Regarding Animals

by Arnold Arluke, Clinton Sanders, Leslie Irvine

Overview

Winner of the Charles Horton Cooley Award, Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, 1997

The first edition of Regarding Animals provided insight into the history and practice of how human beings construct animals, and how we construct ourselves and others in relation to them. Considerable progress in how society regards animals has occurred since that time. However, shelters continue to euthanize companion animals, extinction rates climb, and wildlife "management" pits human interests against those of animals.

This revised and updated edition of Regarding Animals includes four new chapters, examining how relationships with pets help homeless people to construct positive personal identities; how adolescents who engage in or witness animal abuse understand their acts; how veterinary technicians experience both satisfaction and contamination in their jobs; and how animals are represented in mass media--both traditional editorial media and social media platforms.

The authors illustrate how modern society makes it possible for people to shower animals with affection and yet also to abuse or kill them. Although no culture or subculture provides solutions for resolving all moral contradictions, Regarding Animals illuminates how people find ways to live with inconsistent behavior.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439923108
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2022
Series:	Animals Culture And Society
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Arnold Arluke is a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Emeritus at Northeastern University and a Senior Scholar at the Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine. His books include Underdogs: Pets, People and Poverty (with Andrew Rowan), Just a Dog: Understanding Animal Cruelty and Ourselves (Temple), and Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905-1935 (with Robert Bogdan).

Clinton R. Sanders is a Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and the author of Understanding Dogs: Living and Working with Canine Companions, Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing (both Temple) and the co-editor (with Jeff Ferrell) of Cultural Criminology.

Leslie Irvine is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Animals and Society Certificate Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her books include If You Tame Me: Understanding Our Connection with Animals and Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters (both Temple).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Bringing Animals to the Center

Part I: The Human-Animal Tribe
1. The Human Point of View
2. Learning from Animals

Part II: Living with Contradiction
3. Speaking for Dogs
4. The Institutional Self of Shelter Workers
5. Systems of Meaning in Primate Las
6. Boundary Work in Nazi German
7. The Sociozoologic Scale

Conclusion: Paradox and Change
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

James Serpell

With their skillful use of the 'participant observer' method, Arluke and Sanders bring a unique perspective to our understanding of human-animal interactions. If you are one of those who think that people's relationships with animals are relatively straight-forward or uninteresting, read this book and think again!
— (James Serpell, Ph.D., Marie A. Moore Associate Professor of Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare, University of Pennsylvania, author of In the Company of Animals)

Editorial Reviews

"With the incredible development of human-animal studies since 1996, a second edition [of this book] was not only needed but welcome. The overall approach of the authors is appealing due to its thorough and skillful application of symbolic interactionism and its associated methods of empirical investigation to help us understand other animals and our relationships with them, and, in that process, understand ourselves."--Journal of Animal Ethics

"[The] authors broaden their approach to animal studies (sometimes called anthrozoology) by including updated references, in addition to adding chapters not present in their earlier book.... Among the topics discussed: how pet ownership contributes to positive self-identity; the experience of veterinary technicians; and how animal stories 'sell newspapers.'... [T]he editors have admirably extended its range of perspectives to include philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and law. The book sheds light on the perennial paradox of what makes it possible for humans to 'shower animals with affection' but also to maltreat or kill them.... This updated work cites an outstanding range of book and journal references, demonstrating the depth of this newly burgeoning field of study.... Summing Up: Highly recommended."--Choice

From the Publisher

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. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly