Human-Animal Studies

La tesi presenta inizialmente il pensiero di Jacques Derrida sull'animalità. Il tema affrontato è la sovranità dell'uomo sul resto dei viventi, in particolare nei riguardi della discriminazione dell'animalità. Nei capitoli a seguire si attua un'emancipazione dell'animalità e non dall'animalità come la corrente umanista voleva. Attraverso l'ontogenesi del concetto di "umanità" viene decostruito il costrutto che sorregge la soglia che divide l'uomo dagli animali, laddove essi partecipano all'animalità in maniere differenti. L'emergenza di questa composizione dei temi trattati si erge ad azione esemplare con cui Derrida, prima di morire, ha lasciato delle tracce da seguire durante il ricevimento del premio Adorno.

With the publication of an extended editorial titled 'Animal Studies and Art: Elephants in the Room' by Giovanni Aloi, Editor in Chief of 'Antennae', the journal embarks on a new and challenging year-long project constituting somewhat of a departure from the theoretical approaches of animal studies for the purpose of conceiving new productivities specific to art. This project is provocatively titled 'Beyond Animal Studies'.
At the end of March 2015 the publication of two installments dedicated to multispecies-Intra-action: new ways of thinking multispecies aesthetics through Karen Barad’s agential realism (co-edited with artist/curator Madeleine Boyd) will mark the beginning of this journey. This first offering will be followed by an issue edited by artists and theorists Suzanne Anker and Sabine Flach focusing on the proceedings of an exciting conference dedicated to bioart titled 'Naturally Hypernatural' that took place in New York (November 2014). The last segment of this publishing project will comprise two issues on art and environment that will be made available in December 2015 and March 2016.
'Animal Studies and Art: Elephants in the Room’ is the developed and expanded version of the keynote address Giovanni Aloi gave at the University of Wurzburg in autumn 2014. Its content stems from a genuine sense of concern with regards to current affairs in animal studies, its involvement with contemporary art, and the challenges scholars and artists face in engaging with multidisciplinarity within this context.

This is a draft of the introductory chapter of a book-in-progress entitled Lizard, which has been contracted for publication in the Animal series of Reaktion Books in London. It discusses the changing definitions of "lizard" throughout history, and the  methodological difficulties, together with their philosophical foundation, involved in settling on a single definition today.  These are compared with the problems of settling on a single meaning for "humankind." It concludes that the meaning of "lizard" cannot be fixed, and the animal may only be understood within the context of an evolving tradition. I would be very interested in any comments or suggestions.

Le zoonosi contemporanee ci costringono a porci una domanda che già gli antichi pensatori si erano posti più o meno esplicitamente. Le risposte sono spiazzanti e per molti versi attuali: mangiamo gli animali perché non siamo dèi (e quindi perché non siamo mai stati – o non siamo più – puri) o perché, semplicemente, siamo onnivori. Per Aristotele, nello specifico, mangiamo gli animali perché le tecniche a nostra disposizione ce lo permettono, anche se in ciò che ci viene permesso – secondo lui – dovrebbe sempre esserci una misura.

This chapter highlights several criticisms of zoos, then provides a vision for new zoos: “nooz.” Offering a new name to these institutions makes a clear break from the old model, which is fundamentally exploitative. The common denominator between zoos and nooz is that both foster nonhumans who are neither domestic pets nor farmed animals—they keep “wild” animals. Nooz are nonexploitative, benevolent, and are designed for nonhumans, to provide safe-haven for those individuals who have been misused by zoos or science, or injured by humans. This essay also explores “benevolent” reasons for keeping nonhuman animals in zoos, such as captive breeding programs and injured wildlife, and acceptable parameters for nooz, including such topics as retribution for previous exploitation and the problem of carnivory.

Im 19. Jahrhundert, genau in einer Zeit in der viele neue wissenschaftliche Disziplinen und Fächer geboren wurden, interagierten Kunst und Wissenschaft zunehmend. Inspiriert von Alexander von Humboldts Ansichten und Erfahrungen, arbeiteten zahlreiche Künstler und Wissenschaftler an gemeinsamen Projekten, wie Weltreisen, Naturforschungen und Publikationen. Es entstanden nicht nur viele Kontakte, Netzwerke und Freundschaften zwischen Künstlern und Naturwissenschaftlern, sondern es kam auch zu spannenden und innovativen Zusammenarbeiten. Das 1864–1869 durch das Bibliographische Institut herausgegebene Illustrirte Thierleben gilt als eine exemplarische Zusammenarbeit zwischen einem Naturforscher und einem Künstler, namentlich Alfred Brehm und Robert Kretschmer.

Animal-Visitor Interactions (AVI) within zoos and aquariums have become an increasingly studied topic. Influenced by both the broader field of Human-Animal Interactions (HAI), as well as visitor studies conducted in museums, AVI studies can be separated into two areas of focus: (1) Visitor effects, or the impact visitors have on the animals housed within a zoo, and (2) visitor experiences, or the impact zoo animals and visiting a zoo have on the visitors. Historically, visitor effects have been of primary concern to the study of AVIs, as have the potential negative impacts on the welfare of animals, particularly those of zoo primates. This special issue examines the impact of AVIs in greater detail through twelve recent papers on the topic, equally addressing visitor effects and experiences. Many of the papers focus on positive welfare indices, as well as less traditional measures to examine both visitor effects and experiences, such as visitor proximity and visitor interviews. In addition, we discuss the relevance of future AVI work, with particular attention to (a) increased interest in visitor experience research, (b) examinations of signage effects, and (c) continued focus on positive welfare indices and direct interactions, such as public feedings.

This paper extends recent work that has called for greater attention to be paid to nonhuman difference. The burgeoning animal geographies literature has been very successful in dissecting the concept of ‘nature’ and in examining the myriad ways in which animal and human lives are intertwined. However, its focus is more often on collectivities, such as species and herds, than on individual animals. Through the brief case study of an octopus in The Deep, an aquarium in Kingston-upon-Hull, UK, the paper draws on and develops recently promoted notions of responsible anthropomorphism. It argues that future work might usefully pay greater attention to the lived experience of individual animals, and that further emphasis should be given to non-mammalian life forms. Doing so might not only shed light on these creatures' encounters with humans, but also help to give a greater sense of their lives beyond these direct encounters, challenging understandings of what it means to be ‘animal’.

This work is the result of an ethnographic research made during the period from September 2018 to March 2019 with primatologists, and aims to contribute to the increasing debate about the Anthropology of Science and Human-animal relations. The research was carried out in the Parque Nacional de Brasilia, also known as Água Mineral, which is a unit of conservation  and a place open to visitation that hosts diverse species of the Brazilian Cerrado, including the bearded capuchin monkey (Sapajus libidinosus). The daily encounter between humans (visitors, scientists and servers) and the group of bearded capuchin monkeys already famous for interacting with the people and stealing food from visitors in the park's swimming pool areas allows and promotes the most diverse types of mutual interactions. The contact among the agents of this relationship causes specific behaviors, techniques and procedures to be triggered and constantly transformed with contact, for example, scientific techniques, among scientists; the extreme protection of personal objects and foods, among visitors, and variations in monkey behavior. I also analyze the process of primatological making, the techniques and methodologies in the phases of recognition, naming, habituation, between scientists and the monkey group. In light of the classic debate about nature and culture, I discuss possible approaches between biology and anthropology.

Keywords: Anthropology of Science; Human-animal relations; Parque Nacional de Brasília; Bearded capuchin monkeys; Primatologists.

La pensée férale is a collaboration with artist Daniel Stegmann Mangrané, a series of seven photos accompanied by seven short texts that seeks to develop a notion of "feral thought"  by using the concept of ferality - a transformation of what was once tamed into something that is no longer so, suggesting that maybe survival in the Anthropocene has something to do with becoming feral.

The project was developed for Maria Lind's Instagram account  https://www.instagram.com/52proposalsforthe20s: "For each week in 2020, curator Maria Lind invites 52 artists to inhabit this account to make weekly proposals for the 2020s."

This review explores the twin documentaries Earth and Planet Earth. Both are structured with the same goal of exploring our planet and its nonhuman animal inhabitants, but they diverge in approach. Using Disney’s “True-Life Adventure” series as an ideal, the view of human-non- human animal relations presented in Earth differs from the one presented in Planet Earth. While the former relies strongly on a purified image that mirrors traditional (Western, human) ideals, the latter presents an image that is both less “neat” and less reliant on attributing human- like qualities to nonhuman animals. There are some similarities, however, especially regarding the human role in the future survival of the planet’s nonhuman animals.

The 9th issue of Fantasy Art and Studies gathers the proceedings of the symposium "Représentations animales dans les mondes imaginaires" (Université d'Artois, November 2019) organised by Marie-Lucie Bougon, Charlotte Duranton and Laura Muller-Thoma. It explores the animal theme in Fantasy fiction with papers dealing with the link between woman and dragon in Game of Thrones and Robin Hobb's works, the swine animalisation of Orcs, the bestiary of Harry Potter...
It also includes short stories, including a new tale by Charlotte Bousquet, a figure of the French Fantasy scene, and the new chapter of Guillaume Labrude's comics, plus beautiful illustrations by Océane Azeau, GaëlleC., Antoine Pelloux, Guillaume Labrude, Guillaume Sallah Thomas, Princesse Mandragore Art and Véronique Thill who signs the cover art.

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Le 9e numéro de Fantasy Art and Studies rassemble les actes du colloque "Représentations animales dans les mondes imaginaires" (Université d'Artois, novembre 2019) organisé par Marie-Lucie Bougon, Charlotte Duranton et Laura Muller-Thoma. Il explore la thématique animale dans la Fantasy à travers des articles sur le lien entre femme et dragon dans Game of Thrones et l'oeuvre de Robin Hobb, l'animalisation porcine des Orques, le bestiaire de Harry Potter...
Il inclut également des nouvelles, dont un récit inédit de Charlotte Bousquet, figure majeure de la Fantasy française, et le nouveua chapitre de la BD de Guillaume Labrude, ainsi que de superbes illustrations d'Océane Azeau, GaëlleC., Antoine Pelloux, Guillaume Labrude, Guillaume Sallah Thomas, Princesse Manadragore Art et Véronique Thill qui signe l'illustration de couverture.

In diesem Aufsatz wird untersucht, wie Tiernutzung und Fleischkonsum zu einer umstrittenen Praxis werden konnten. Erst eine Analyse der Genese dieser moralischen Problematisierung ermöglicht ein Verständnis der komplexen soziokulturellen Hintergründe jener Dissonanz, die in der Sozialpsychologie unter dem Schlagwort des »Fleischparadoxes« untersucht wird. Die Geschichte dieser Problematisierung wird in vier Schritten nachvollzogen: 1) Zunächst wird argumentiert, dass das Auftreten des Paradoxes vor dem Hintergrund von Spannungen und Verschiebungen innerhalb des spezifisch modernen Diskurses über die Mensch-Tier-Differenz verstanden werden muss. Im Anschluss an Philippe Descola wird gezeigt, dass das Fleischparadox keinen grundsätzlichen ontologischen Bruch anzeigt, sondern mit sich verschärfenden Konflikten innerhalb der modernen naturalistischen Weltsicht einhergeht. Ergänzt wird dies durch Argumente Gesa Lindemanns, die auf den konstitutiven wie umkämpften Stellenwert der Tier-Mensch-Grenze für die Konzeption sowohl des modernen Individuums als auch der modernen Rechts-, Moral- und Gewaltordnung verweist. 2) In einem zweiten Schritt werden die zunehmenden Spannungen an der Tier-Mensch-Grenze mit Norbert Eliasʼ Theorie des Zivilisationsprozesses verknüpft. Eine solche Verknüpfung hat den Vorteil, dass die Veränderungen im Mensch-Tier-Verhältnis auf ein breites Spektrum historischer makro- und mikrosozialer Transformationen zurückgeführt werden können. Mit Elias lässt sich die wachsende affektive Aversion gegenüber Gewalt im Allgemeinen, aber auch die Verlagerung der Fleischproduktion »hinter die Kulissen« verstehen. Zugleich kann durch die Verortung der Zivilisationsdynamik in einem spezifischen sozialontologischen Rahmen der im Hinblick auf Elias vorgebrachte Ethnozentrismusvorwurf umgangen werden. 3) In einem dritten Schritt werden Transformationen der Wirtschaftsstruktur und die mit ihnen verbundenen Veränderungen der Kontaktmuster zwischen Menschen und Tieren betrachtet. Im Zuge von Urbanisierung und Industrialisierung ging der Kontakt zu Nutz- und Wildtieren für viele Menschen deutlich zurück, während sich parallel die Heimtierhaltung verbreitete. Im Verein mit einem generellen Wandel des Naturverhältnisses ermöglichte dieser Prozess eine zuvor ungekannte Sensibilisierung gegenüber Tierleid. 4) Das Aufkommen der Tierschutz-, später auch der Tierrechtsbewegung, sowie von vegetarischen und veganen Lebensstilen kann schließlich als ein Ausdruck der ontologischen Spannungen und der wachsenden Sensibilisierung gegenüber Gewalt und Tierleid interpretiert werden, der jedoch nur durch Vorstellungen gesellschaftlicher Veränderbarkeit und politischer Gestaltbarkeit sowie durch die Entstehung demokratischer Öffentlichkeiten möglich wurde. Nach ihrer Konstituierung und organisationalen Verankerung konnten diese Protest- und Lebensstilbewegungen dann selbst Motor einer weiteren Sensibilisierung und Problematisierung von Tierleid und Fleischkonsum werden.

With the help of archaeology and archaeozoology, art and image studies and with an analysis of written sources, the history of our domestic animals can be traced from their wild ancestors over their domestication and their further developments. Dogs as the oldest domesticated animals play a particular role: Like no other domesticated animal, they have centred on humans and are able to understand human facial expressions and gestures. The common history of humans and dogs goes back to the Palaeolithic whereas the cat which is the most popular companion animal in many European countries today was domesticated only many thousand years later. The living together of humans and dogs resp. cats in prehistoric and protohistoric times is complex and characterized by adoration as well as rejection, which has an impact on our society even today.

New roles for dogs and humans
Based on the archaeological finds during the Neolithic we interpret the relationship between humans and their dogs to have significantly changed. People gained an increased understanding of the dog's different, unique properties. The dogs were stimulated by the work and collaboration, and probably developed mentally. Maybe, dogs specialized in different tasks?
The dogs were adapted to the new activities that occurred during this time. Depending on the daily life and needs, we conclude thus that dogs collaborated in various ways with the people. Certainly, watching dogs were
needed as well as good hunting dogs for different kinds of tracking down and hunting. Field mouses and mice were a constant threat to human storages of both the new, grown corn and gathered plants. The arable fields were fenced during this time and the domesticated animals were held outside. Having herding dogs to collect and keep the livestock assembled did the work for the pastoralists much easier. Hunting dogs were as necessary and important as before.

The article examines self-portraits taken in 2011 by Indonesian crested black macaque monkey Naruto with wildlife photographer David Slater’s camera. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a lawsuit against Slater to request that the monkey be assigned copyright and that PETA be appointed to administer proceeds from the photos for the benefit of Naruto and crested macaques in the reserve on Sulawesi. With this provocative lawsuit PETA wanted to stimulate discussion about expanding legal rights for non-human animals. These photographs, the discussion concerning them, and the court case shed light on the embodied agency of a non-human animal and human-animal relations in visual culture. In this article, I examine what it means when an animal points a camera at himself and takes a picture. I argue that the knowledge that the picture of the monkey is taken by the monkey himself causes the picture to be seen in a new light and raises questions as to the animal’s status as an object and an Other. Furthermore, it urges a thorough re-examine of the agency, power, and embodied consciousness associated with photography and the practices of self-representation.

El texto ofrece una observación sobre la asimilación iconográfica del uso bélico de animales, usando como ejemplo paradigmático el proyecto Bat Bomb (oficialmente X-Ray) desarrollado durante la segunda guerra mundial y que tuvo un cierto efecto en la cultura popular asociado a la iconografía del murciélago y la sombra audiovisual del personaje de Batman creado por Bill Finger y Bob Kane.


The text offers an observation on the iconographic assimilation of the warlike use of animals, using as a paradigmatic example the Bat Bomb project (officially X-Ray) developed during the Second World War and that had a certain effect on the popular culture associated with the iconography of the bat and the audiovisual shadow of the Batman character created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane.

This chapter discusses the range of meanings of the concept of representation in the field of animal studies. It draws out the complexities of the term, discussing the term "representation" in the contexts of notions of animal minds, political philosophy and questions of aesthetics. The aim is to explain and attend to the importance for animal studies of the irresolvable tension between portrayal and advocacy that constitutes the notion of representation itself.

This article aims at comparing social practices and rituals related to companion animal death in Japanese, Polish and American cultures. In contemporary Japan, companion animals are increasingly regarded as family members rather than property – a change in perception that Poland has been witnessing recently as well, and one that American researchers have been analyzing as early as almost 40 years ago, that is before the animal rights discourse became mainstream (e.g. Beck & Katcher, 1983; Cain, 1985). As this study reveals, numerous practices and rituals related to pet cemeteries are strikingly similar – or simply the same – across Japanese, Polish and American cultures. Such practices include: (a) bringing animal-related memorabilia to the graves of companion
animals, and (b) decorating these graves with toys, pet food, as well as items typically used for commemorating humans, such as incense sticks (Japan) or votive candles (U.S. and Poland). All three cultures (c) hold formal or informal holidays where dead companion animals are remembered and honored. Furthermore, (d) the belief in an afterlife for animals is also shared across the three discussed cultures, and is typically reflected by a description of heaven or the non-denominational, largely secular concept called the Rainbow Bridge.

Zusammenfassung
Zooarchitektur folgt nicht nur funktionalen Strategien, damit Tiere ex situ überleben; sie bündelt verschie-dene Wissensformen über Tiere, transformiert sie in neue Entwürfe und stellt Bezüge zwischen den Wis-sensbereichen her. Sie richtet soziale Situationen ein, in denen sich Menschen und Tiere begegnen, die von Vorstellungen über Tiere und ihre Herkunft geprägt sind. Forschungsmaterial dieser Recherche bildet meine fotografische Dokumentation der Schauanordnungen und Gestaltung von Zoogehegen. Eine ent-scheidende Beobachtung für die Auswertung ist, dass in den meisten Zoos historische und zeitgenössische Gehegetypen parallel existieren. In meinem Beitrag hebe ich bestimmte Veränderungen in der Entwicklung von Zoogehegen hervor, die Aufschluss über das spezifische Verständnis von Wildnis und dem " Wild-Sein " von Tieren geben. Vor Ort kann anhand von Beispielen aus dem Tierpark Berlin sowie den Zoos Leipzig und Gelsenkirchen die Aktualität überprüft werden: Tierbilder verschiedenster Jahrzehnte haben sich in architek-tonischen Entwürfen festgeschrieben und werden somit ständig manifestiert und reproduziert. Der Ausblick richtet sich auf Denkmodelle, die für einen Perspektivwechsel plädieren und Tiere als Co-ProduzentInnen urbaner Räume verstehen.
Summary
Zoo architecture follows not only functional strategies to ensure the survival of animals ex situ, but also combines a variety of knowledge forms on animals, transforms them into new designs and establishes links with other knowledge areas. It establishes social situations in which humans and animals can encounter each other. These are determined by our associations with animals and their origin. My photographic documentation of viewing setups and the layout of zoo enclosures was used here as research material. The fact that historical and modern enclosure types are to be found side by side in most zoos is decisive for the analysis. In my contribution I focus on certain changes in the design of zoo enclosures that inform on the specific understanding of wilderness and wildness of animals using examples from the Tierpark Berlin and the zoos in Leipzig and Gelsenkirchen in Germany. Animal images from various decades have influenced the architectural designs and are therefore continually manifested and reproduced. The outlook addresses approaches that argue for a change of perspective to understanding animals as co-producers of urban spaces.

This is a review of the book "Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are" by Frans de Waal. de Waal is a noted ethologist. He concludes that human are smart enough to recognize the intelligence of other animals, although we may ignore the growing body of evidence.

Die Zeitschrift für Kritische Tierstudien versteht sich als ein inter- und multidisziplinäres Forum, sowohl für Nachwuchswissenschaftler*innen und etablierte Akademiker*innen der Human Animal-Studies, als auch für Aktivist*innen der Tierbefreiungs- und Total Liberation-Bewegung. Die veröffentlichten Texte verfolgen einen emanzipatorischen, abolitionistischen, herrschaftskritischen, nicht-reformistischen Ansatz.

The debate on animal souls and the problem of theodicy with respect to animal suffering, a discussion that has been a feature of European thought since the seventeenth century, became the perfect pillar for those philosophies that were born in the wake of scientific discoveries and that aimed to assert the unreasonableness of Christianity. such philosophies questioned how a good and almighty god could let innocent animals undergo all the evils they endure daily. one solution was to deny to animals feelings and reason; for instance, Descartes's theory of the animal-machine suggested that animals were unable to feel pleasure and pain, 1 thus safeguarding god as both good and almighty. But alongside this theory alternative solutions were proposed, basically in opposition. Put in these terms, it clearly emerges that this debate arose from a need to redefine the human and not from a real interest in the lives of animals. EigHTEEnTH-AnD ninETEEnTH-CEnTurY EnglAnD Even if this debate originated primarily in human concerns over the metaphysical structure of reality, it was in the wake of this discussion that reflection on the status of animals was born in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century England and led to social and legal renovation. 2 During this time period, attention shifted from the human to the animal plane, and this led to the development of an ethics inclusive of nonhuman animals, which were previously considered " outside the terms of moral reference. " 3 This work will focus on four books published between 1742 and 1838 that trace the rise of Christian animal ethics. However, first, it is worth noting the cultural milieu in which these texts were written. 4 The new focus on sentience, the new view of pain as something to avoid and not merely to accept, the new humanitarian sensibility, scientific discoveries, the birth of the urban middle class, and new attention to animals in poetry and children's literature all led to a redefini-tion of the human– animal relationship. 5 From the early decades of 1700 onward, numerous philosophical essays, children novels, and poems focused on the ethical consequences of human– animal proximity. But all of these changes would not have been so dramatic without

This paper explores the interaction between humans and their companion animals after the large tsunami which hit the northeast coast of Japan on 11 March 2011. Interviews, observation and fieldwork were used to assemble ethnographic accounts for 35 owners of companion animals who were assigned to temporary housing complexes where they are still living. A notion of "companion animal first" could be detected in the data.  This way of thinking might be defined as an ethical stance whereby the companion animal is given a very high value or net worth. Since there are few studies on companion animal in Japan at times when large-scale natural disasters occur, this research may contribute to the small but growing amount of qualitative research on human-animal relationships and interaction during and after disasters in an Asian country, thereby adding a sense of urgency to the need for comparative research in this important sphere of social life in most societies.

Mentre il mondo cerca di tornare alla tanto agognata “normalità” pre-pandemica e di cancellare in qualche modo questi lunghissimi mesi di “emergenza” da Covid-19, come se non fossero che un’infelice eccezione da superare e dimenticare il più presto possibile, Felice Cimatti cerca invece di pensare seriamente il significato filosofico di quello che abbiamo vissuto (e stiamo ancora vivendo) su scala globale e di analizzarne le conseguenze più profonde. Come in tanti hanno detto e scritto in questi mesi, anche per Cimatti la pandemia è un campanello d’allarme, un potente pettine a cui i nodi del presente si sono finalmente impigliati, una salutare scossa che ci ha svegliato dal sonno compiaciuto di una situazione ormai insostenibile. Però per Cimatti non si tratta tanto (o non solo) dei disastri economici, politici e sociali di quarant’anni di neoliberismo, della catastrofe ecologica che incombe sul pianeta o delle conseguenze devastanti della progressiva e inarrestabile antropizzazione della natura. Ciò che il virus ha finalmente dissolto sono, ben più a monte, le categorie stesse con cui finora abbiamo pensato il mondo e la nostra presenza in esso.

https://www.fatamorganaweb.it/il-postanimale-la-natura-dopo-lantropocene-di-felice-cimatti/