- I am a social anthropologist who has a particular interest in human-animal relationships. My research areas include t... moreI am a social anthropologist who has a particular interest in human-animal relationships. My research areas include the cultures of hunting; hunting taxidermy; human-wildlife conflicts; issues related to conservation; animals and performance.edit
Ecological breakdowns are posing many serious threats to the lives of both humans and wild animals in the spaces where those lives are shared. Today the intensification of conservation-related conflict is one of the main ecological... more
Ecological breakdowns are posing many serious threats to the lives of both humans and wild animals in the spaces where those lives are shared. Today the intensification of conservation-related conflict is one of the main ecological challenges faced in the Western Ghats of India. This article explores some of the complex interactions between different groups of people, such as wealthy farmers, small-scale farmers, and Adivasi (indigenous) people, and Asian elephants and suggests potentially non-conflictual approaches to sharing spaces with these elephants. The study used a multispecies ethnographic approach as a primary research method and focused on detailed stories and anecdotes narrated by the inhabitants of the study area who had long experience of living with these elephants and who frequently encountered them. Based on insights offered by the stories and anecdotes, the article argues that the lives of elephants and those of people are deeply and intimately interconnected and co...
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Ecological breakdowns are posing many serious threats to the lives of both humans and wild animals in the spaces where those lives are shared. Today the intensification of conservation-related conflict is one of the main ecological... more
Ecological breakdowns are posing many serious threats to the lives of both humans and wild animals in the spaces where those lives are shared. Today the intensification of conservation-related conflict is one of the main ecological challenges faced in the Western Ghats of India. This article explores some of the complex interactions between different groups of people, such as wealthy farmers, small-scale farmers, and Adivasi (indigenous) people, and Asian elephants and suggests potentially non-conflictual approaches to sharing spaces with these elephants. The study used a multispecies ethnographic approach as a primary research method and focused on detailed stories and anecdotes narrated by the inhabitants of the study area who had long experience of living with these elephants and who frequently encountered them. Based on insights offered by the stories and anecdotes, the article argues that the lives of elephants and those of people are deeply and intimately interconnected and co-constructed in the study area; such 'naturecultures' of elephants and humans constitute a complex whole. The stories highlight that most people in the study area know that elephants have agency and are intelligent, emotional beings, and can subvert human attempts to control them. According to local people, each individual elephant possesses a distinct personality: some are good, some are quarrelsome, and some are bad. People believe that, just as human beings do, elephants also perceive and respond to individual humans differently; such beliefs, and the stories created out of them, are non-anthropocentric in nature. Overall, this article explores how understanding, and treating seriously, the concepts, beliefs, and experiences of multidimensional elephant agency can be beneficial for envisioning possible new ways for human-elephant coexistence.
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Ecological breakdowns are posing many serious threats to the lives of both humans and wild animals in the spaces where those lives are shared. Today the intensification of conservation-related conflict is one of the main ecological... more
Ecological breakdowns are posing many serious threats to the lives of both humans and wild animals in the spaces where those lives are shared. Today the intensification of conservation-related conflict is one of the main ecological challenges faced in the Western Ghats of India. This article explores some of the complex interactions between different groups of people, such as wealthy farmers, small-scale farmers, and Adivasi (indigenous) people, and Asian elephants and suggests potentially non-conflictual approaches to sharing spaces with these elephants. The study used a multispecies ethnographic approach as a primary research method and focused on detailed stories and anecdotes narrated by the inhabitants of the study area who had long experience of living with these elephants and who frequently encountered them. Based on insights offered by the stories and anecdotes, the article argues that the lives of elephants and those of people are deeply and intimately interconnected and co-constructed in the study area; such 'naturecultures' of elephants and humans constitute a complex whole. The stories highlight that most people in the study area know that elephants have agency and are intelligent, emotional beings, and can subvert human attempts to control them. According to local people, each individual elephant possesses a distinct personality: some are good, some are quarrelsome, and some are bad. People believe that, just as human beings do, elephants also perceive and respond to individual humans differently; such beliefs, and the stories created out of them, are non-anthropocentric in nature. Overall, this article explores how understanding, and treating seriously, the concepts, beliefs, and experiences of multidimensional elephant agency can be beneficial for envisioning possible new ways for human-elephant coexistence.
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Dog walking is a popular everyday activity known to contribute considerably to human health through motivating substantial additional physical activity. However, despite recognition that walking with a dog is substantially different from... more
Dog walking is a popular everyday activity known to contribute considerably to human health through motivating substantial additional physical activity. However, despite recognition that walking with a dog is substantially different from walking without a dog, little is known sociologically about the practices of dog walking. This study used in-depth interviews with 38 dog owners, combined with autoethnographical observation of dog walking. The aim was to investigate the types of dog walks that occur and the implications of this for the promotion of dog walking to increase human and animal wellbeing. Two distinct types of dog walking were found that had differing influencers and resulting experiences. Functional walks were purposed through feelings of guilt to provide the dog with a convenient form of exercise but were less pleasurable for the owner. In contrast, recreational walks provided significant owner stress-relief and were longer, typically during pleasant weather and at wee...
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In a recent article on ‘interspecies cosmopolitanism’, Eduardo Mendieta summarizes a good deal of scholarship in his claim that, ‘[c]osmopolitanism … implies a dual relationship that urges that we remain cognitively open to the other and... more
In a recent article on ‘interspecies cosmopolitanism’, Eduardo Mendieta summarizes a good deal of scholarship in his claim that, ‘[c]osmopolitanism … implies a dual relationship that urges that we remain cognitively open to the other and that we be morally accountable for and to the [animal] other’ (Mendieta, 2011: 2). On the face of it the bullfight (la corrida de toros) seems to fail both of these desiderata.1 In this chapter, however, we explore the configuration of the bull-human relationship within the bullfight world. Performers’ and aficionados’ conceptions of moral accountability for and to the other come, as we show, through a conjunction of ethics and aesthetic frameworks that is not shared by their detractors.
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The Rising from the Depths (RftD) network aims to identify the ways in which Marine Cultural Heritage (MCH) can contribute to the sustainable development of coastal communities in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar. Although the... more
The Rising from the Depths (RftD) network aims to identify the ways in which Marine Cultural Heritage (MCH) can contribute to the sustainable development of coastal communities in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar. Although the coastal and marine heritage of eastern Africa is a valuable cultural and environmental resource, it remains largely unstudied and undervalued and is subject to significant threat from natural and anthropogenic processes of change. This paper outlines the aims of the RftD network and describes the co-creation of a challenge-led research and sustainability programme for the study of MCH in eastern Africa. Through funding 29 challenge-led research projects across these four Global South countries, the network is demonstrating how MCH can directly benefit East African communities and local economies through building identity and place-making, stimulating resource-centred alternative sources of income and livelihoods, and enhancing the value and impact of...
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The foxhunt in England is a dramatic enactment of a set of relationships among foxes, hounds, horses, and humans. It is an event which both depends on representations of animals and has actively constructed such representations through... more
The foxhunt in England is a dramatic enactment of a set of relationships among foxes, hounds, horses, and humans. It is an event which both depends on representations of animals and has actively constructed such representations through its practice. It is ...
Chapter 9 The problem of foxes Legitimate and illegitimate killing in the English countryside Garry Marvin Introduction This chapter is an attempt to understand and explore some of the cultural meanings that underpin foxhunting in the... more
Chapter 9 The problem of foxes Legitimate and illegitimate killing in the English countryside Garry Marvin Introduction This chapter is an attempt to understand and explore some of the cultural meanings that underpin foxhunting in the English countryside. 1 A fox-hunt involves the ...
... Una orientación para una interpretación antropológica de la fiesta del "toro embolado". Autores:Garry Marvin; Localización: Kalathos: Revista del seminario de arqueología y etnología turolense, ISSN 0211-5840, Nº 2, 1982 ,... more
... Una orientación para una interpretación antropológica de la fiesta del "toro embolado". Autores:Garry Marvin; Localización: Kalathos: Revista del seminario de arqueología y etnología turolense, ISSN 0211-5840, Nº 2, 1982 , págs. 157-176. Fundación Dialnet. ...
Roehampton University Research Repository > School of Business and Social Sciences > Research papers from the School of Business and Social Sciences > Turismo e citta d'arte: Quali i costi sociali a Venezia? ... Del.icio.us... more
Roehampton University Research Repository > School of Business and Social Sciences > Research papers from the School of Business and Social Sciences > Turismo e citta d'arte: Quali i costi sociali a Venezia? ... Del.icio.us LinkedIn Citeulike Connotea Facebook Stumble it!
The abundance of companion animal behavior modification and training aids available on the open market offer the potential for misleading those desperate to deal with their animal's behavior. The quality of product information is... more
The abundance of companion animal behavior modification and training aids available on the open market offer the potential for misleading those desperate to deal with their animal's behavior. The quality of product information is varied, as are the scientific facts explaining ...
The Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) is the only species of the genus Macaca living outside Asia. Currently, two disjointed and highly fragmented populations of this species exist in the wild, in Morocco and Algeria. The Barbary macaque... more
The Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) is the only species of the genus Macaca living outside Asia. Currently, two disjointed and highly fragmented populations of this species exist in the wild, in Morocco and Algeria. The Barbary macaque is listed as endangered in the IUCN 2010 Red List of Threatened Species and the total population size in the wild is estimated at between 5,000 and 6,000 individuals. Outside Africa, a free-ranging population of macaques inhabits the Rock of Gibraltar. The Barbary macaque can be considered a flagship species of the cedar and oak forests of Morocco and Algeria. Despite this, little is known about the population structure, ecology and behaviour of wild Barbary macaques. Scarce data exist on the effect of human activity on the conservation and behaviour of this species. In this chapter, we review the literature on wild Barbary macaques to describe their ecology and behaviour. We discuss the factors threatening the survival of this species, and the hist...
This article concerns the related ideas of presentation and rep-resentation with regard to animals and suggests that the prefix re indicates a directing agent with its own concerns about the nature and status of animal presence. It... more
This article concerns the related ideas of presentation and rep-resentation with regard to animals and suggests that the prefix re indicates a directing agent with its own concerns about the nature and status of animal presence. It further suggests that the representation of ...
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A recent special edition of Society & Animals [Vol. 9 (3), 2001] was dedicated to the representation of nonhuman animals and how the processes of such representations relate to the human experience of nonhuman animals. Baker (2001),... more
A recent special edition of Society & Animals [Vol. 9 (3), 2001] was dedicated to the representation of nonhuman animals and how the processes of such representations relate to the human experience of nonhuman animals. Baker (2001), in his introduc-tion, commented that recent books ...
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A spectrum of scholarship on humans' deadly relationship with animals Though not often acknowledged openly, killing represents by far the most common form of human interaction with animals. Humans kill animals for food, for pleasure, to... more
A spectrum of scholarship on humans' deadly relationship with animals
Though not often acknowledged openly, killing represents by far the most common form of human interaction with animals. Humans kill animals for food, for pleasure, to wear, and even as religious acts, yet despite the ubiquity of this killing, analyzing the practice has generally remained the exclusive purview of animal rights advocates.
Killing Animals offers a corrective to this narrow focus by bringing together the insights of scholars from diverse backgrounds in the humanities, including art history, anthropology, intellectual history, philosophy, literary studies, and geography. With killing representing the ultimate expression of human power over animals, the essays reveal the complexity of the phenomenon by exploring the extraordinary diversity in killing practices and the wide variety of meanings attached to them. They examine aspects of the role of animals in human societies, from the seventeenth century to the present day: their cultural manifestations, and how they have been represented. Topics include hunting and baiting; slaughter practices and the treatment of feral and stray animals; animal death in art, literature and philosophy; and even animals that themselves become killers of humans.
While many collections originate as a series of separately planned conference papers drawn together only by editorial fiat, the essays that comprise Killing Animals were regarded as parts of a larger whole from their inception. The result is a remarkably collaborative, cross-disciplinary work that includes eight individually authored chapters and a collectively written introduction. Rather than attempting to produce a single ethical understanding from their diverse views, however, the group aims instead to demonstrate the value of the wider academic study of the place of animals in human history. The conclusion to Killing Animals takes the form of a discussion among the eight contributors, with each expanding upon issues raised earlier in the book.
"Killing Animals by the Animal Studies Group provides compelling material for academics wishing to study our relationship to animals, which consists mostly of violence towards them. This collection of essays is refreshingly informed in its analysis of how this brutality manifests itself in cultural forms."--VegNews
"The eight contributors to the collection entitled Killing Animals provide sufficiently diverse perspectives on the subject to make this book a worthwhile addition to the growing literature regarding animal rights and wrongs."--H-Animal
The Animal Studies Group consists of the following British scholars: Steve Baker (art history, University of Central Lancashire); Jonathan Burt (independent scholar); Diana Donald (art history, Manchester Metropolitan University); Erica Fudge (literary and cultural studies, Middlesex University); Garry Marvin (social anthropology, Roehampton University); Robert McKay (literature, University of Sheffield); Clare Palmer (philosophy and environmental studies, Washington University in St. Louis); and Chris Wilbert (geography, Anglia Ruskin University).
Though not often acknowledged openly, killing represents by far the most common form of human interaction with animals. Humans kill animals for food, for pleasure, to wear, and even as religious acts, yet despite the ubiquity of this killing, analyzing the practice has generally remained the exclusive purview of animal rights advocates.
Killing Animals offers a corrective to this narrow focus by bringing together the insights of scholars from diverse backgrounds in the humanities, including art history, anthropology, intellectual history, philosophy, literary studies, and geography. With killing representing the ultimate expression of human power over animals, the essays reveal the complexity of the phenomenon by exploring the extraordinary diversity in killing practices and the wide variety of meanings attached to them. They examine aspects of the role of animals in human societies, from the seventeenth century to the present day: their cultural manifestations, and how they have been represented. Topics include hunting and baiting; slaughter practices and the treatment of feral and stray animals; animal death in art, literature and philosophy; and even animals that themselves become killers of humans.
While many collections originate as a series of separately planned conference papers drawn together only by editorial fiat, the essays that comprise Killing Animals were regarded as parts of a larger whole from their inception. The result is a remarkably collaborative, cross-disciplinary work that includes eight individually authored chapters and a collectively written introduction. Rather than attempting to produce a single ethical understanding from their diverse views, however, the group aims instead to demonstrate the value of the wider academic study of the place of animals in human history. The conclusion to Killing Animals takes the form of a discussion among the eight contributors, with each expanding upon issues raised earlier in the book.
"Killing Animals by the Animal Studies Group provides compelling material for academics wishing to study our relationship to animals, which consists mostly of violence towards them. This collection of essays is refreshingly informed in its analysis of how this brutality manifests itself in cultural forms."--VegNews
"The eight contributors to the collection entitled Killing Animals provide sufficiently diverse perspectives on the subject to make this book a worthwhile addition to the growing literature regarding animal rights and wrongs."--H-Animal
The Animal Studies Group consists of the following British scholars: Steve Baker (art history, University of Central Lancashire); Jonathan Burt (independent scholar); Diana Donald (art history, Manchester Metropolitan University); Erica Fudge (literary and cultural studies, Middlesex University); Garry Marvin (social anthropology, Roehampton University); Robert McKay (literature, University of Sheffield); Clare Palmer (philosophy and environmental studies, Washington University in St. Louis); and Chris Wilbert (geography, Anglia Ruskin University).