Lecture 1: What is animal studies
what can animals talking signify?
-gives voices to disenfranchised, poor, oppressed -women authors speak through animals -diversity of species being talked about (predator and prey are friends)
animal encounters
-myths/folklore -home -sports -work with humans -LAB -Farms -zoos/aquariums
role of animals
1) animals serve as models for humans 2) portrayed realistically to teach about positive qualities
anthropormorphism
Assigning human characteristics to nonhuman beings or things.
animal studies
The interdisciplinary field in which scholars from a variety of disciplines explore questions related to animals
critical animal studies (CAS)
animal rights activism and veganism no form of animal abuse or exploitation permissible, more radical field.
anthopodenial
blindness to human-like characteristics of animals, or animal-like characteristics of ourselves -animals we don't view as similar have a harder time seeing as similar (some species have abilities beyond use like echolocation)
Taxonomy
branch of science concerned with classification of organisms
Satire
exaggeration/humor to expose or criticize Book: Animal Farm (communism, pigs take over farm and take all resources and leave animals with nothing)
anthropological differences
factors considered when distinguishing humans from non-human animals *agency (aware/in control of actions) *language *reason *theory of mind ( aware of motivating behavior)
domestication
process of selectively breeding animals and plants for human use
human animal studies (HAS)
relationship between human-animal interactions and human sense of culture. Strong emphasis on animals in human sociological relations such as race, class, gender, and ethnicity.
animal construct
socially constructed; created and accepted categorization of info made by society (serve to benefit humans) -our perception of animals deals with how it relates to our social world
tame
wild and have become accustomed to humans that their behavior reflects this over time. not the case for all species.
