Breaking and shaping beastly bodies : animals as material culture in the Middle Ages / edited by Aleksander Pluskowski.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Pluskowski, Aleksander, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human-animal relationships.

Civilization, Medieval.

Middle Ages.

Material culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 pages) : illustrations, maps

Place of Publication:

Oxford, [England] ; Havertown, Pennsylvania : Oxbow Books, 2017.

Summary:

An important human trait is our inclination to develop complex relationships with numerous other species. In the great majority of cases however, these mutualistic relationships involve a pair of species, whose co-evolution has been achieved through behavioral adaptation driving positive selection pressures. Humans go a step further, opportunistically and, it sometimes seems, almost arbitrarily elaborating relationships with many other species, whether through domestication, pet-keeping, taming for menageries, deifying, pest-control, conserving iconic species, or recruiting as mascots. When we consider medieval attitudes to animals we are tackling a fundamentally human, and distinctly idiosyncratic, behavioral trait. The sixteen papers presented here investigate animals from zoological, anthropological, artistic, and economic perspectives within the context of the medieval world.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781785708695

1785708694

9781785708671

1785708678