This slender edited volume contains 19 chapters, mostly written by anthropologists, and an introduction by the editors. Although it is published by a scholarly press and its contributors are serious researchers, Living with Animals follows a somewhat experimental, more intimate approach to considering human-animal relationships. Because it is relatively free of jargon, or even of analysis, it is accessible to average readers who have an abiding interest in the complexities of our relations with the furry and the four-footed. The book discusses some less than warm-and-cozy topics however; sections consider, for example, the millions of animals who are made into industrial commodities (food, especially) and into the subjects of scientific experiments.
But there is some warm-and-cozy here. I think I cried about 19 times while I read this book and for many different reasons. Searching for recent writing on dogs, I was especially moved by Yasmine Musharbash’s discussion of human-dog relationships among the Walpiri, an aboriginal people of Australia. Although people attach to camp dogs and vice versa, the Walpiri do not train their dogs as this interferes with their right to autonomy. I found enormous charm in the Musharbash’s discussion of the way that Walpiri folks talk about dogs: they often “provide a running commentary on what the dogs are up to right here right now (and each pack is a soap opera in itself). They reminisce nostalgically about dogs who have passed on, including their own dogs, their parents’ dogs, or even their grand parents’ dogs—memories of dogs reach far into the past.” (p. 18). If you’ve ever enjoyed hearing a parent talk about the exploits of a dog who lived and died decades before you were born, you will immediately recognize that while these relationships are shaped by specific cultures and historical moments, there is nonetheless an abiding attachment to canines, and a respect for their personhood, that transcends time and place. Can it be that this has only been going on for 15,000 years?
Because I share my life with cats, I was riveted to Alex Nading’s chapter about his evolving relationship with Floyd, a stray kitten he encountered during ethnographic fieldwork in Nicaragua. Nading approached his fieldwork experience with no small amount of discipline and aloofness, as something more like lonely tedium than adventure. When the tiny kitten comes into his life, he resists attachment. Yet he reads about the needs of unweaned kittens online, feeds Floyd, bathes him, and allows him to sleep on the bed. We all know that the rest, as they say, is history. But this is a dramatic history. One day Floyd has a terrible run-in with Killer, the neighborhood pit bull mix. I was so anxious I had to skip ahead to discover the outcome and then go back and read it slowly. I won’t say how it ends, or if it ends—read it for yourself. The essay is a little masterpiece on cross-species attachment and will exercise the heartstrings of many readers.
There is much else to savor or wonder at in this little collection, including three additional chapters on dogs, the first species to domesticate humans. There is an article on how stud horses are brought to orgasm, in case you ever wondered. (I have, haven’t you?) There are articles on our cousins, the chimpanzees and gorillas, on spotted hyenas, on cattle, on birds and birdwatchers, on oysters, pigs, ferrets, mice, and leeches. (Not all furry and four-footed after all.) Although it doesn’t pretend to be any sort of theoretical tour de force, the book does show, rather than simply tell, how it is true that, as the editors put it, “being with animals is a condition of our humanity” (p. 10). Although many of us feel this inherent “biophilia” in our bones, it is a profound insight that science is coming to only gradually and belatedly. This book expands the boundaries of anthropology both in considering non-human species and our shared coexistence with them, and in pursuing styles of writing that speak more to the heart than to the dry conventions of academese. Aside from specialists in human-animal studies, this is a great book for animal lovers, for those who work with animals in various capacities, and cross-over readers who like to dip into the lives of researchers but would prefer to skip the jargon and the theoretical debates. It deserves a wide readership.
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