception of Non-human Persons by Human Ones Kay Milton

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Biography

John Knight is Lecturer, Queen's University of Belfast