Thinking with Animals

Essays in the book investigate the changing patterns of anthropomorphism across different time periods and settings, as well as their transformative effects, both figuratively and literally, upon animals, humans, and their interactions. Examining how anthropomorphic thinking "works" in a range of different contexts, contributors reveal the ways in which anthropomorphism turns out to be remarkably useful: it can promote good health and spirits, enlist support in political causes, sell products across boundaries of culture of and nationality, crystallize and strengthen social values, and hold up a philosophical mirror to the human predicament.
Contents Preface Introduction. The How and Why of Thinking with Animals, by Lorraine Daston and Gregg Mitman 1. Zoomorphism in Ancient India: Humans More Bestial Than the Beasts, by Wendy Doniger 2. Intelligences: Angelic, Animal, Human, by Lorraine Daston 3. The Experimental Animal in Victorian Britain, by Paul S. White 4. Comparative Psychology Meets Evolutionary Biology: Morgan´s Canon and Cladistic Parsimony, by Elliott Sober 5. Anthropomorphism and Cross-Species Modeling, by Sandra D. Mitchell 6. People in Disguise: Anthropomorphism and the Human-Pet Relationship, by James A. Serpell 7. Digital Beasts as Visual Esperanto: Getty Images and the Colonization of Sight, by Cheryce Kramer 8. Pachyderm Personalities: The Media of Science, Politics, and Conservation, by Gregg Mitman 9. Reflections on Anthropomorphism in The Disenchanted Forest, by Sarita Siegel