Book Recommendations, Reviews and Author Interviews from All-Creatures.org



The Tame and The Wild: People and Animals After 1492 By Dr. Marcy Norton

PUBLISHER: Harvard University Press

Author interviewed by Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today / Animal Emotions



tame and wild
The Tame and The Wild
Available at Harvard University Press
ISBN 9780674737525

Marc Bekoff's Interview: How Animals Reshaped Cultures on Both Sides of the Atlantic

Dr. Marcy Norton's new book about humans and animals after 1492 is a must read.

  • When Indigenous people encountered the European practice of animal husbandry, they were disgusted.
  • The idea of eating another being whom one had fed—the essence of livestock husbandry—was abhorrent.
  • This book explores what cultural conditions foster or hinder our abilities to recognize animal subjectivity.

Marc Bekoff: I'm very interested in human-animal relationships (anthrozoology) and always want to learn more about the history and roots of these sorts of relationships.1 That's the very reason I was so glad to learn of Dr. Marcy Norton's new book The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals After 1492 on the history of human-animal relationships, which places wildlife and livestock at the center of the story and shows how different views of animals reshaped people on both sides of the Atlantic. I'm thrilled Marcy could answer a few questions about her must-read revision of humans, animals, and cultural change.

Why did you write The Tame and the Wild?

Marcy Norton: I am baffled by this paradox: On the one hand, we know that animals suffer more than at any point in history. Consider the billions (!) of animals who suffer in confinement and then are slaughtered for human overconsumption, and the others who die because of climate change, water pollution, deforestation, etc. And, yet, on the other hand, so many of us have pets whom we adore, and there is an ever-growing appetite to learn about scientific research (such as your own!) demonstrating the amazing capacities of nonhuman animals. So, as a historian, I wanted to understand how we got here.

Please read the ENTIRE INTERVIEW HERE, including responses to:

  • Why did you write The Tame and the Wild?
  • What are some of the major topics you consider?
  • So are you saying they kept pets?
  • Can you talk more about how you explore animal subjectivity?
  • Are you hopeful that as people learn more about the history of human-animal relationships they will treat other animals with more respect and decency?

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