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SUMMARY:Domesticating the Victorian dog: a public life for a private anima
 l - Philip Howell (Department of Geography)
DTSTART:20111107T130000Z
DTEND:20111107T141500Z
UID:TALK33110@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Sophie Waring
DESCRIPTION:This paper follows work on the cultural geography of domestica
 tion in order to understand the place of the dog in Victorian Britain. Dom
 estication\, or\ninterspecies association\, has been one of the central th
 emes in natural and social science\, animated by arguments over evolution 
 and natural selection.\nRecent discussions in cultural geography (and also
  in animal studies) have complemented and challenged these traditional per
 spectives with a focus on the domestication of nonhuman animals in a range
  of societies including the modern West. Such arguments have considered do
 mestication in terms of multiple and sometimes contradictory acts of anima
 l enclosure\, 'making animal domestication a rich subject for inquiries in
 to the dynamics of power and possession\, at scales ranging from local to 
 global' (Anderson\,\n1998). This paper considers ways in which canis famil
 iaris was domesticated within Victorian culture\, ideally taken off the st
 reets and enclosed in\nfamily homes as pets. Such domestication may be con
 sidered in a number of registers\, ranging from the geographies of Darwini
 an science to those of\nreligious sentiment. At the same time\, however\, 
 emphasizing the proper place of the dog raised a series of questions about
  human society\, particularly about gender and class\; the process of disc
 iplining the dog revealed uncomfortable aspects of the disciplining and do
 mination of human beings. Like all discussions of domestication\, arguing 
 about the proper\nplace of the Victorian dog was thus also an argument abo
 ut what it meant to be human.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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