Animal history is a field of study that examines the roles, experiences, and effects of animals in human history. It focuses on understanding the interactions between humans and animals over time and how these relationships affect societies, cultures, economies, and the environment.
In addition, many more recent studies have argued and demonstrated that animal history is important not only for understanding the role of animals in human history but also for viewing non-human animals as historical subjects independent of humans. This interdisciplinary approach combines elements of environmental history, social history, and animal studies, and can encompass topics such as:
Domestication and use of animals in agriculture and industry.
The roles of animals in cultural and religious practices.
The impact of animals on human health and disease.
Treatment and representation of animals in literature, art and media.
The evolution of human attitudes towards animals, including animal rights and welfare.
Why is Animal History Important/Necessary?
Knowing the history of animals will first of all make it possible to understand history more comprehensively and holistically. For example, animal history has made important contributions to our understanding of many different subjects such as agriculture, health, colonialism, domestication, modernity, and urbanization, more holistically, by showing that humans are not the only and sole actors in historical processes. Although addressing the transformations that humanity has experienced for thousands of years independently of the relationships established with animals has caused historical narratives to remain quite incomplete, animal history has the potential to shake the anthropocentric perspective to its core and change this by including both the experiences of animals and mutual human-animal interactions in historiography.
In addition, it enables a more equal and fair relationship to be established with animals by showing how our relationships with non-human animals have transformed over historical processes, how the human-animal oppositional relationship we have with non-human animals today has been historically produced, and alternative forms of relationship in the past. In this way, it also opens a door to understanding how humans define themselves and ourselves.
In short, studying the history of animals is important for several reasons, each of which contributes to a broader and more nuanced understanding of the past and present. More concretely, here are some examples:
Interconnectedness : Recognizing the interconnectedness between humans and animals allows us to see how these relationships have shaped cultures, economies, and environments throughout history.
Domestication and Use : Studying the domestication of animals and their various uses (e.g., as work animals, companions, food sources) helps us understand important aspects of human development and civilization.
Cultural Significance : Animals have played important roles in mythology, religion, and art. Exploring these roles enhances our understanding of cultural values and symbolic meanings in different societies.
Animal Rights and Welfare : Historical perspectives on the treatment of animals can inform contemporary debates about animal rights and welfare, providing a context for ethical considerations and policy making.
Challenging anthropocentrism : Studying animal history challenges anthropocentric views, encouraging a more balanced and respectful approach to all living things.
Human Impact on Nature: Studying how human activities affect animal populations and ecosystems helps us understand the broader environmental impacts of our actions, informing current conservation and sustainability efforts.
Ecosystem Roles: Understanding the historical roles of animals in ecosystems can provide insight into ecological processes and the importance of biodiversity.
Economic Roles: Animals have been an integral part of economies throughout history, from agriculture to trade. Understanding their roles can shed light on economic development and social change.
Social Structures: Human-animal relationships often reflect and influence social hierarchies and power dynamics. Examining these relationships can provide insight into social structures and norms.
Art and Literature: Animals have been prominent subjects in art and literature, representing a variety of human emotions, values, and ideologies. Examining these representations enhances our understanding of cultural expression.
In addition, animal history encourages the use of interdisciplinary methods by combining knowledge from history, archaeology, anthropology, biology, and environmental science. This encourages innovation in research approaches. By studying animals in history, scientists can discover new areas of research that would otherwise be overlooked, which can enrich the field of historical study. Therefore, it is possible to say that animal history has also contributed to the development of scientific research methods and different disciplines.
To sum up, studying animal history enriches our understanding of the past by highlighting the important roles animals have played in shaping human societies and environments. It encourages a more inclusive and interconnected view of history, promotes ethical considerations, and informs current issues in conservation and animal welfare. By integrating animals into historical narratives, we gain a deeper, more holistic understanding of our world.
What sources and methods does Animal History use?
Our anthropocentric perspective gives more importance to the impact of humans on their environment and their cognitive abilities than that of non-human animals, and creates an illusion that humans are more original and independent from other living things. However, non-human animals also have many different abilities that allow them to transform their environment and interact with other living things. Therefore, it should not be ignored that they have taken part in and left their mark on events, institutions, people, cultures and many other different historical processes, both through the changes they have brought about in the material world that we share in and through our mutual relations that have lasted for thousands of years.
Writing history from the perspective of animals involves creative and interdisciplinary methodologies, as they do not leave written records. Although animals do not leave written records, a combination of archaeological, environmental, historical and scientific evidence allows historians to bring together their experiences and influences. In this sense, it is necessary to think of animal history in parallel with the inclusion of previously ignored subjects such as women, workers and peasants in historiography, especially since the 1960s, and the development of a more inclusive direction. Writing the history of these subjects often requires creative use of sources not directly produced by them and the ability to ask new questions of traditional sources (archival documents, numerical data, etc.). A similar situation applies to non-human animals.
By using interdisciplinary methods and theoretical frameworks, it is possible to write a more inclusive history that acknowledges the agency and importance of animals. Historians must rely on a variety of circumstantial evidence and analytical techniques to reconstruct the experiences and impacts of animals. Some examples of sources that make animal historiography possible include:
Primary Historical Documents : Written records such as diaries, letters, government documents, agricultural manuals, veterinary texts, and legal records that provide direct evidence of human-animal interactions.
Archaeological Evidence : Artifacts, animal remains (bones, teeth, etc.), and other physical evidence from archaeological sites that reveal how past societies used and perceived animals.
Art and Literature : Paintings, sculptures, literature and other forms of art that depict animals and their roles in society, providing insight into cultural attitudes and symbolic meanings.
Oral Histories : Narratives and stories from indigenous and local communities that offer perspectives on animals and human-animal interactions not found in written records.
Environmental Data : Ecological and environmental records such as pollen analysis, climate data, and animal population studies that help reconstruct historical environments and animal habitats.
Scientific Studies : Research from fields such as zoology, genetics, and ethology that provides information that can contribute to historical interpretations of animal behavior, evolution, and biology.
By combining these diverse sources and methods, animal historians aim to create a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of how animals have shaped human history and how they have shaped historical processes. To do this, they adopt a multidisciplinary approach that draws on a variety of methodologies and analytical techniques from history, anthropology, archaeology, ecology and other fields. Some of their key methods can be summarized as follows:
Interdisciplinary Approach : Combining methods from history, archaeology, anthropology, biology, and other disciplines to understand the complex interactions between humans and animals.
Contextual Analysis : Placing animal-related events and phenomena within larger historical, social, and environmental contexts to understand their significance.
Comparative Studies : Comparing different cultures, time periods, and regions to identify patterns and differences in human-animal interactions.
Critical Analysis : Examining how historical narratives portray animals and questioning anthropocentric biases in historical sources.
Ethnohistory : The study of indigenous and local knowledge about animals, often combining oral histories and traditional ecological knowledge.
Animal Studies and Posthumanism : Engaging with theoretical frameworks from animal studies and posthumanism can help historians conceptualize animals as active participants in history rather than passive subjects.
All of these actually involve questioning and criticizing the anthropocentric perception that underlies source and archive discussions. Based on the fact that historical subjectivity and experiences are not specific to humans, the re-evaluation of existing resources and the production of new resources through both new technologies and new methods allow the experiences of non-human animals to come to the center of historical narratives.
What are the “questions” of animal history?
The possibilities for the innovations and developments mentioned above are directly related to the questions that animal history centers on. Some examples of these questions are:
How and why were some animals domesticated?
What roles did they play in agriculture, transportation, industry, and friendship?
How are animals depicted in myths, religions and cultural practices?
What are the symbolic meanings that different cultures attribute to various animals?
What economic roles have animals played throughout history?
How did they contribute to trade, labor, and livelihood?
How did animals affect their ecosystems and how were they affected by them?
What role did they play in shaping the environment?
How have human activities such as hunting, farming and urbanization affected animal populations and biodiversity?
How did animals fit into social hierarchies and power dynamics, and what roles did they play in social and political movements?
How has an anthropocentric perspective shaped historical narratives and understandings of animals?
How can we construct histories that view animals as agents?
Animal history is not limited to these questions, and many new ones are added every day, expanding the current boundaries of historiography .
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