Sign-In
Cart
Thinking with Animals: New Perspectives on Anthropomorphism
Hardcover
ISBN13: 9780231130387
Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr
Published: Feb 2 2005
Pages: 230
Weight: 0.98
Height: 0.70 Width: 6.54 Depth: 9.24
Language: English
Is anthropomorphism a scientific sin? Scientists and animal researchers routinely warn against animal stories, and contrast rigorous explanations and observation to facile and even fanciful projections about animals. Yet many of us, scientists and researchers included, continue to see animals as humans and humans as animals. As this innovative new collection demonstrates, humans use animals to transcend the confines of self and species; they also enlist them to symbolize, dramatize, and illuminate aspects of humans' experience and fantasy. Humans merge with animals in stories, films, philosophical speculations, and scientific treatises. In their performance with humans on many stages and in different ways, animals move us to think.
From Victorian vivisectionists to elephant conservation, from ancient Indian mythology to pet ownership in the contemporary United States, our understanding of both animals and what it means to be human has been shaped by anthropomorphic thinking. The contributors to Thinking with Animals explore the how and why of anthropomorphism, drawing attention to its rich and varied uses. Prominent scholars in the fields of anthropology, ethology, history, and philosophy, as well as filmmakers and photographers, take a closer look at how deeply and broadly ways of imagining animals have transformed humans and animals alike.
Essays in the book investigate the changing patterns of anthropomorphism across different time periods and settings, as well as their transformative effects, both figuratively and literally, upon animals, humans, and their interactions. Examining how anthropomorphic thinking works in a range of different contexts, contributors reveal the ways in which anthropomorphism turns out to be remarkably useful: it can promote good health and spirits, enlist support in political causes, sell products across boundaries of culture of and nationality, crystallize and strengthen social values, and hold up a philosophical mirror to the human predicament.
1 different editions
Also available
Also in
Zoology
The Pig and I: The Tale of Our Relationship with a Beast We Eat
Endresen, Kristoffer Hattleland
Hardcover
National Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Familiar Birds: Eastern Region: Eastern
National Audubon Society
Paperback
The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present
Brusatte, Steve
Hardcover
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness
Montgomery, Sy
Paperback
Our Wild Familiars: How Animals Are Adapting to Cities and Reshaping the Natural World
Werb, Dan
Hardcover
Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites
Martins, Dino
Hardcover
The Creatures' Guide to Caring: How Animal Parents Teach Us That Humans Were Born to Care
Preston, Elizabeth
Hardcover
A Bird's IQ: Innovation, Intelligence, and Problem Solving in the Avian World
Lefebvre, Louis
Hardcover
Romp!: A Journey Through the Natural History of Otters and Why They Matter
Island, Heide, PhD
Hardcover
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada, 8th Edition
Floyd, Ted
Paperback
Outsider Animals: How the Creatures at the Margins of Our Lives Have the Most to Teach Us
Zuk, Marlene
Hardcover
Wildlife Anatomy: The Curious Lives & Features of Wild Animals Around the World
Rothman, Julia
Paperback
What Sheep Think about the Weather: How to Listen to What Animals Are Trying to Say
Thomas, Amelia
Paperback
Tigers Between Empires: The Improbable Return of Great Cats to the Forests of Russia and China
Slaght, Jonathan C.
Hardcover
Yellowstone Wildlife: A Folding Pocket Guide to Familiar Animals of the Yellowstone Area
Kavanagh, James
Other
Adorable Animals (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 2)
National Geographic Kids
Quattlebaum, Mary
Paperback
Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research
Kaplan, Melanie D. G.
Hardcover
Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-Tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America
McDougall, Christopher
Paperback
Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
Marzluff, John
Angell, Tony
Paperback
The National Parks Traveler's Companion: A Journal Featuring Bucket Lists, Writing Prompts, and Passport Stamp Logs
Federman, Rachel
Potter Gift
Paperback
Crayfish, Crawfish, Crawdad: The Biology and Conservation of North America's Favorite Crustaceans
Graham, Zackary A.
Paperback
Elephants and Their Fossil Relatives: A 60 Million Year Journey
Larramendi, Asier
Ferretti, Marco P.
Hardcover
The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild
Anthony, Lawrence
Spence, Graham
Paperback
What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird
Montgomery, Sy
Hardcover
Backyard Birds of North America: A Guide to Identifying and Attracting Your Favorite Birds
O'Sullivan, Daniel
Hardcover
A Horse's Life: The Neuroscience of Equine Welfare
Peters, Stephen
Rashid, Mark
McDonald, Crissi
Paperback
A Year with the Seals: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sea's Most Charismatic and Controversial Creatures
Morris, Alix
Hardcover
East Africa Wildlife: A Folding Pocket Guide to Familiar Species in Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda
Kavanagh, James
Paperback
The Secret Lives of Dinosaurs: Unearthing the Real Behaviors of Prehistoric Animals
Lomax, Dean R.
Nicholls, Robert
Hardcover
Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence
Bridle, James
Paperback
National Geographic the Photo Ark: One Man's Quest to Document the World's Animals
Sartore, Joel
Chadwick, Douglas H.
Hardcover
Humanish: What Talking to Your Cat or Naming Your Car Reveals about the Uniquely Human Need to Humanize
Gregg, Justin
Hardcover
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canadaâ "West, 2nd Edition
Floyd, Ted
Paperback
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness
Montgomery, Sy
Hardcover
The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog: And Other Serious Discoveries of Silly Science
York, Carly Anne
Hardcover
Common Native Bees of the Eastern United States: Your Way to Easily Identify Bees and Look-Alikes
Holm, Heather
Paperback
The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals
Tuttle, Merlin
Paperback
The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think
Ackerman, Jennifer
Paperback
Pacific Coast Bird Finder: Identifying Common Birds Along the Pacific Coast
Lederer, Roger J.
Paperback
Animal Tracks of the Northeast: Your Way to Easily Identify Animal Tracks
Poppele, Jonathan
Paperback
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canadaâ "East, 2nd Edition
Floyd, Ted
Paperback
Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest: Tracking and Identifying Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, and Invertebrates
Moskowitz, David
Paperback
What the Bears Know: How I Found Truth and Magic in America's Most Misunderstood Creatures--A Memoir by Animal Planet's the Bear Whisperer
Searles, Steve
Erskine, Chris
Paperback
Amazon Animals (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 3/Fact Reader): 100 Fun Facts about Snakes, Sloths, Spiders, and More
National Geographic Kids
Davidson, Rose
Paperback
East Africa Birds: A Folding Pocket Guide to Familiar Species in Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda
Kavanagh, James
Paperback
The Handbook Of Nature Study in Color - Fish, Reptiles, Amphibians, Invertebrates
Comstock, Anna
Paperback
Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History
Wagner, David L.
Paperback
The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion--Surprising Observations of a Hidden World
Wohlleben, Peter
Paperback
Introduction to Animal and Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology
Cappello, Melanie
Aspinall, Victoria
Paperback