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Animal Series
Sheep
The ancient Egyptians worshipped them, the Romans dressed them in fitted coats, and the Christians associated them with their divine savior. In Sheep, Philip Armstrong traces the natural and cultural history of both wild and domestic species of ovis, from the Old World mouflon to the corkscrew-horned flocks of the Egyptians, from the Trojan sheep of Homer’s Odyssey to the cannibal sheep of Thomas More’s Utopia, from the vast migratory mobs of Spanish merinos all the way to Dolly—the first animal we have ever cloned—and Haruki Murakami’s sheep-human hybrids.
As Armstrong shows, humans have treated sheep with awe, cruelty, or disdain for many thousands of years. Our exploitation of them for milk, meat, and wool—but also for artistic and cultural purposes—has shaped both our history and theirs. Despite all that we owe them, we have often dismissed sheep as the least witted and least interesting of to be accused of “sheepishness” or behaving “like a flock of sheep” is to be denigrated for lack of courage, individuality, or will. Yet, as this book demonstrates, sheep actually possess highly sophisticated social skills and emotional intelligence. Above all, Sheep demonstrates that sometimes the most mundane animals turn out to be the most surprising.
As Armstrong shows, humans have treated sheep with awe, cruelty, or disdain for many thousands of years. Our exploitation of them for milk, meat, and wool—but also for artistic and cultural purposes—has shaped both our history and theirs. Despite all that we owe them, we have often dismissed sheep as the least witted and least interesting of to be accused of “sheepishness” or behaving “like a flock of sheep” is to be denigrated for lack of courage, individuality, or will. Yet, as this book demonstrates, sheep actually possess highly sophisticated social skills and emotional intelligence. Above all, Sheep demonstrates that sometimes the most mundane animals turn out to be the most surprising.
208 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 2016
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June 21, 2018
I loved this book. It definitely helped me to gain a greater appreciation for the intelligence and sociality of sheep as well as the ways in which they have shaped and oppressed by humans throughout the course of history. Sheep are explored as sources of food, as religious and spiritual symbols, as literary and cultural figures, as providers of wool, and ultimately as subjected to the whims of humanity when it comes to their genetic destiny as a domestic species and their all too often unfortunate status as farmed animals. This book allows one to truly appreciate how bright sheep are though. I learned that bisexuality is common in male sheep, for instance, and that the bonds sheep can form with each other and with people can be especially strong. Highly recommended.
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