Regarding Animals (Animals, Culture and Society) [Paperback]

Arnold Arluke (Author), Clinton R. Sanders (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 14, 1996

What is it about Western society, ask the authors, that makes it possible for people to express great affection for animals as sentient creatures and simultaneously turn a blind eye to the most callous behavior toward them? Animals are sold as expensive commodities, used as food and clothing, killed as vermin, and hunted for sport. But they also are treated as members of the family, used as the cause celebre of social movements, and made the subject of art, film, and poetry. Such contradictions motivate these unique ethnographers to venture into social worlds most people know about only in passing, such as veterinary clinics where companion animals are cared for, animal shelters where dogs and cats are 'mercifully' euthanized, and primate labs where monkeys are kept for animal experimentation.Arluke and Sanders are not distanced ethnographers. They worked in the clinics, shelters, and laboratories, cleaning cages, assisting in surgery, and participating in "sacrificing" animals for science or helping to provide them with an 'easy death.' In this book, the people who work with these animals and live through them talk to the authors about the strategies they adopt to cope with the stress of the job. This fascinating book combines sociological analysis with ethnographic description to give us insight into the history and practice of how we as human beings construct animals, and by extrapolation, how we construct ourselves and others in relation to them.Arnold Arluke is Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University and a Research Associate at the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine. He is an Associate Editor of Society and Animals and the author of "The Making of Rehabilitation: A Political Economy of Medical Specialization" with Glenn Gritzer and "Gossip: The Inside Scoop with Jack Levin". Clinton R. Sanders, Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, is the author of "Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing" (Temple) and the co-editor (with Jeff Ferrell) of "Cultural Criminology".

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ethnographers Arluke and Sanders, both professors of sociology, pose the question, What does the contradictory way society treats animals say about the individuals in the society itself? The authors explore the conflicting attitudes of people who work in animal shelters and primate labs and, in the most interesting section of the book, investigate the contradictions between treatment of humans and treatment of animals by the Nazis during WWII. Humans simultaneously treat animals with great affection and abuse, thereby demonstrating how they create and dissolve boundaries between themselves and animals. It is clearly not the authors' objective to preach or judge, but rather to observe the socially constructed view of animals that ultimately sheds a brilliant light on the humans who are doing the constructing. We see how people compartmentalize themselves and differentiate themselves from animals to express power, control and superiority. Although revealing and thought-provoking anecdotes told to or witnessed by the ethnographers are mixed in with the dense sociological analysis, it seems unlikely that this study will reach beyond a college classroom and find its way into the hands of the average reader.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The ways in which we 'regard' animals have a great deal to do with the ways in which we regard ourselves and the social contexts in which we live, the authors suggest...Each of them has spent considerable time working in shelters, research laboratories, and other institutions where human-animal interactions take place...The book is packed with interesting facts and intriguing insight." --The Bloomsburg Review "It is clearly not the authors' objective to preach or judge, but rather to observe the socially constructed view of animals that ultimately sheds brilliant light on the humans who are doing the constructing." --Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Paperback: 218 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (June 14, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566394414
• ISBN-13: 978-1566394413
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #870,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars book review, December 2, 2000

By 

"mackall" (Lusby, MD) - See all my reviews

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

REGARDING ANIMALS, Arnold Arluke and Clinton Sanders, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996, 218pp.

Regarding Animals, by Arnold Arluke and Clinton Sanders, explores the special symbiosis that exists between human animals and non-human animals. Theirs is a sociological exploration navigated by their skills in ethnography that ventures them into cultural frontiers seldom seen and therefore left uncharted by sociological experts. For Arluke and Sanders, fieldwork took place wherever human-animal interaction was likely to occur, "the pet store, circus, riding stables, and countless other settings where animals play a part" (p. 19). This interaction united them with "exotic tribes" they identified as "pet owners, veterinarians, animal trainers, slaughterhouse workers, mounted policemen, and any other group that works with or cares for animals..." (p. 19). Arluke and Sanders attempt to record what was happening in these places and to articulate the meanings that animals have for people. Traditional sociological ethnography was the framework utilized for the authors' research. Their job as sociologists was to identify some of the social forces that are behind the inconsistent treatment of animals and to show how they work. Their ultimate goal was to convincingly argue the merits of sociological analysis in popular and scholarly discussions about animals in Western cultures. The purpose of Regarding Animals is to dissect how humans regard animals in modern Western societies.

The book's format divides its discourse into two sections. Part one, "The Human-Animal Tribe," discusses a myriad of issues ranging from studying the social construction of animals to understanding ethnography to recognizing the existence of the non-human animal "mind." Particularly striking was Arluke and Sanders' rhetoric on social constructs. They regard the social construction of animals to be the meanings that animals have for cultures, and, consequently, determine them to be dependent upon the variables of place and time. Then, after a discussion of the criticisms of ethnography, the authors move on to the animal "mind," which can only be described as a modern paradigm drama. Arluke and Sanders testify to the "mind's" existence, and consequently refute conventional positivistic assumptions by reasoning that the animal "mind" is capable of more than just capricious, instinctual thought response.

In the next section, Living with Contradiction, ethnography plays a key role. The authors infiltrate the world of animal shelter workers, animal trainers, primate labs, and the history of Nazi Germany. The chapter entitled The Sociozoologic Scale was particularly compelling. The scale ranks animals "according to how well they seem to `fit in' and play the roles they are expected to play in society" (p. 169). Arluke and Sanders deduce that society constructs good animals and bad animals. They discuss the latter as being characterized as freaks, vermin, and demons. Good animals, characterized as pets and tools, included minority groups that, according to the majority's perspective, seem to accept their subordinate role in society and are patronizingly treated like children. This same society has a tendency to treat pets and children very similarly. Therein, the authors infer that this is the reason why society finds it easy to dehumanize minorities like women, blacks, children, the elderly, and the mentally challenged to the status of animal when using descriptive language about them. The discussion on animals as valued tools was also very compelling. Here they recalled the infamous Tuskegee experiment where more than four hundred blacks were unknowingly infected with syphilis and subjected to forty years of suffering with no treatment. These people were dehumanized to the subhuman level of a tool or guinea pig.

The only fault of Regarding Animals lies in some of the excerpts used from interviews. The responses appear staged. And, although I am convinced that people would feel these things, I only question the lack of vernacular used by those respondents who talk about their pet.

Regarding Animals takes an informative yet critical look at society's relationship with animals. They expose the "constant paradox" (p. 4) defined as the consistent inconsistency of human's emotions toward animals, like advocating the vivisection of a dog as long as it was not their pet. Arluke and Sanders' fieldwork gives the reader access to places, like research laboratories and veterinary hospitals, that permit a broader understanding of our four legged friends that we worship and who sometimes worship us.

Subcultures like pet owners, veterinary personnel, and breeders have always had a greater perspective of the dynamics of human-animal symbiosis. It is only within the crucible of academe that the "mind," social influence, and the pragmatics of animals have been omitted from discussions. Arnold Arluke and Clinton Sanders are determined to increase our knowledge and question our values regarding animals. This book is an asset to anyone interested in deconstructing myths we have made that separate us from the wet nosed companion nestled by our feet.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Factual, interesting and informative - a gripping read., August 27, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (UK) - See all my reviews

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

An excellent book covering many aspects of our interaction with non-human animals. Packed with information, interesting examples and a wonderfully useful bibliography, I couldn't put it down. A real shame there's not more books like this, as a student of human-animal interaction I could have done with reading something as comprehensive as this years ago. I particularly liked the application of symbolic interactionist theory to this area of study.

2 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wowser Bowser!, February 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Regarding Animals (Animals, Culture and Society) (Paperback)

Golly gosh, this was the best book on animals I ever read. I immediately went out and bought a little parrot after reading it, who only says one thing: "I love jesus, I love jesus."