Our Children and Other Animals: The Cultural Construction of Human-animal Relations in Childhood

206 Pages·2014·1.67 MB·English

by  Matthew Cole

Our Children and Other animals
For Elaine and Patricia
Our Children and
Other Animals
The Cultural Construction of Human–Animal
Relations in Childhood
matthew COle
Open University, UK
Kate stewart
University of Nottingham, UK
© matthew Cole and Kate stewart 2014
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
matthew Cole and Kate stewart have asserted their right under the Copyright, designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing Company
wey Court east 110 Cherry street
union road suite 3-1
Farnham Burlington, Vt 05401-3818
surrey, Gu9 7Pt usa
england
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Cole, matthew, 1970-
Our children and other animals : the cultural construction of human–animal relations in
childhood / by matthew Cole and Kate stewart.
pages cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4094-6460-0 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-4094-6461-7 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-4094-
6462-4 (epub) 1. Children and animals. 2. Human–animal relationships. 3. Animal welfare--
moral and ethical aspects. i. title.
BF723.a45C65 2015
179′.3--dc23
2014023418
ISBN 9781409464600 (hbk)
ISBN 9781409464617 (ebk – PDF)
ISBN 9781409464624 (ebk – ePUB)
V
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
PART I CONCEPTUALIZING WESTERN
HUMAN–NONHUMAN ANIMAL RELATIONS
1 introduction 3
2 the use of names: socially Constructing animals as ‘Others’ 13
3 the historical separation of Children from Other animals 37
4 the Construction and study of Children and Childhood 57
PART II THE CONTEMPORARY SOCIALIZATION OF
HUMAN–NONHUMAN RELATIONS IN CHILDHOOD
5 Family Practices and the shaping of human–nonhuman
identities 75
6 Cute style: mass media representations of Other animals 89
7 education: making anthroparchal domination reasonable 111
8 Playing with Power: Virtual relations with Other animals
in digital media 129
PART III RECONSTRUCTING CHILDREN’S RELATIONS
WITH OTHER ANIMALS: VEGAN PRACTICES AND
REPRESENTATIONS
9 we’ve Got to Get Out of this Place:
the utopian Vehicularity of Vegan Children’s Culture 151
Our Children and Other animals
10 Conclusion: Resisting the Zooicidal Imperative 169
Bibliography 175
Index 191
vi
List of Figures
2.1 a conceptual map of the social construction of ‘other’ animals 22
5.1 Girls, boys, ‘pets’, toys 87
6.1 Cutification as protection and denial 109
7.1 Exploitation as destiny: Educating children in
the ‘proper’ positions of other animals 127
8.1 Powerplay: Representing ‘pets’, ‘farmed animals’ and
‘animal products’ in digital media 147
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Acknowledgements
we are very grateful to vegan illustrator extraordinaire hayley wells for the front
cover and the images that grace the figures in this volume. To learn more about
hayley’s work, please visit:
theillustratedvegan.blogspot.co.uk
hayleywellsillustration.blogspot.co.uk
We are obliged to the Journal for Critical Animal Studies for the kind permission
to reproduce, with some modifications, our review of Puss in Boots in Chapter 6,
which first appeared as: Cole, M. and Stewart, K. 2012. Puss in Boots. Journal for
Critical Animal Studies, 10(1), 200–210.
We are indebted to the support of many colleagues in innumerable discussions
and especially through the opportunity to present portions of this volume
at various conferences and other events over the last few years. In particular
we would like to thank Marcel Sebastian and Julia Gutjahr for the invitations
to speak in Hamburg and Bochum and to the Childhood Research Group at
Cardiff University, who gave us our first chance to present the ideas that ended
up in this book, way back in 2008. Thank you also to Karen Morgan and Claire
Molloy for your advice and encouragement with the completion of the book,
and to Neil Jordan at Ashgate for your interest and faith in the project. Coping
with the stresses and strains of completing this volume was made much easier
by being able to draw on the inspirational writings and work of the pioneers
of the early Vegan Society in the 1940s and beyond, especially Donald Watson,
Leslie J. Cross, G. Allen Henderson and Faye K. Henderson. Thanks are due to
Joshua and Dylan, who have on occasion felt as if their own joyful childhood
memories have been under scrutiny, and also to our animal companion Barney
who shared that life and ours since as a much loved part of our family. Finally,
it is customary to acknowledge the bottomless, fortifying and inspiring love and
support of one’s partner. Clearly, we couldn’t have written this book without
each other, but our co-authorship is only a fraction of the reason why.