About the Book
In these multidisciplinary essays, academic scholars and animal experts explore the nature of animal minds and the methods humans conventionally and unconventionally use to understand them. The collection features chapters by scholars working in psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, literary studies, and art, as well as chapters by and about people who live and work with animals, including the founder of a sanctuary for chickens, a fur trapper, a popular canine psychologist, a horse trainer, and an art photographer who captures everyday contact between humans and their animal companions.
Divided into five sections, the collection first considers the ways that humans live with animals and the influence of cohabitation on their perceptions of animals' minds. It follows with an examination of anthropomorphism as both a guide and hindrance to mapping animal consciousness. Chapters next examine the effects of embodiment on animals' minds and the role of animal-human interembodiment on humans' understandings of animals' minds. Final sections identify historical representations of difference between human and animal consciousness and their relevance to pre-established cultural attitudes, as well as the ways that representations of animals' minds target particular audiences and sometimes produce problematic outcomes. The editors conclude with a discussion of the relationship between the book's chapters and two pressing themes: the connection between human beliefs about animals' minds and human ethical behavior, and the challenges and conditions for knowing the minds of animals. By inviting readers to compare and contrast multiple, uncommon points of view, this collection offers a unique encounter with the diverse perspectives and theories now shaping animal studies.
Table of Contents:
Engaging Animal Minds: Matters of Perspective, by Robert W. Mitchell and Julie A. Smith Part I. Living with Animals 1. The Mental Life of Chickens as Observed Through Their Social Relationships, by Karen Davis 2. Tangible Affiliations: Photographic Representations of Touch Between Human and Animal Companions, by Julia Schlosser 3. Beaver Voices: Grey Owl and Interspecies Communication, by Albert Braz Part II. Anthropomorphisms 4. The Historical Animal Mind: "Sagacity" in Nineteenth-Century Britain, by Rob Boddice 5. Science of the Monkey Mind: Primate Penchants and Human Pursuits, by Sara Waller 6. Can Animals Make "Art"? Popular and Scientific Discourses About Expressivity and Cognition in Primates, by Jane C. Desmond Part III. by Embodiments and Interembodiments 7. Toward a Privileging of the Nonverbal: Communication, Corporeal Synchronicity, and Transcendence in Humans and Horses, by Gala Argent 8. Thinking Like a Whale: Interdisciplinary Methods for the Study of Human-Animal Interactions, by Traci Warkentin 9. The Meaning of "Energy" in Cesar Millan's Discourse on Dogs, by Julie A. Smith 10. Inner Experience as Perception(like) with Attitude, by Robert W. Mitchell 11. The Voice of the Living: Becoming-Artistic and the Creaturely Refrain in D. H. Lawrence's "Tortoise Shout", by Carrie Rohman 12. Unique Attributes of the Elephant Mind: Perspectives on the Human Mind, by Benjamin L. Hart and Lynette A. Hart 13. Brains, Bodies, and Minds: Against a Hierarchy of Animal Faculties, by David Dillard-Wright Part IV. Animal Versus Human Consciousness 14. Rethinking the Cognitive Abilities of Animals, by Gary Steiner 15. Assessing Evidence for Animal Consciousness: The Question of Episodic Memory, by Paula Droege 16. What Are Animals Conscious Of?, by Alain Morin Part V. Tailoring Representations to Audiences 17. Chimpanzees Attribute Beliefs? A New Approach to Answering an Old Nettled Question, by Robert W. Lurz 18. Minding the Animal in Contemporary Art, by Jessica Ullrich 19. Popular Beliefs and Understanding of the Dolphin Mind", by "Jessica Sickler, John Fraser, and Diana Reiss 20. Perceiving the Minds of Animals: Sociological Warfare, the Social Imaginary, and Mediated Representations of Animals Shaping Human Understandings of Animals, by Brian M. Lowe Part VI. Synthesis 21. Animal Ethics and Animals' Minds: Reflections, by Julie A. Smith and Robert W. Mitchell Contributors Index
About the Author :
Julie A. Smith is associate professor emeritus of the Department of Languages and Literatures at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. Her published articles concern early English book illustrations, representations of animals' minds in literary works, and human understandings of rabbits' minds. She is active in animal rescue and animal rights and regularly writes for the House Rabbit Journal. Robert W. Mitchell is Foundation Professor in the Department of Psychology and coordinator of the animal studies program at Eastern Kentucky University. He is the editor of Pretending and Imagination in Animals and Children and coeditor of Spatial Cognition, Spatial Perception: Mapping the Self and Space; The Mentalities of Gorillas and Orangutans: Comparative Perspectives; Self-Awareness in Animals and Humans: Developmental Perspectives; Anthropomorphism, Anecdotes, and Animals; and Deception: Perspectives on Human and Nonhuman Deceit.
Review :
[The book] draws from a remarkable variety of perspectives - biologists, animal activists, artists, literary scholars, veterinarians, philosophers, and more, and still feels surprisingly cohesive. -- Margo DeMello
