3Animal Studies

Abstract

This review examines material published in the field of animal studies in 2016. The year saw a significant amount of outstanding work in ethology and evolutionary studies of animal behaviour and cognition. Such research not only continues to challenge traditional conceptions of human/animal differences, but also raises serious ethical and political questions about the future of animal research. Another leading trend in the field this year concerns how to think about the deaths of animals. On the one hand, several authors have become increasingly interested in understanding how the dominant culture renders animals killable with impunity; on the other hand, these same authors explore ways in which we might begin to grieve and mourn for those animals and what form such practices might take. These questions have become more pressing as the field of animal studies has begun to confront the rapid pace of the extinction of many animal species. What it might mean to live thoughtfully and respectfully with regard to animals in an age of radical ecological degradation is a question that can no longer be avoided, and several of the works we survey here are written with this concern in mind. The books reviewed have been gathered under the following headings: 1. Ethology and Evolutionary Cognition; 2. Relations of Life and Death; 3. The Anthropocene and Vegetarianism.