Humans and Other Animals is about the myriad and evolving ways in which humans and animals intera... more Humans and Other Animals is about the myriad and evolving ways in which humans and animals interact, the divergent cultural constructions of humanity and animality found around the world, and individual experiences of other animals.
Samantha Hurn explores the work of anthropologists and scholars from related disciplines concerned with the growing field of anthrozoology. Case studies from a wide range of cultural contexts are discussed, and readers are invited to engage with a diverse range of human-animal interactions including blood sports (such as hunting, fishing and bull fighting), pet keeping and ‘petishism’, eco-tourism and wildlife conservation, working animals and animals as food. The idea of animal exploitation raised by the animal rights movements is considered, as well as the anthropological implications of changing attitudes towards animal personhood, and the rise of a posthumanist philosophy in the social sciences more generally.
Key debates surrounding these issues are raised and assessed and, in the process, readers are encouraged to consider their own attitudes towards other animals and, by extension, what it means to be human.
ABSTRACT Anthropological engagements with nonhuman animals in religious contexts have tended to f... more ABSTRACT Anthropological engagements with nonhuman animals in religious contexts have tended to focus on animals either as sacrificial offerings, whose physical bodies are consumed by suppliants and the divine, or as symbolic entities whose physiological or behavioural characteristics are consumed by human imaginations. More generally, animals, especially those classified as livestock, constitute ‘animal products’ – their flesh, milk, eggs and skins readily consumed by both humans and those nonhumans privileged enough to be our close companions. Drawing on longitudinal qualitative research conducted at a multi-species, multi-faith ashram, and in dialogue with recent ethological research which challenges dominant understandings of nonhuman subjectivities, it will be suggested that animals, especially those traditionally classified as ‘livestock’ can acquire the status of producers, consumers and consumed in ways which challenge normative expectations and practices of production and consumption.
Human conflict with other-than-human animals (henceforth animals) is a regular occurrence where s... more Human conflict with other-than-human animals (henceforth animals) is a regular occurrence where species meet and compete for access to resources (Knight, 2005). This chapter focuses on a specific example of inter-species conflict: that which occurs between humans and Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) on South Africa’s Cape Peninsula. While baboons are widely regarded by locals and wildlife managers as part of South Africa’s wildlife heritage, the conservation of these animals is controversial because they are not classified as an endangered species. Moreover, their ability to adapt to increased urbanization through, amongst other techniques, the exploitation of non-traditional foodstuffs appropriated from their human neighbours, places them in often mortal danger of retributive attacks — they have, quite literally, become victims of their own success.
The three films that comprise the Rhino People triptych seek to show the diverse and devastating ... more The three films that comprise the Rhino People triptych seek to show the diverse and devastating impacts of poaching on rhinos and the humans who care for them in South Africa. They document some of the ways in which rhino deaths are experienced by surviving humans and rhinos. The films were inspired by scholarship from the environmental humanities which identifies the potential of 'storied mourning' as a catalyst for perceptual change. They are therefore intended as a form of activism, encouraging viewers to make an emotional connection with the human and rhino victims of poaching. Each short film has also been translated into Vietnamese for distribution with consumers or potential consumers of rhino horn, as Vietnam is recognised as the largest consumer base for rhino horn products. It is hoped that the films will initiate positive changes in consumers' perceptions and behaviours in relation to rhino horn consumption.
This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervi... more This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervised participating in the fieldwork setting of their supervisor. I focus on the issues associated with introducing undergraduate students to the practicalities of ethnographic fieldwork.
1: Why look at human-animal interactions? 2: Animality 3: Continuity 4: The West and the Rest 5: ... more 1: Why look at human-animal interactions? 2: Animality 3: Continuity 4: The West and the Rest 5: Domestication 6: Good to think 7: Food 8: Pets 9: Communication 10: Intersubjectivity 11: Humans and other primates 12: Science and medicine 13: Conservation 14: Hunting and blood sports 15: Animal rights and wrongs 16: From anthropocentricity to multispecies ethnography Bibliography Index
This thesis considers the relationships between the human and non-human animals involved in foxhu... more This thesis considers the relationships between the human and non-human animals involved in foxhunting, an activity traditionally dismissed as 'sportive' (and therefore highly immoral) by external commentators. However, in light of five years of fieldwork which involved riding to hounds, working as an agricultural laborer, and breeding, exhibiting and dealing 'livestock' as a member of a farmers' hunt in a rural community in West Wales, I suggest that the foxhunting enacted in this specific context can be regarded as a form of subsistence hunting, even though the quarry itself is not eaten. I argue that once the emotional and embodied experiences of the mounted followers of the hunt in question are understood, their motivations for participating in this activity can be articulated as responses to four key questions what constitutes an animal, what constitutes community, what does it mean to be 'Welsh' and what constitutes normalcy In order to appreciate t...
In anthropology and across the humanities and social sciences, zoos have tended to be theorized a... more In anthropology and across the humanities and social sciences, zoos have tended to be theorized as places of spectacle. Scholars often focus on the ways in which these institutions enable the viewing of other-than-human animals by human publics. This article, however, uses sound-focused ethnographic fieldwork to engage with two UK zoos and to describe a particular mode of cross-species listening which is enacted by zookeepers. The concepts of pastoral care and control discussed by Foucault and applied to the zoo context by Braverman are productively reworked and reoriented in order to understand this form of listening. The article also demonstrates the interconnectedness of keeper, visitor and animal sound worlds, in the process generating an original perspective that complements and enriches conventional zoo studies.
This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervi... more This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervised participating in the fieldwork setting of their supervisor. I focus on the issues associated with introducing undergraduate students to the practicalities of ethnographic fieldwork.
Humans and Other Animals is about the myriad and evolving ways in which humans and animals intera... more Humans and Other Animals is about the myriad and evolving ways in which humans and animals interact, the divergent cultural constructions of humanity and animality found around the world, and individual experiences of other animals.
Samantha Hurn explores the work of anthropologists and scholars from related disciplines concerned with the growing field of anthrozoology. Case studies from a wide range of cultural contexts are discussed, and readers are invited to engage with a diverse range of human-animal interactions including blood sports (such as hunting, fishing and bull fighting), pet keeping and ‘petishism’, eco-tourism and wildlife conservation, working animals and animals as food. The idea of animal exploitation raised by the animal rights movements is considered, as well as the anthropological implications of changing attitudes towards animal personhood, and the rise of a posthumanist philosophy in the social sciences more generally.
Key debates surrounding these issues are raised and assessed and, in the process, readers are encouraged to consider their own attitudes towards other animals and, by extension, what it means to be human.
ABSTRACT Anthropological engagements with nonhuman animals in religious contexts have tended to f... more ABSTRACT Anthropological engagements with nonhuman animals in religious contexts have tended to focus on animals either as sacrificial offerings, whose physical bodies are consumed by suppliants and the divine, or as symbolic entities whose physiological or behavioural characteristics are consumed by human imaginations. More generally, animals, especially those classified as livestock, constitute ‘animal products’ – their flesh, milk, eggs and skins readily consumed by both humans and those nonhumans privileged enough to be our close companions. Drawing on longitudinal qualitative research conducted at a multi-species, multi-faith ashram, and in dialogue with recent ethological research which challenges dominant understandings of nonhuman subjectivities, it will be suggested that animals, especially those traditionally classified as ‘livestock’ can acquire the status of producers, consumers and consumed in ways which challenge normative expectations and practices of production and consumption.
Human conflict with other-than-human animals (henceforth animals) is a regular occurrence where s... more Human conflict with other-than-human animals (henceforth animals) is a regular occurrence where species meet and compete for access to resources (Knight, 2005). This chapter focuses on a specific example of inter-species conflict: that which occurs between humans and Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) on South Africa’s Cape Peninsula. While baboons are widely regarded by locals and wildlife managers as part of South Africa’s wildlife heritage, the conservation of these animals is controversial because they are not classified as an endangered species. Moreover, their ability to adapt to increased urbanization through, amongst other techniques, the exploitation of non-traditional foodstuffs appropriated from their human neighbours, places them in often mortal danger of retributive attacks — they have, quite literally, become victims of their own success.
The three films that comprise the Rhino People triptych seek to show the diverse and devastating ... more The three films that comprise the Rhino People triptych seek to show the diverse and devastating impacts of poaching on rhinos and the humans who care for them in South Africa. They document some of the ways in which rhino deaths are experienced by surviving humans and rhinos. The films were inspired by scholarship from the environmental humanities which identifies the potential of 'storied mourning' as a catalyst for perceptual change. They are therefore intended as a form of activism, encouraging viewers to make an emotional connection with the human and rhino victims of poaching. Each short film has also been translated into Vietnamese for distribution with consumers or potential consumers of rhino horn, as Vietnam is recognised as the largest consumer base for rhino horn products. It is hoped that the films will initiate positive changes in consumers' perceptions and behaviours in relation to rhino horn consumption.
This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervi... more This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervised participating in the fieldwork setting of their supervisor. I focus on the issues associated with introducing undergraduate students to the practicalities of ethnographic fieldwork.
1: Why look at human-animal interactions? 2: Animality 3: Continuity 4: The West and the Rest 5: ... more 1: Why look at human-animal interactions? 2: Animality 3: Continuity 4: The West and the Rest 5: Domestication 6: Good to think 7: Food 8: Pets 9: Communication 10: Intersubjectivity 11: Humans and other primates 12: Science and medicine 13: Conservation 14: Hunting and blood sports 15: Animal rights and wrongs 16: From anthropocentricity to multispecies ethnography Bibliography Index
This thesis considers the relationships between the human and non-human animals involved in foxhu... more This thesis considers the relationships between the human and non-human animals involved in foxhunting, an activity traditionally dismissed as 'sportive' (and therefore highly immoral) by external commentators. However, in light of five years of fieldwork which involved riding to hounds, working as an agricultural laborer, and breeding, exhibiting and dealing 'livestock' as a member of a farmers' hunt in a rural community in West Wales, I suggest that the foxhunting enacted in this specific context can be regarded as a form of subsistence hunting, even though the quarry itself is not eaten. I argue that once the emotional and embodied experiences of the mounted followers of the hunt in question are understood, their motivations for participating in this activity can be articulated as responses to four key questions what constitutes an animal, what constitutes community, what does it mean to be 'Welsh' and what constitutes normalcy In order to appreciate t...
In anthropology and across the humanities and social sciences, zoos have tended to be theorized a... more In anthropology and across the humanities and social sciences, zoos have tended to be theorized as places of spectacle. Scholars often focus on the ways in which these institutions enable the viewing of other-than-human animals by human publics. This article, however, uses sound-focused ethnographic fieldwork to engage with two UK zoos and to describe a particular mode of cross-species listening which is enacted by zookeepers. The concepts of pastoral care and control discussed by Foucault and applied to the zoo context by Braverman are productively reworked and reoriented in order to understand this form of listening. The article also demonstrates the interconnectedness of keeper, visitor and animal sound worlds, in the process generating an original perspective that complements and enriches conventional zoo studies.
This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervi... more This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervised participating in the fieldwork setting of their supervisor. I focus on the issues associated with introducing undergraduate students to the practicalities of ethnographic fieldwork.
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Books by Samantha Hurn
Samantha Hurn explores the work of anthropologists and scholars from related disciplines concerned with the growing field of anthrozoology. Case studies from a wide range of cultural contexts are discussed, and readers are invited to engage with a diverse range of human-animal interactions including blood sports (such as hunting, fishing and bull fighting), pet keeping and ‘petishism’, eco-tourism and wildlife conservation, working animals and animals as food. The idea of animal exploitation raised by the animal rights movements is considered, as well as the anthropological implications of changing attitudes towards animal personhood, and the rise of a posthumanist philosophy in the social sciences more generally.
Key debates surrounding these issues are raised and assessed and, in the process, readers are encouraged to consider their own attitudes towards other animals and, by extension, what it means to be human.
Papers by Samantha Hurn
Samantha Hurn explores the work of anthropologists and scholars from related disciplines concerned with the growing field of anthrozoology. Case studies from a wide range of cultural contexts are discussed, and readers are invited to engage with a diverse range of human-animal interactions including blood sports (such as hunting, fishing and bull fighting), pet keeping and ‘petishism’, eco-tourism and wildlife conservation, working animals and animals as food. The idea of animal exploitation raised by the animal rights movements is considered, as well as the anthropological implications of changing attitudes towards animal personhood, and the rise of a posthumanist philosophy in the social sciences more generally.
Key debates surrounding these issues are raised and assessed and, in the process, readers are encouraged to consider their own attitudes towards other animals and, by extension, what it means to be human.