Animals and society : an introduction to human-animal studies / Margo DeMello.

New York : Columbia University Press, [2012]

xiv, 470 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm

pt. I. Constructing animals : animal categories -- 1. Human-animal studies -- Understanding animals and their uses -- Real-world implications of human-animal studies -- Coming to animal studies / Susan McHugh -- 2. Animal-human borders -- Non-Western understandings -- Speciesism and the rise of the human-animal border -- Evolution and the continuity between the species -- 3. The social construction of animals -- Systems of classification -- The sociozoologic scale -- The joy of chickens / Annie Potts -- pt. II. Using animals : human-animal economies -- 4. Animals "in the wild" and in human societies -- Animals and humans in the Paleolithic Era -- Subsistence hunting and the human-animal relationship -- From subsistence to sport -- Colonial expansion and animals -- Hunting and conservation -- Human-wildlife conflicts -- The colonial animal / Walter Putnam -- 5. The domestication of animals -- History of domestication -- Results of domestication -- Altering the animal body -- Coming to animals / Molly Mullin -- 6. Display, performance, and sport -- Zoos -- Marine mammal parks -- Circuses -- Animal racing -- Animal fighting -- Working from within : an ethnographer in human-animal worlds / Garry Marvin -- 7. The making and consumption of meat -- Meat taboos -- Meat consumption in the past -- Modern meat production -- The political economy of agribusiness -- Slaughterhouse workers -- Cultural implications of modern meat production and consumption -- Ethics and meat eating -- 8. The pet animal -- Rise of pet keeping -- Development of the modern pet industry -- Human-pet relationship -- Love and grief -- Development of humane attitudes through pets -- Contradictory attitudes toward pets -- Pets and domination -- Helping people, helping pets : working with VET SOS / Cheryl Joseph -- 9. Animals and science -- History of vivisection -- Scope of animal research and testing -- Animals as stand-ins for humans -- Social construction of the lab animal -- History of the anti-vivisection movement -- Alternatives to animal research and testing -- 10. Animal-assisted activities -- Animals as human assistants -- Working animals -- Assistance animals -- Animal-assisted therapy -- Human-animal bond : benefits to humans -- The healing gift of animals : animal-assisted therapy / Cynthia Kay Chandler.

pt. III. Attitudes toward animals -- 11. Working with animals -- Ethnographic fieldwork -- Animal rescue volunteers -- Shelter workers and veterinarians -- Ranchers -- Laboratory workers -- Slaughterhouse workers -- Working with people who work with animals / Clinton Sanders -- 12. Violence to animals -- Institutionalized violence to animals -- Culture-specific violence -- Deviant violence -- The link between violence to animals and violence to humans -- Domestic violence and animal abuse -- Treatment and prevention -- Legislation -- AniCare : treating animal abuse / Kenneth Shapiro -- 13. Human oppression and animal suffering -- Interlinked systems of exploitation -- Roots of oppression -- Othering and essentializing -- Sexism and speciesism -- Racism, slavery, the Holocaust, and animal exploitation -- Racism and animal advocacy -- Capitalism and the expansion of oppression -- Connecting the dots : legitimating oppressions / David Nibert -- pt. IV. Imagining animals : animals as symbol -- 14. Animals in human thought -- Use of animals in human language -- Animals as symbols -- Animals in artwork -- Mirrors for human identities -- Animals and the creative arts / Carol Gigliotti -- 15. Animals in religion and folklore -- Animals in religious thought -- Animal tales -- animal-human transformations -- Religious symbolism -- Animal cults -- Sacrificial lambs -- Communities of faith and the ethical treatment of animals -- What do animals and religion have to do with each other? / Laura Hobgood-Oster -- 16. Animals in literature and film -- Animals in literature -- Animals in children's literature -- Talking animals -- Animals in film and TV -- Literary animal encounters / Philip Armstrong -- pt. V. Knowing and relating to animals : animal behavior and animal ethics -- 17. Animal behavior studies and ethology -- Animal behavior studies and reductionism -- Rise of modern ethology -- Anthropomorphism -- Animal intelligence -- Animal emotions -- Animal language -- The animal self -- Doing and saying in play between dogs and people / Robert W. Mitchell -- 18. The moral status of animals -- History of philosophical debates on animals -- Ethical humanism and the rights of animals -- Peter Singer and Utilitarianism -- Tom Regan and animal rights -- The morality of awareness / Kathie Jenni -- 19. The animal protection movement -- Conserving nature -- The Animal Rights Movement -- 20. The future of the human-animal relationship.

Includes bibliographical references and index.