Revisiting and Reframing History as If Animals Matter

Source: Pixabay/Pexels

While nonhuman animals (animals) have played a large role in many aspects of human history, most traditional historical works either give them passing coverage or ignore them totally.¹ That is among the many reasons why I found a new book edited by Revd. Professor Andrew Linzey and Dr. Clair Linzey, Directors of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, titled Animal History – History as If Animals Mattered, to be of great interest. In this collection of 14 essays, academics reinstate nonhuman animals as proper historical subjects of historical inquiry. Dr. Jacob Brandler, one of the contributors to this book, took the time to answer a few questions about this unique collection.

Marc Bekoff: Why is Animal History – History as If Animals Mattered an important book?

Jacob Brandler: Animal History both builds upon and pioneers the rising momentum of animal history we’ve seen over the past few decades. Coming out the same year that the academic journal Animal History published its first issue, and fewer than 20 years since Harriet Ritvo described the “animal turn” in the humanities, Animal History calls upon over a decade of work to bring animal history to the fore. But it does so with an eye towards greater ethical compassion; it is not just animal history but history as if animals mattered.

MB: You have written a chapter titled “Do 'Animals' Have Histor(ies)? Can, Should Humans Know Them?: A Heuristic Reframing of Animal-Human Relationships." How does this relate to your background and general areas of interest?

JB: My research explores the transformation of humanity as a concept by racial scientists in the antebellum United States, how this reframing influenced its legal regime and social imagination. I approach this project as a historian, a discipline whose fluidity and connection to public affairs demand that it be self-aware, explaining its value to society. Why do we have history? How is it important? Why does knowing history matter? What happens if we only see a selective story of the past? Ruminating through these questions and the beingness of animal history becomes a means to think about the meaning and purpose of history itself.

MB: Who do you hope this book will reach?

JB: Animal History should be of interest to historians, theologians, animal advocates, scholars, and lawyers. But even more generally, Animal History matters to, and is written for, anyone thinking about who they are, where they come from, and what will be. A running theme throughout the book is how humans of many shapes and sizes engaged with their fellow cohabitants of Earth, with legacies that affect nearly every human being alive and unborn.

Source: Resource Publication/with permission.

MB: What are some of the topics you consider in this book?

JB: I particularly enjoy the sections that spotlight individuals and groups who disrupt the linear progress of history, the feeling that people of today are necessarily more ethical than their ancestors. Lauren Bestwick’s section, for example, introduces a seventeenth-century noblewoman named Margaret Cavendish who thought of animal suffering through the lens of her own discrimination because of her sex, challenging many hegemonic positions of her day, some of which still influence us when it comes to the instrumentalization of animals. This was centuries before the rise of modern feminism and animal rights movements. With these stories, Animal History not only has the bonus of bringing attention to lesser-known thinkers. But doing so reminds us that nothing is inevitable when it comes to human thinking about other animals. What seems natural and commonplace today has not always been, need not have come, and need not be going forward.

MB: Why do you think this is a topic that has been largely ignored until now?

JB: We are privileged to be living in a renaissance of sorts, with the mainstreaming of long-overlooked histories from the working class, women, queer folks, people of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, and those living beyond the Western paradigm, among others. Part of this is righting wrongs, the consequences of hard-fought battles for dignity and inclusion. But seeing these histories is intrinsically important. Recognizing them changes the entire picture, weaving stories together and adding greater nuances to the past and present. The same is true of nonhumans. But thinking about animals presents its own unique challenges. While many individuals and groups have been silenced in the study of history, the weakness of human ears means that they may never hear animal voices fully. Bringing in these necessary stories will require clever tools and humble and considerate historians. In this sense, Animal History serves as a clarion call to the field as it develops.

MB: What is the key takeaway message?

JB: Animal History offers both a timeless and timely message. For too long, at least in the West, animals have been erased as subjects and contributors to history. However, as Andrew and Clair Linzey observe in the book’s introduction, our fellow creatures have not only “a biology, but also a biography.” Even in our industrialized and often alienating world, animals surround and touch our daily lives. For those who engage in a carnist lifestyle, this includes their very flesh and bones. But even deeper, the psyche and state of being human are intricately linked through a reflection of nonhuman animals, what the philosopher Giorgio Agamben famously described as the “anthropological machine” that drives the West. At the same time, humans have and continue to impact, for good or bad, the history of other species, from companion animals to climate change. Given this entanglement, it seems that any historical picture that ignores the more-than-human world is woefully inadequate. After all, human history is just a bit of animal history.

MB: Are you hopeful that, as people learn more about this topic, they will treat other animals with more respect, dignity, and compassion? And if so, why is this important?

JB: Whether they need humans, humans will not be whole without recognizing the importance and, as this book stresses, the dignity of other animals. Taking this fact to heart, along with the mistakes of the past and the hopes of the future, invites a sense of humility that should generate greater compassion for all animals, humans included. The more humans appreciate history as if animals matter, the more likely they will, as they do.