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ANIMAL GEOGRAPHIES Part 1: conceptualising animal geographies From zoogeography to ‘new’ Bio-geographies  Four waves: zoogeography, cultural animal geography, new animal geography & new bio geographies & more than human Zoogeography  Late 19th/20th C  Animal geog emerged 1913  Interest in spatial distribution of animals in response to Darwin’s theory of evolution  Eco zones based on Wallace’s notion of distribution by regions  Early ecological consciousness of Wallace: deforestation, soil erosion, invasive species (human impact)  Aimed to establish general laws of how animal arrange themselves = co variation  Lots of taxidermy & dead animals to be studied  29m animals in Natural History museum  Critique: treated animals as separate to humans, human influence only occasionally assesse, humans introduced as unwanted/alien = animals cast as purely natural objects Cultural animal geography  Mid 20th C  Takes into account human animal interaction  How animals exert influence on animal numbers & distribution  Animals responding to domestication  Role of animals in determining character of human geography: disease, crops etc.  Sauer documented role of animal domestication in conversion of natural landscapes  Resistance to a simplistic economic explanation of society-animal relations  Critique: stress on numbers & distributions echoed zoogeography’s over reliance on quantitative mappings  Opened up a conceptual space for thinking through human-animal relations New animal geography  Revived interest in 90’s inspired by rethinking vulture, nature & subjectivity  Argue for animal subjectivity & need to unpack the black box of nature to enliven understandings of the world  Focus on animal’s role in social constructions of nature, culture & individual human subjects and the nature of animal subjectivity & agency  The human annual divide & how this line shifts over time & place  Links between animals & human identities, ways ideas & representations of animal shape personal & collective identity  Challenging the othering of animals  Investigating animals are represented & define as other in our cultural spacing’s & placings  Discourses that create & enforce spacing-placing  Wilderness seeping into non-wild regions like cities or tigers in Roman gladiators  Spaces of conservation, cosmopolitan environmentalism (Lorimer, 2007,8,10)  Used animals & co-constructions of spaces/places to challenge essentialist & dualist views of nature & culture, wild & domesticated, human & animal  Anderson (1995) 1

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Critique: using animals to deconstruct human identities & practices (all about humans), animals as agent provocateurs for thinking by & about ourselves  symbolic/conceptual metaphors, call to take the non-human more seriously, hearing the cry no merely its cultural & anthropomorphised interpretation (ontological/epistemological) New bio-geographies & more than human geographies  Different from the plant & animal geographies associated with zoogeographical project  Attuned to circumstances & anxieties of today’s world  characterised by irreversible socialisation of bio-physical world  Use of modern technology, influence of bio-technologies & bodies to city scale  Recognition that animals have their own meaning apart from humans  1. Need to recognise the impacts, purposefulness & agency of animals both on our co-habited worlds & in resistance to them  2. Destabilise accepted dualistic approaches  3. Need to create more radical politics to accommodate Philo & Wolch (1998)  Study shows how human interactions are altered by presence of aggressive dogs  Change in environment based on presence of dog e.g. unsafe places feel safe with dangerous dog of your own  Zoogeography: animal geography about distribution  Animal geography known as one of the systematic subfields of the discipline  Zoogeography o Why & wherefore of animal distribution (1949) o Concerned with small, local questions & continental scale o Based on conventional scientific research methods/models o Related mostly to zoology o Not geographers by nature o Natural scientific bent of this zoogeographical version of animal geography conspired to leave it saying little about animal interactions with human society o Became embedded with scientific physical geography about natural correlations/causations o Some did look at relations with humans with regard to conflict, competition, domestication etc. o Consideration given to society-animal relations is patchy o Human dimension introduced as alien & unwanted o Animals regarded as a detached scientific eye  utterly unlike humans  Cultural animal geography o Zoogeography considered too remote from human geography problems by 60’s o Desire for accumulating/analysing/systematising data relevant to interaction of animals with human culture o How humans exert influence on animal numbers & distribution o How animals respond to domestication, subsistence, fire, war & travel o How animals influence dimensions of human life 2

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o Joined with Sauer’s idea of cultural landscape o Recognition of non-economic roles of animals in human relations o Contemplation of an enlarged cultural realism in which animals are more than resources = significant o Opened the way for the utilisation of animals by human society to be scrutinised as something other than natural or problematic o Recent revival in interest: where people & animals coexist in sites & social interaction between people & nonhuman o Exclusion of some animals embedded within inherently unequal & paternalistic power relations o Symbolic nature between encounter: animals become coded as dirty thus feeding impulse to be excluded from human society o A new cultural animal geography emerged & is marked by animal-human relations  Space, distribution & location o Spatial relations in terms of proximity/distance (physical/human geography) o Spatial relations between self & other, or us & them, have been seen as integral to how personal identities are built up in mirror image to the oftennegative projections of attributed placed on others o Animal geographers incorporate special notions in maps o Importance of spatial relations between people & animals in the case of in/exclusion o Consign animals identified as wild to wilderness beyond human civilisation, boundary = out of place & also welcoming of animals seen as domestic into home o Both metaphoric & material conceptions of space to illuminate human-animal relations o Wolch (1996) suggests cities, which exclude so many animals from their midst, promote a profound emotion distanciation between people & animals that underlie routine practices of extermination & habitat destruction  Place, religion & landscape o Place captures the situated, material dimensions of space o Not relative (like space) but absolute o Growth of spatial science in 60’s/70’s, receding of place as pre-scientific o Zoogeographers look in detail at the associations of particular animal species found in particular places o Cultural animal geographers also considered place: environmental, economic, political etc. underlie place-specific society-animal relations o Cultural-animal geographers considered how small-scale places shape emotional bond between people & animals  The present special theme issue o Multiple spatial scale, several theoretical lenses, varying emphasis on animals as active subjects, elements of nature & cultural symbols o Domestication situated within European political discourse about uniqueness Buller (2013)

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Call for new animal geography to go beyond animals as signifiers of human endeavour & meaning  Critical task of new animal geography was to explore the complex nexus of spatial relations between people & animals o Acknowledges agency of animals & its construction differentially in time & place  New cross-disciplinary engagement  Berger (1980): animals entered relations as metaphors  Initial emergence of the figure of the animal mostly metaphoric  Role of animals in the social construction of culture & individual human subjects  Ways in which ideas & representations of animals shape personal &b collective identity  First manifestations of contemporary/critical animal geography drew upon cultural geography in offering an appreciation of the manner in which animals as exemplars of nature have been incorporated, represented & defined as other presences & bearers of meaning within our own cultural spacing & placing & in the discourse that reinforce these  Inherently geographical notion of the animal as out of place or improper, occupying in between space  Emergence of subfield in human-animal relations in opposition to accepted dualisms  New animal geographies draw heavily on topical literatures & schools of thought deployed within human geography today  Thereby animals offer, through multiple relations, a set of destabilising tropes for both the conceptual, practiced & ethical engagement  Moving from the animal as conceptual device from which to interrogate the human through animals as figures in our cultural space, we arrive at a more intimate experience set of lived & dealt encounters with actual critters  Seen now as its more innovative  relationally intertwined knowledge of animals & humans Bennett (196) Cansdale (1949) Spencer & Whatmore (2001)

Representation: why look at animals? The animal Turn  Study of animals throughout history (Peters et al. 2014), beings worthy of study in their own right, not only in relation to humans  Impacted widely across social sciences & humanities  Increasingly geographers  Requires reconfiguring of the discipline’s ontological & epistemological reach  Challenge that the animal brings to the exclusivity of geography’s adjective humanism Why look at animals?  Derrida discusses what he thinks of cat & cat thinks of hum  The experience of the animal & their response accounted for  Animals as not just another item to be included in our own view  distinctive 4

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Wittgenstein, if a lion could talk we could not understand it  language as shared experience between humans that differs to animals  Unsettling our through of where belong Aillaud (1971)  Image illustrates alienating nature of the zoo: antiseptic & anonymous technology Lancombe (2012)  Unnatural habitat of zoos in photography series Blackfish: animal as spectacle bt also has agency Critique: O’Bren (2012), animals are the only relationship late capitalism affords us Critique of Berger  Looking becomes matter of objectification = animal rendered passive  Emphasis on representational & metaphorical aspects of human-animal relations  Human & animal lives are still intimately intertwined in many ways  Ignores multi-sensory, embodied aspects of zoo experiences  Zoos have their own history Representation: the zoo animal  Menageries: passion for collecting  Zoological gardens: spaces for control & classification  Assryrian transport cage for lions 650 BC e.g. Greeks sued for sport, chase etc.  Menagerie at tower of London until 1832, Bear pit of Berne, Switzerland  Menageries gained popularity during Renaissance, demonstrate wealth/power  Development of menageries o Emergence of cabinets of curiosity & increasing interest in naturalia made available by expanding trade routes o Sight of exotic animals becoming increasingly common in public sphere o Travelling menageries, first appeared England 1700 = sensation & entertainment  Zoologoical gardens: Paris o Foundation of menagerie next to natural history museum Paris, following French revolution o Animals from Versailles transferred o First of a new type intended to serve entire nations o Influence for foundation of zoos = significant catalyst o Animal collection recognised as belonging to science = credibility to pursuit of zoology based on enlightenment principles  Zoological gardens: London o Zoo 1828 regents park o As an embodiment of the Linnaean classification system = order of the animal kingdom out of perceived chaos o Opened up to the public 1847 = largest collection of captive animals in the world o Bristol as first provincial zoo  Nineteenth century zoos o Closely tied to colonialism & imperialism, reflecting political attempts to dominate foreign lands & nature itself o An indispensable tool in the confirmation or maintenance of a city’s status (Baratay & Hardouin-Fugier, 2003) 5

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o Growing leisure class & civilisation Zoo, animal & nature  Zoo functions as a cultural showcase of animals & nature  Design is a consequence of human interpretations of the way in which the natural world should be perceived & presented  Anderson, 1995 Zoo development  Ideas of commuting with nature  Both idea of public education & childhood developed during 19th C  Nature & wildlife shows at cinema = sense of intimacy with animals prompted desire to get rid of cages & improve conditions Spaces of enclosure  Evolution of design: cages, romantic panoramas, modernist masterpiece, habitat recreation (but what of invisible geographies Braverman, 2011)  Education aspect of zoos, entertainment aspect & stress of consumption (like fb, adopt, spend money) but also conservation by zoo in mission statements  Needs to be a worthier cause behind looking at animals, but are they just being held captive for amusement? Animals & affective encounter  An affective connection with animals increases education & conservation as form a relationship (Rousseau) Beyond representation  Berger’s text raising questions about seeing animals in symbolic forms  But where does symbolism leave reality  Davies (2000): the physical presence of animals at the zoo can be disturbing, threatening, appealing or amusing but it is usually challenging Animality & affective registers  Call for emphasis on embodied encounters with animals  Embodied practices of human-animal relations conducted through relations affective registers  Need new conceptual methodological approaches into study  Need to pay attention to o Situated narratives, materiality’s, relationalities o Intimate, everyday encounters through processes etc. o Ethical dimensions of relational wellbeing, environ sustainability & welfare Berger (1980)  Critique of marginalisation of animals in capitalism  Argues: notion that the animal (as an embodied creature) has disappeared, becoming increasingly physically & culturally marginalised through developments of industrialisation/modern capitalism, previously were intertwined  Historical trajectory of the disappearance of animals  Theoretical break led by Descartes (mind/body dualisms etc.)  Humans & animals are increasingly alienated from each other in modernity  Proliferation of pets, disneyfication of animals = spectacle  Nowhere is marginalisation more apparent than at the zoo  Traditions that mediated between man & nature have been broken over 19th/20th C due to capitalism 6

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Animals previously at centre of world: economic/productive Animals first entered as messengers/promises not leather/food  seen as magical/tameable Animal can also surprise men even if domesticated Lack of common language ensures exclusion of animal from man Belief in after death becoming closer to animals = lacking of man to talk to animals Mortal & immortal, belonging here & there = importance, similar to humans but superior = subjected & worshipped, bred & sacrificed = dualism Love our animals but enjoy commodifying/sacrifice them Roussaeu: use of diversity for conceptual support of social difference Animals used in metaphor, to offer explanation = mysterious essence Qualities in animals considered human Anthropomorphism integral to human-animal relationship until 19th C o Reduced use of animal metaphor & expression of proximity o Since disappeared in last 2 centuries & today we love without them, with them making us uneasy Theoretical break came from Descartes who created dualism dividing body from soul, animals declared soulless & reduced to machine Humans portray animals as enjoying a kind of innocence as animal is emptied of experience & secrets Qualities of animals erased, only capacities retained Nostalgia to animals as an 18th C invention Displacement of animals as a result of economic development/urbanisation Reduction of animals as both theoretical & economic  seen as mechanical Social conditioning first established with animal experiments Domestication of animals leads to pets becoming sterilised, sexually isolated Value of pet to owner, as completing them, special bond  but autonomy of both parties is lost so parallelism of separate lives destroyed Pets transformed into human puppets Technology allows us to now see normal invisibility of some animals Ideologically: animals as the observed, knowledge of them is an index of our power Nature is also a value concept 19th romanticism of animals shown them receding into wildness of our imagination represented their impending disappearance New media, paintings, movies as animals living like humans represents their imprisonment like men Zoos brought prestige to cities = wealth & power Surrounded by animal imagery in industrialised world changed from symbolic to realistic Zoos similar to art galleries  looking at something rendered absolutely marginal, & all concentration/focus given to it will never be enough to centralise it Décor in animal cages = theatre props, but environment to physically exist for the animal Animal events change as become dependent on keeper & with no interaction o Isolation facilitates longevity & facilitation of taxidermy Marginal = space, fake light, illusory of environment, nothing to act upon, isolation Zoos represent animals rendered marginal

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 Realistic toys increased demand for the new animal puppet: pet  Production of animal images forced them to be viewed as exotic/remote  In zoos animals constitute the living monument to their own disappearance Braverman (2011)  Zoogeography & immersion design used to enable visitors to see animals in natural habitat  Contrast animals caged in artificial settings behind public gaze  Gift shops etc. within the zoo relay messages which translate the zoo’s vision of nature conservation into consumption  Holding areas of zoos as from spotlight, cared for by humans & surrounded by human artefacts  Exhibit space likened to a front of stage  Animals as passive actors &viewers as active  Invisibility of zoos holding both enables & supports the zoo’s visible counterparts = conspicuous  Heightened vision (panopticon) is a tool for disciplining zoo-goers into conservation etiquette  Zoo animals stand in for wild animals in a call for the help of humans  The zoo: a brief history  Zoos as representing triumph of modern humans over nature  City as a human zoo, so a zoo is the reproduction of the city  Zoo as an Eden, oasis, get away from urban  authenticity/purity of nature  Zoo provides a vicarious journey into a distant & exotic nature faraway  Zoogeography (distribution by geography) manifests in continent ordering of zoos  Vision to render the whole world as represented in assemblages of animals & habitats subordinate to control of spectator  Immersion design created illusion  New zoo-goers can be considered passive/active participants in the creation of the theatrical act  Sound also immersive act, less significant than sight  Since the eye cannot distinguish between authentic from artificial, the boundary between are eroded  Immersion, but would never forget actually in the middle of a city = “middle landscape” a machine in the garden  Beauty of nature, reconstructed in even more beauty  Human designs of sanitation, pipes etc. reinforce existence of wilderness as somewhere  Animals can neither be hunt nor prey in exhibits  Most dangerous predator...