Writing Animal-Human History
Advert for exhibition outside National Army Museum, London, November 2011
In this article I explore some of the challenges for historians attempting to write animal- human history. I discuss some of the recent debates in Animal Studies particularly approaches to agency, representation and the materials for writing history.
I consider the example of Trim, the cat who navigated part of Australia with Matthew Flinders, to analyse the extent to which the account of his life can be dismissed as ‘only’ a human representation. I suggest we can find ‘feline traces’ within the material. I also analyse a recent interesting exhibition at the National Army Museum on horses in war (arising from the release of the Spielberg film War Horse).
Please click on the title to read a PDF for personal use challenges for historians writing animal human history .
Anthrozoos vol 25: supplement ‘Issues in Anthrozoology’, pp. s57 -s72
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