Department of Sociology
2012-13
Animals, Society and Culture
SO334
Convenor: Nickie Charles
Room number: Ramphal 3.32
Email:
Office hours: Thursday 12.00-1.00
Lecture: Wednesdays at 11.00 in R1.03
Seminars: Thursdays at 10.00 in S2.84
Thursdays at 11.00 in H2.03
Animals, Society and CultureSO334
This module will:
(1) explore the significance of animals to society and culture - both historically and contemporaneously - and how changing relations between society and nature, human and animal have been conceptualised sociologically;
(2) explore the philosophical and moral underpinnings of social and cultural attitudes and practices towards animals and their implications for animal welfare and animal rights;
(3) investigate how social movements concerned with animals have affected both the way we 'see' animals and the way they are treated by humans;
(4) explore the ways in which society, social action, agency and notions of the self have been understood and ask whether they can be mobilised to analyse the place(s) of animals in society and culture;
(5) investigate the implications for sociology of post-humanist critiques of anthropocentric understandings of the world.
This module explores the place of animals in society and culture and how this varies cross-culturally and over time. It will address the importance of animals to the organisation and development of society, exploring notions of 'co-evolution', 'domestication' and 'human exceptionalism' and the philosophical and moral underpinnings of human-animal relations. Animal studies, as a newly-emerging interdisciplinary area of study, draws on different theoretical traditions to make sense of its subject matter. Sociology has been particularly slow to take up the challenge of studying animals and the module will investigate why this should be so and whether studying animals poses a particular problem for sociology as a discipline. It will consider different aspects of human-animal relations and how taking animals into consideration might challenge our understandings of society.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module you should be able to:
- Explain how relations between humans and animals have changed over time
- Evaluate different ways of theorising human-animal relations
- Critically assess the material and cultural significance of animals in different types of society
- Review the portrayal of animals in art, literature and film
- Research, using a range of methods, the key social, political and ethical issues influencing the position of animals in contemporary societies
Method of Assessment: the module may be assessed by 100% essay, or 100% examination, or 50% assessed / 50% examined.
Key Readings
Key readings are identified for each weekand need to be read before the relevant seminar.. You will not be expected to read all the key readings for every topic; advice on this will be provided in seminars. All the key readings are available electronically as well as in hard copy in the Library. There are three types of electronic resources that are accessed via the Library: scanned in extracts; e-journal articles and e-books. Other resources can be accessed directly from the internet using the link provided.
You will need Adobe Reader to access resources electronically, and you can download it free if you don’t already have it on your machine:
Scanned in Extracts
These are chapters of books available via the Library’s dedicated site for e-resources for this module:
You will need to ensure that you are registered for the module via eMR in order to have access, and you must also sign-in to the intranet site (see top menu bar, right-hand-side). Then you simply look for the reference you require (they are arranged alphabetically by author’s surname). It will open as a pdf and the chapter follows on from the Copyright Notice. You can read it on screen but you will also need to print a copy to bring to the class and you might also want to save a copy (for your own personal use only).
E-journal articles
The link provided will take you to the Library Catalogue site for that e-journal. You will then need to select a database to access it through, checking that it has the relevant year. You will need to be logged in and then the database archive will open and you need to select the Vol. and/or No. of the journal and page down for the article. You can click to open the pdf, which may take a few seconds, but the interface and reliability does vary. It is recommended instead to save the pdf to your hard drive or data-stick (right click, select ‘save target as’, then choose a directory and give the file a meaningful name). You can then open the saved document, print it, search it etc.
E-books
The link provided after the reference in the reading list will take you to the Library Catalogue site for that e-book. If you are on campus you click for access. If you are off-campus click ‘Log In’ (top left of the page), then ‘Athens Users, log in here’ (bottom of screen at the left) and you should be prompted for your normal Warwick login. Once you have opened the book you need to search for the relevant chapter. You can read this on-screen but if possible you must also print a copy to bring to the class. To print a Netbook make sure you have searched for the chapter using the box at the left-hand side, expanding sections as necessary to find it. Then select Print from the top banner and choose the option ‘Pages starting with the current page’, inserting the number of pages in the box and clicking OK (where possible, the number of pages is provided in square brackets as part of the reference in this reading list). This will prompt the creation of an Adobe document so click to Run and the chapter will then come up on your screen with an option to print. You can also save a copy using File, Save a Copy. You will notice that under the terms of University Access to Netbooks only a limited number of pages can be printed each hour, so you may need to access the e-book again later if other library users have used the quota. If you are unable to print the reference you must ensure that you have extra detailed notes to bring to the seminar.
Additional Readings
All the additional readings listed below for each topic are available in the library and should be used when you are doing more in-depth work, eg. for a seminar presentation, class essay, assessed essay or revision for exams.
Note: The nature of this course means that students will have different opinions, sometimes quite passionate,about the subject matter. While you are encouraged to speak your mind freely in class discussions, you willalso be expected to express yourself courteously, showing respect for the opinions and sensibilities of others.In addition, some of the material that we will discuss and read about may be challenging or hard tohear and watch.
Animals, Society and Culture
SO334
TERM 1
Lecture outline
(1) Introduction to animal studies and to the module
(2) What is an animal?
(3) The philosopher's dog and Schrodinger's cat – philosophy, science and religion
Animals and social change
(4) Co-evolution and social change - domestication
(5) Animals in industrial society –from beasts of burden to fashion accessories
(6) Reading week
Animals and culture
(7) Kinship with animals
(8) Cultures of meat eating and farm animals
(9) Cultures of masculinity
(10) Animals and cultural identity
TERM 2
Representing animals
(11 The call of the wild - zoos and safaris
(12) Animals as spectacle – circuses, wildlife programmes
(13) Anthropomorphism and animal tales
(14) Representing animals - art, film and media
Challenging speciesism
(15) Social movements, animal welfare and animal rights
(16) Reading week
(17) Species, social construction and power – animal ethics
(18) Embodiment - the elephant and the ant – science studies – current research on animal intelligence and emotions
(19) Post-humanism and the animal challenge to sociology – animals and agency, selfhood, personhood
(20) Understanding the social and cultural positioning of animals - systems or networks? – drawing the course together
TERM 3
(21) Revision session
(22) Revision session
Indicative reading
The following will give you a good overview of the key topics covered on this courseBerger, J (2009) Why look at animals? Penguin Books
Birke, L (1994) Feminism, animals and science, Open University Press
Carter, B and Charles, N (2011) Human and other animals: critical perspectives, Palgrave
Cudworth, E (2011) Social Lives with Other Animals, Palgrave
Ellis, S (2010) Wolf within, London: Harper
Franklin, A (1999) Animals and Modern Cultures: A Sociology of Human-Animal Relations in Modernity,London: Sage Publications
Haraway, D (2008) When Species Meet, University of Minnesota
Peggs, K (2012) Animals and sociology, Palgrave Macmillan
Rowlands, M (2008) The Philosopher and the Wolf,London: Granta
There are two journals which contain useful articles:
Society and Animals
Anthrozoos
Course texts
Many of the key readings on this module come from the following readers and textbooks which you are strongly advised to purchase:
- Arluke, A and Sanders, C (eds) (2009) Between the species: a reader in Human-Animal relationships, Boston, Mass: Pearson Education
- Cudworth, E (2011) Social Lives with Other Animals, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
- Flynn, C P (ed) (2008) Social creatures: a human and animal studies reader, New York Lantern Books
- Gross, A and Vallely (eds) (2012) Animals and the human imagination: a companion to animal studies, Colombia University Press
- Hurn, S (2012) Humans and other animals, London: Pluto Press
- Kalof, L and Fitzgerald, A (eds) (2007) The animals reader: the essential classic and contemporary writings, Oxford: Berg
- Peggs, K (2012) Animals and sociology, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
There is alsoa series of books which contains many pieces which are useful for the module and which you should familiarise yourself with. These books are available from the library:
Kalof, L and Resl, B (eds) (2007) A cultural history of animals: volumes 1-6, Oxford: Berg
Week 1
Introduction to animal studies and to the module
This lecture introduces the interdisciplinary field o animal studies and the module. It raises the question of why there is an increasing interest in exploring human-other animal relations within sociology..
Key reading
Ellis, S (2010) Wolf within, London: Harper
Rowlands, M (2008) The Philosopher and the Wolf,London: Granta
Week 2
What is an animal?
This lecture asks what is an animal? It begins to explore such questions as: How do we define animals, how do such definitions relate to defining what is human, and the way definitions of human and animal, society and nature differ cross culturally.
Keyreading
Ingold, T(2012) ‘Hunting and gathering as ways of perceiving the environment’ in A Gross and A Vallely (eds) Animals and the human imagination, New York: Columbia University Press, pp.31-54
Midgley, M (1988) ‘Beasts, brutes and monsters’ in T Ingold (ed.) (1988). What is an Animal? London: Unwin Hyman, pp.35-46.
Berger, J (2009) Why look at animals,London: Penguin Books, pp. 12-37 and in L Kalof and A Fitzgerald (eds) (2007) The animals reader, Oxford: Berg, Section 5, 26
Seminar questions
1. What is an animal?
2. How does Ingold distinguish between hunter-gatherer and Western ontologies?
3. What does Midgley mean by the species barrier?
4. How do definitions of human and animal relate to each other? How can it be argued that animals make us human?
Additional reading
Arluke, A. and Sanders, C. R. (1996) Regarding Animals, Philadelphia: TempleUniversity Press. (chapter 1)
Bekoff, M (2007) Encyclopedia of human-animal relationships: a global exploration of our connections with animals, London: Greenwood Press
Blake, C, Molloy, C and Shakespeare, S (eds) (2012) Beyond human: from animality to transhumanism, London: Continuum
Caras, R A (1996) A perfect harmony: the intertwining lives of animals and humans throughout history, New York: Simon and Schuster
Corbey, R (2005) The metaphysics of apes: negotiating the animal-human boundary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Creager, ANH and Jordan, WC (eds) (2002) The animal/human boundary: historical perspectives, Rochester: University of Rochester Press
Descola, P and Palsson, G (eds) (1996) Nature and Society: anthropological perspectives, London: Routledge
Ellis, S (2010) Wolf within, London: Harper
Fudge, E (2002) Animals, London: Reaktion
Freeman, C, Leane, E and Watt, Y (2011) Considering animals: contemporary studies in human-animal relations, London: Ashgate
Haraway, D (2003) The Companion Species Manifesto, Prickily Paradigm Press
Haraway, D (2008) When species meet, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Hearne, V (2007) Adam’s task, New York: Skyhorse Publishing
Herzog, H (2010) Some we love, some we hate, some we eat, Harper-Collins
Hobson-West, P. (2007). Beasts and Boundaries: An introduction to animals in sociology, science and society. Qualitative Sociology Review, 3, 2-41.
Ingold, T (1986) The appropriation of nature: essays on human ecology and social relations, Manchester: Manchester University Press
Ingold, T (ed) (1988) What is an animal? London: Unwin Hyman
Ingold, T (1983) The Architect and the Bee: Reflections on the Work of Animals and Men Author(s): Man, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 1-20
Lynch, M. and Collins, H.M. (1998) ‘Introduction: humans, animals, machines’, Science, Technology and Human Values, 23, 371-383.
Midgley, M (1989) Beast and Man: The Roots of Human NatureLondon: Methuen
Midgley, M (1983) Animals and why they matter, Athens: University of Georgia Press
Mack, A (ed) (1999) Humans and other animals, Columbus: Ohio State University Press
Manning, A and Serpell, J. (1994) Animals and Human Society. London:Routledge.
Noske, B (1989) Humans and Other animals: beyond the boundaries of anthropology, London: Pluto Press
Pluskowski, A (ed) (2007) Breaking and shaping beastly bodies: animals as material culture in the middle ages, Oxford: Oxbow Books
Preece, R (2005) Brute Souls, Happy Beasts and Evolution: The Historical Status of Animals, UBC Press: Vancouver
Rowlands, M (2008) The Philosopher and the Wolf,London: Granta
Shapiro, K (2002) ‘Editor’s introduction: the state of human-animal studies: solid at the margin!’Society and Animals, 10 (4): 331-337
Sheehan, J.J. and Sosna, M. (eds) (1991) The Boundaries of Humanity: Humans, Animals, Machines, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Shepard, P. (1997) The Others: how animals made us human, Island Press.
Sorenson, J (2006) Ape, Reaktion
Thomas, K. (1984). Man and the natural world, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Williams, E and DeMello, M (2007) Why animals matter, Amherst, N Y: Prometheus Books
Week 3
The philosopher's dog and Schrodinger's cat
In this lecture we shall begin to explore how definitions of animals and the relation between humans and other animals have developed and changed in philosophy, science and religion. Questions such as whether animals have souls, language, intelligence, emotions and how human exceptionalism has been legitimated will be investigated. Moral questions of how animals should be treated, do they feel pain, do they suffer will be approached here but followed up in more detail later in the course.
Key reading
Herzog, H (2009) ‘Human morality and animal research’ in A Arluke and C Sanders (eds) Between the Species, Unit 2, Part 5, 15
Nussbaum, M (2007) ‘The moral status of animals’ in Kalof, L and Fitzgerald, A (eds) (2007) The animals reader, Oxford: Berg, Section 1, 6
Serpell, J (1986) In the company of animals, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Chapter 9
OR
Thomas, K. (1984). Man and the Natural World, Harmondsworth: Penguin, Chapter 1.
Seminar questions
1. What are the problems with a Utilitarian approach to the treatment of animals? Should justice focus on the individual or the species?
2. What moral dilemmas does Herzog identify in the social treatment of animals?
3. What is human exceptionalism? Where does it originate? Is it a universal belief? What legitimates it? How does it relate to the way animals are treated in contemporary Western societies?
AdditionalReading
Philosophy
Aaltola, E (2012) Animal suffering: philosophy and culture, Palgrave Macmillan
Adams, C J (1993) Neither man nor beast: feminism and the defense of animals, New York: Continuum
Baron, D (2004) The beast in the garden: a modern parable of man and nature, New York: W W Norton
Bat-Ami, B O and Ferguson, A (eds) (1998) Daring to be good: essays in feminist ethico-politics, New York: Routledge
Carruthers, P (1992) The animals issue: moral theory in practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Calarco, M and Atterton, P (eds) (2004) Animal philosophy: ethics and identity, London: Continuum
Calarco, M (2007) Zoogeographies: the question of the animal from Heidegger to Derrida, NYC: Columbia University Press
Coetzee, J M (2001) The Lives of Animals, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Fudge, Erica, Brutal Reasoning: Animals, Rationality, and Humanity in Early Modern England (Cornell, 2006) (animal/human distinctions historically prior to Descartes, relevant to how humans/animals are distinguished)
Gaita, R (2002) The philosopher’s dog, London: Routledge
Hearne, V (2007) Adam’s task, New York: Skyhorse Publishing
Midgley, M (1983) Animals and why they matter, Athens: University of Georgia Press
Midgley, M. (1979) Man and Beast, Hassocks: Harvester
Noske, B. (1989) Humans and Other Animals, London: Pluto Press
Rowlands, M (2002) Animals like us, London: Verso
Rowlands, M (2008) The philosopher and the wolf, London: Granta
Sorabji, R (1993) Animal minds and human morals, London: Duckworth
Science
Birke, L (1994) Feminism, Animals, and Science the naming of the shrew,
Buckingham: Open University Press
Fox-Keller, E and and Longino, H (eds) (1996) Feminism and Science, New York: Oxford University Press
Franklin, S (2007) Dolly mixtures: the remaking of genealogy, Durham, NC: Duke University Press
Gowaty, P A (ed) (1997) Feminism and evolutionary biology: boundaries, intersections, and frontiers, New York: Chapman and Hall
Haraway, D (1989) Primate Visions: gender, race and nature in the world of modern science, New York: Routledge
Harré, R (2009)Pavlov’s Dog and Schrödinger’s Cat, OUP