Thinking with animals : new perspectives on anthropomorphism / edited by Lorraine Daston and Gregg Mitman.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Daston, Lorraine, 1951-

Mitman, Gregg.

ProQuest (Firm)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anthropomorphism.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (230 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, 2005.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Is Anthropomorphism a scientific sin? Scientists and animal researchers routinely warn against "animal stories," and contrast rigorous explanations and observation to facile and even fanciful projections about animals. Yet many of us, scientists and researchers included, continue to see animals as humans and humans as animals. As this innovative new collection demonstrates, humans use animals to transcend the confines of self and species; they also enlist them to symbolize, dramatize, and illuminate aspects of humans' experience and fantasy. Humans merge with animals in stories, films, philosophical speculations, and scientific treatises. In their performance on many stages and in different ways, animals move us to think.

From Victorian vivisectionists to elephant conservation, from ancient Indian mythology to pet ownership in the contemporary United States, our understanding of both animals and what it means to be human has been shaped by anthropomorphic thinking. The contributors to Thinking with Animals explore the how and why of anthropomorphism, drawing attention to its rich and varied uses. Prominent scholars in the fields of anthropology, ethology, history, and philosophy, as well as filmmakers and photographers, take a closer look at how deeply and broadly ways of imagining animals have transformed humans and animals alike.

Essays in the book investigate the changing patterns of anthropomorphism across different time periods and settings, as well as their transformative effects, both figuratively and literally, upon animals, humans, and their interactions. Examining how anthropomorphic thinking "works" in a range of different contexts, contributors reveal the ways in which anthropomorphism turns out to be remarkably useful: it can promote good health and spirits, enlist support in political causes, sell products across boundaries of culture and nationality, crystallize and strengthen social values, and hold up a philosophical mirror to the human predicament.

Contents:

Part 1 Thinking with Animals in Other Times and Places 15

Chapter 1 Zoomorphism in Ancient India: Humans More Bestial than Beasts / Wendy Doniger 17

Chapter 2 Intelligences: Angelic, Animal, Human / Lorraine Daston 37

Chapter 3 The Experimental Animal in Victorian Britain / Paul S. White 59

Part 2 Thinking with Animals in Evolutionary Biology 83

Chapter 4 Comparative Psychology Meets Evolutionary Biology: Morgan's Canon and Cladistic Parsimony / Elliott Sober 85

Chapter 5 Anthropomorphism and Cross-Species Modeling / Sandra D. Mitchell 100

Part 3 Thinking with Animals in Daily Life 119

Chapter 6 People in Disguise: Anthropomorphism and the Human-Pet Relationship / James A. Serpell 121

Chapter 7 Digital Beasts as Visual Esperanto: Getty Images and the Colonization of Sight / Cheryce Kramer 137

Part 4 Thinking with Animals in Film 173

Chapter 8 Pachyderm Personalities: The Media of Science, Politics, and Conservation / Gregg Mitman 175

Chapter 9 Reflections on Anthropomorphism in The Disenchanted Forest / Sarita Siegel 196.

Notes:

This book derived from a workshop held at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin in May 2001.

Includes bibliographical references (pages ).

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2015. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest affiliated libraries.

OCLC:

62124222

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.