Humans and Other Animals: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Human-Animal Interactions

by Samantha Hurn

Humans and Other Animals is about the myriad and evolving ways in which humans and animals interact, the divergent cultural constructions of humanity and animality found around the world, and individual experiences of other animals. Samantha Hurn explores the work of anthropologists and scholars from related disciplines concerned with the growing field of anthrozoology. Case studies from a wide range of cultural contexts are discussed, and readers are invited to engage with a diverse range of human-animal interactions including blood sports (such as hunting, fishing and bull fighting), pet keeping and ‘petishism’, eco-tourism and wildlife conservation, working animals and animals as food. The idea of animal exploitation raised by the animal rights movements is considered, as well as the anthropological implications of changing attitudes towards animal personhood, and the rise of a posthumanist philosophy in the social sciences more generally. Key debates surrounding these issues are raised and assessed and, in the process, readers are encouraged to consider their own attitudes towards other animals and, by extension, what it means to be human.

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthropology, Animals

266 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2011

Reviews

[Kiersten]

(didn’t read entire thing - for class)

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hurn pushes the bounds of culture across species lines, and helps introduce the world to anthrozoology. She discusses our boundaries and friendships with animals, our choices to eat, kill, or idolize them. She covers our reactions to cross-species diseases, and "zoopharmacognosy" (or the process of learning about medicinal plants by watching animals self-medicate their illnesses). She includes an objective discussion of sexual relations between humans and other animals. The book touches on most all topics concerning our co-existence.

[Melvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the following chapters:
- Chapter 1: Why Look at Human–Animal Interactions?
- Chapter 2: Animality
- Chapter 3: Continuity
- Chapter 4: The West and the Rest
- Chapter 6: Good to Think
- Chapter 10: Intersubjectivity
- Chapter 12: Science and Medicine
- Chapter 15: Animal Rights and Wrongs
- Chapter 16: From Anthropocentricity to Multi-Species Ethnography

I found chapters 2-4 to be more informative as they discussed fundamental assumptions made in 'western' vs 'indigenous' cultures. Overall, the text is descriptive and mostly shares how different (human) cultural groups view their relations to animals.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

full to the brim of citations, but frequently goes too far afield with big concepts delivered as simple matter of fact.

Great as sampler of ethnographic discourse in general, even given the focus on human-animal interactions.

[Jane Undomiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly descriptive, engaging intro to HAS theory. I recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in Anthrozoology/Human and Animal Studies.

[Hugh Mahon · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book fucks