Images Of Animals (Animals Culture And Society) [Paperback]

Eileen Crist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 2000 | Series: Animals Culture And Society

Seeing a cat rubbing against a person, Charles Darwin described her as i??in an affectionate frame of mindi??'; for Samuel Barnett, a behavioralist, the mental realm is beyond the grasp of scientists and behavior must be described technically, as a physical action only. What difference does this difference make? In Eileen Crist's analysis of the language used to portray animal behavior, the difference i??is that in the reader's mind the very image of the cat's 'body' is transfigured from an experiencing subject into a vacant objecti??'. i??Images of Animalsi?? examines the literature of behavioral science, revealing how works with the common aim of documenting animal lives, habits, and instincts describe i??realities that are world's aparti??'. Whether the writer affirms the Cartesian verdict of an unbridgeable chasm between animals and humans or the Darwinian panorama of evolutionary continuity, the question of animal mind is ever present and problematic in behavioral thought. Comparing the naturalist writings of Charles Darwin, Jean Henri Fabre, and George and Elizabeth Peckham to works of classical ethology by Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen and of contemporary sociobiology, Crist demonstrates how words matter. She does not attempt to defend any of these constructions as a faithful representation of animal existence, but to show how each internally coherent view molds the reader's understanding of animals. Rejecting the notion that i??a neutral instrument in the depiction of animals and, in particular, it is never impartial with respect to the question of animal mindi??'. Author note: Eileen Crist is Assistant Professor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A tension is built into the foundations of the pursuit of knowledge about animal life, for it is heir to both the cartesian verdict of an unbridgeable hiatus between humans and animals and the Darwinian affirmation of evolutionary continuity. The consequence of an intelletual and cultural heritage of opposed visions of the relationship between animals and humans is that the problematic of animal mind--whether affirmed or refuted, celebrated or doubted, qualified or sidestepped--is ever present, perhaps even the heart of the matter, in behavioral writings. Representations of animal life, whether intentionally or not, are always addressing what is for Western thought a most engrossing mystery--the contentious topic of animal mind or animal consciousness." --From the Introduction "From anthorpomorphism to zoomorphism, Crist analyzes the language used to portray animal behavior in the behavioral science literature: from Darwin's stance of evolutionary continuity to ethologist Samuel Barnett's disavowal of studying anything other than observable behavior in 'realities that are worlds apart.'" --Book News

From the Publisher

A fascinating exploration of the language we use for animal behavior. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 245 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (April 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156639788X
• ISBN-13: 978-1566397889
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,738,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful treatment of crucial social and scientificissues., December 7, 1998

By 

Michael Ross ([e-mail]) (Blacksburg, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Images Of Animals (Animals Culture And Society) (Hardcover)

I had the opportunity to read this book in manuscript form. Its treatment of the ethical and scientific diemensions of animal behavior is crucial for anyone wanting a better understanding of the values underlying contemporary culture generally, and of the practice and conceptualization of science in particular. Professor Crist's critical inquiry into "animal mind" is thought-provoking and timely in an era when homo sapiens are as "endangered" by unsustainable conceptualizations of "nature" as their more "wild" bretheren.