Animals in Human Society: Psychological Perspectives

Tereza Vandrovcová

1st week: Introduction to Animal Studies in the Social Sciences

2nd week: Animal Ethics

3rd week: Psychological aspects of the human-nonhuman relationships

Content of the course

Do you remember some recent stories relating to animals in mass media?

Animals around us

What about your everyday life? Please, try to recall some examples of animal presence in our society

Animals around us

We pet them

We watch them

We eat them

and their products

We wear them

We use them in experiments

We visit them in zoos, circuses

etc.

We share our homes with them

(unwillingly)

They work for us

They act in our movies

and fairy tales

They are part of our

language

They are part of our

religions

Art

Activism

...they are everywhere

Note down all occurences of animals (or their symbols)

Categorize them into groups

Project

Animals were invisible in social science (until recently)

Only objects of natural science (not subjects)

"Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal."

- Charles Darwin

Human-animal studies / Anthrozoology Interactions between humans and animals Informed by natural science

◦ Better understanding Relatively new Multidisciplinary approach

Animal Studies

Similar to the development of Women's studies or African-American studies

Feminism, Civil Rights Moral philosophy:

◦ Peter Singer: Animal Liberation (1975)◦ Tom Regan: The Case for Animal Rights

(1983)

Parallel to Animal Protection Movement

Keith Thomas: Man and the Natural World: A History of the Modern Sensibility (1983)

James Serpell: In the Company of Animals (1986) Donna Haraway: Primate Visions: Gender, Race,

and Nature in the World of Modern Science (1989) Aubrey Manning and James Serpell (eds):

Animals and Human Society: Changing Perspectives (1994)

Carol Adams and Josephine Donovan (eds): Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations (1994)

Arnold Arluke and Clinton Sanders: Regarding Animals (1996)

Brief selection of important books in Social Science

Randall Lockwood and Frank Ascione (eds): Cruelty to Animals and Interpersonal Violence (1998)

Anthony Podberscek, Elizabeth Paul, and James Serpell: Companion Animals and Us: Exploring the Relationships between People and Pets (2000)

Steve Best and Anthony Nocella: Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals (2004)

Lisa Kemmerer: In Search of Consistency: Ethics and Animals (2006)

Carol Gigliotti: Leonardo’s Choice: Genetic Technologies and Animals (2009)

Brief selection of important books in Social Science

Nature (real physical identity) vs. Culture (human categories)

How we classify them shapes how we see and treat them (and vice versa)

Social Construction of Animals

Rainbow bridge

Biologically: Oryctalygus cuniculus

What kind of rabbit?

How we use them – how we treat them Pets: shared home, name, interaction,

emotions... Animals we use: usually none of those

Distinctions – given by culture

Sociozoological scale

Animals mean different things to different people

Personal differences

Ghosts in Our Machine (2013)

Human-Animal boundaries

Or what is the difference?

Humans = animals?

= Humans are not Animals

Human exceptionalism

Cultural differences

Fluid borders

Why did we remove humans from the realm of animals?

Animals were created to serve human needs This distinction soon became universal

◦ Strengthened through social practice and philosophy

◦ René Descartes: animals are just mindless machines

Greek and Christian thought

On the Origin of Species (1859) The Descent of Man (1871)

◦ Challenged the notion that humans are special◦ Common ancestor◦ No fundamental differences between humans and

the „higher animals“◦ Continuum of mental and emotional capacities

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)

There is no radical divide between the emotional and mental capacities of humans and other animals

Self-recognition, self-awareness, communication, tool use, empathy, joking, planning, understanding the past and the future...

Modern ethology