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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Animals & society > General
If we want to improve the treatment of animals, Dominique Lestel
argues, we must acknowledge our evolutionary impulse to eat them
and we must expand our worldview to see how others consume meat
ethically and sustainably. The position of vegans and vegetarians
is unrealistic and exclusionary. Eat This Book calls at once for a
renewed and vigorous defense of animal rights and a more open
approach to meat eating that turns us into responsible carnivores.
Lestel skillfully synthesizes Western philosophical views on the
moral status of animals and holistic cosmologies that recognize
human-animal reciprocity. He shows that the carnivore's position is
more coherently ethical than vegetarianism, which isolates humans
from the world by treating cruelty, violence, and conflicting
interests as phenomena outside of life. Describing how meat eaters
assume completely-which is to say, metabolically-their animal
status, Lestel opens our eyes to the vital relation between
carnivores and animals and carnivores' genuine appreciation of
animals' life-sustaining flesh. He vehemently condemns factory
farming and the terrible footprint of industrial meat eating. His
goal is to recreate a kinship between humans and animals that
reminds us of what it means to be tied to the world.
A moose frustrates commuters by wandering onto the highway; a
cougar stalks his prey through suburban backyards; an alligator
suns himself in a strip mall parking lot. Such stories, which
regularly make headline news, highlight the blurred divide that now
exists between civilization and wilderness.
In "Coyote at the Kitchen Door," Stephen DeStefano draws on
decades of experience as a biologist and conservationist to examine
the interplay between urban sprawl and wayward wildlife. As he
explores what our insatiable appetite for real estate means for the
health and wellbeing of animals and ourselves, he highlights
growing concerns, such as the loss of darkness at night because of
light pollution. DeStefano writes movingly about the contrasts
between constructed and natural environments and about the
sometimes cherished, sometimes feared place that nature holds in
our modern lives, as we cluster into cities yet show an increasing
interest in the natural world.
Woven throughout the book is the story of one of the most
successful species in North America: the coyote. Once restricted to
the prairies of the West, this adaptable animal now inhabits most
of North America urban and wild alike. DeStefano traces a female
coyote s movements along a winding path between landscapes in which
her species learned to survive and flourish. "Coyote at the Kitchen
Door" asks us to rethink the meaning of progress and create a new
suburban wildlife ethic.
In "What Animals Teach Us about Politics," Brian Massumi takes up
the question of "the animal." By treating the human as animal, he
develops a concept of an animal politics. His is not a human
politics of the animal, but an integrally animal politics, freed
from connotations of the "primitive" state of nature and the
accompanying presuppositions about instinct permeating modern
thought. Massumi integrates notions marginalized by the dominant
currents in evolutionary biology, animal behavior, and
philosophy--notions such as play, sympathy, and creativity--into
the concept of nature. As he does so, his inquiry necessarily
expands, encompassing not only animal behavior but also animal
thought and its distance from, or proximity to, those capacities
over which human animals claim a monopoly: language and reflexive
consciousness. For Massumi, humans and animals exist on a
continuum. Understanding that continuum, while accounting for
difference, requires a new logic of "mutual inclusion." Massumi
finds the conceptual resources for this logic in the work of
thinkers including Gregory Bateson, Henri Bergson, Gilbert
Simondon, and Raymond Ruyer. This concise book intervenes in
Deleuze studies, posthumanism, and animal studies, as well as areas
of study as wide-ranging as affect theory, aesthetics, embodied
cognition, political theory, process philosophy, the theory of
play, and the thought of Alfred North Whitehead.
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Leopard
(Paperback)
Desmond Morris
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R436
R355
Discovery Miles 3 550
Save R81 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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The sleek, spotted leopard may be the smallest of the big cats, but
its ferocity and solitary style makes lions and tigers seem puny in
comparison. Lacking the social mentality of other animals, the
leopard is stealthy and selfish, ambushing its prey and carrying it
high into a tree where it can dine alone. Humans call leopards the
"perfect predator." In "Leopard," renowned zoologist Desmond Morris
seeks to show all sides of the cat, delving into the fascinating
history of these incredible animals.
Morris examines the leopard's athletic elegance, predatory skill,
wary shyness, and cunning intelligence while also exploring the
animal's parental devotion, preference for solitude, and capacity
for revenge. In addition to tracing the evolution of leopards, he
considers how humans have related to the animal throughout history.
Leopards, he shows, have long featured in the art, mythology, and
folklore of ancient Greece, Persia, Rome, and even England, where
they have not lived for several millennia. But humans and leopards
do not always coexist peacefully; as Morris explains, leopards have
been known to attack humans when their food is scarce or they are
injured. He reveals how humans have exploited the cats, attempting
to train them for circus roles, and how today some people are now
making strides toward the leopard's conservation. He also describes
their rich symbolism, appearances in literature and film, and the
use of the leopard print in both haute couture and down-market
fashion.
Packed with compelling images of this amazing animal in action,
"Leopard" sheds new light on these gorgeous cats.
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