Field Of Human-animal Studies Research Articles

Qualitative methods in psychology after the animal turn: human-animal and multi-species relations

ABSTRACT This article makes the case for the value of qualitative methods in advancing our understanding of human-animal relations and multispecies relations in psychology, introducing the first special issue of a journal dedicated to qualitative psychology and the field of human-animal studies. It offers a thematic summary of the articles organized into four sections. Each section includes a reflection on the methods adopted in the context of broader developments in human-animal studies. To do so, Gorman’s conceptualisation of mutualistic, parasitic, mutualist and commensal relations is utilised, as a basis for deciding whether the methods adopted allow us to consider ‘who benefits and how’ from the human-animal and multispecies relationships scrutinised in this issue. Particularly in showcasing qualitative methods that centre the experience and agency of animals where they have traditionally been discounted, it is concluded that this special issue constitutes a significant moment in the development of psychology as a discipline.

Animal Welfare in China

Animal Welfare in China

Eserewondo Rozongombe : Livestock as Sites of Power and Resistance in Kaokoveld, Namibia

Abstract This article details how the ovaHerero of Kaokoveld (north-west Namibia) experienced the precolonial and colonial eras as mediated through their cattle culture. While histories of Namibia rarely use non-Western lenses to interpret processes during the colonial era, this article examines ovaHerero colonial experiences as one episode within a broader history. It draws together archival and published sources to tell the little-known history of a people living in a remote and rugged rural area that nevertheless is of considerable contemporary interest because of wildlife conservation. Yet the ovaHerero of Kaokoveld remain little understood outside exoticised tourism material. Their history holds important lessons for the role of non-human actors in the precolonial and colonial eras, and for how environments, racialised social policies and power politics interacted to help construct contemporary north-west Namibia. Recentring ovaHerero experiences of these eras contributes to postcolonial studies of subaltern groups, the field of human-animal studies and the historiography of Namibia and Southern Africa.

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 In a horse’s belly: Interspecies relations as a critique of civilization
 
 
 
 Jenny Ingridsdotter & Kim Silow Kallenberg
 
 
 
 Keywords: natureculture, animals, popular culture, masculinity
 
 
 In this article, we analyse how the relationship between humans and other species is portrayed in contemporary films and series that have the rise and fall of civilization as their theme: Into the Wild (2007), The Revenant (2015), Into the Forest (2015) and The Walking Dead (2010-). The purpose is to understand how relationships between humans, animals and non-humans are portrayed. The films/series have been chosen on the basis of their portrayal of social downfall or social dissatisfaction and on the grounds that they are also widely recognised and popular portrayals. The analysis focuses on two male characters (The Revenant, Into the Wild) and two female characters (Into the Forest and The Walking Dead) to investigate relationships between humans and other species (animals and zombies) when it comes to survival, and how these relationships are possibly conditioned by gender. Methodologically, we approach these popular cultural depictions as ethnographers, with human meaning-making as the primary point of departure. Theoretically, we use concepts developed in the field of human-animal studies.
 
 The analysis shows that there are differences between the representations of different species and that these representations are also conditioned by gender in the human characters. Where men are alone in their struggle against nature, women are part of social relationships where they, together with others (human and non-human), struggle to survive. The analysis further shows how animals and other species constantly condition and enable human existence. However, lacking human language, the animals – who are absolutely vital for the actions and survival of the human characters – are rendered unimportant.

How Prevalent Are Invertebrates in Human-Animal Scholarship? Scoping Study of Anthrozoös and Society & Animals

AbstractThe field of Human-Animal Studies (HAS) is about human-animal relations. However, which nonhuman animals does the field encompass? In recent years, some scholars have noted a bias towards vertebrate species, especially domesticated mammals. To assess how prevalent (or not) invertebrates have been in HAS scholarship, a three-stage scoping study was conducted of two pioneering journals in the field: Anthrozoös and Society & Animals. This article reports on preliminary findings and confirms that human-animal scholarship, as presented in these two leading journals, is characterized by “institutional vertebratism,” albeit the extent of this invertebrate knowledge gap needs to be fully assessed. If the next generation of HAS scholars are to comprehend the extensive range of interspecies contexts, they must be more inclusive in terms of the diversity of animal species studied. Widening the species net is therefore a necessary corrective to address vertebrate bias in this field.

Социальная жизнь животных в осмыслении отечественных социологов: П.Л. Лавров и Н.И. Кареев

The interdisciplinary tradition of studying social life in Russian sociology, initiated by P.L. Lavrov and critically conceptualized by N.I. Kareev, is described in this article. It is shown that Lavrov’s views on the social life of animals were largely determined by his socio-political worldview, the dominant ofwhich was the idea of an active, critically thinking person as the main factor in social progress. Kareev’s position with regard to the sociological potential of “animal sociology” was marked by pronounced skepticism. It’s worth noting that Kareev accomplished a clear and well-grounded demarcation of human sociality, conducted along the line of social institutions. To a certain degree this tradition resonates with today’s increasing interest towards bio-social issues presented in the field of Human-Animal Studies. Actually, one could say that we are witnessing a reemergence, on a new conceptual and ethical level, of data on the emotional, mental and social life of animals, which was quite comprehensively and deeply understood in Russian sociology.

Human-Animal Studies, G.H. Mead, and the Question of Animal Minds

In the field of human-animal studies (has), also known as anthrozoology, the question of nonhuman animal minds is central. During the first three decades of the 20th century, the social psychological G.H. Mead was among the first to take an explicitly contemporary approach to the question of mind in nature. Mead’s approach to the question of the nature of mind is consistent with contemporary science. His approach was characterized by empiricism, interdisciplinarity, comparative behavior and anatomy, and evolutionary theory. For Mead, symbolic language was required for mind as he defined it. This stipulation has been called into question by scholars today. The evidence for the nature of animal minds today suggests that a symbolic language is not required for conscious awareness, deliberation, and decision making. Nonetheless, Mead has an historical relevance to the field ofhasfor both the breadth of his work on the nature of consciousness, his contemporary approach, and the fact that some of his insights could be useful to contemporary scholars who are exploring the nature of mind, both human and nonhuman.

Considering Animals: Contemporary Studies in Human-Animal Relations. By Carol Freeman, Elizabeth Leane and Yvette Watt. Ashgate: Surrey, UK, 2011; Hardcover, 236 pp; ISBN 978-1-4094-0013-4

In 2005 a small group of academics gathered at the University of Western Australia for a modest yet highly significant interdisciplinary conference focused on scholarship in the emerging field of human-animal studies. A critical mass of academics from the University of Tasmania attended that first conference and pledged to host a second human-animal studies conference two years later. True to their word a second human-animal studies conference was held in Hobart, Australia, in 2007. The organisers called the second conference “Considering Animals” and the book under review here is a compilation of papers presented at that conference. [...]

Animal suffering in New Zealand: Can science make a difference?

The main influences in the regulation of animal welfare policy in New Zealand are discussed. Animal welfare organizations on the one hand are intent on improving conditions for animals, whereas government regulatory bodies are more concerned with preserving the status quo. Both types of organizations have allies in academia. Government agencies are largely informed through research from the ‘mandated’ field of Animal Welfare Science, which is characterized by a positivistic framework that tends to support the status quo. Animal Welfare Science can be contrasted with the emerging interdisciplinary field of Human Animal Studies, which continues the tradition of critical theory that questions the positivistic basis of the animal welfare establishment. We conclude that while genuine science, defined as all rational and theoretically informed discourse, could make a difference to animals, the mandated field of Animal Welfare Science serves more to entrench animal suffering than to prevent it.

Kiwi chicken advocate talks with Californian dog companion

An influential feminist scholar in the field of human-animal studies, Donna Haraway (Professor in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz) has over the past couple of decades provided ground-breaking critiques of such subjects as twentieth century primatology (and its links to race, gender and first-world/third-world politics), the place of nonhuman animals in laboratory science, and the phenomenon of pedigree dog breeding. Her most recent work focuses on our relationships with ‘companion species’, a term Haraway employs in her analysis of the diverse forms of human-animal interactions and exchanges that are part of everyday life. Drawing from ecological developmental biology, she suggests that companion species are the fruit of ‘multispecies reciprocal inductions’. In the following interview with Annie Potts (Co-Director, the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies), Donna Haraway discusses her views on, amongst other things, feminism and multispecies issues, human exceptionalism and posthumanism, and the pleasures of ‘becoming with’ our companion species.