ANST-UA 200/SOC-UA 970/ENVST 610-UA

ANIMALS AND SOCIETY

Spring 2017; Tuesday and Thursday 11:00-12:15

Professor Colin Jerolmack

Email: jerolmack@nyu.edu
Office location & hours: 295 Lafayette St., 4th Floor; Tues./Thurs. 9:30-10:45 & by appt.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course analyzes the ways that animal and human lives intersect.
Specifically, it examines how relationships with animals both reflect and shape social life, culture, and
how people think about themselves. We will explore the myriad and contradictory positions that animals
occupy in society [e.g., as pets, pests, mascots, and food] and deconstruct the social origins of these
seemingly natural categories. We will also take a grounded look at what actually happens when humans
and animals interact, which sheds new light on the nature of human and animal consciousness.
Fundamentally, students will learn how the roles that animals take on in our lives, and the ways that we
think about and relate to them, are inherently social processes that are patterned by geography, culture,
class, gender, and so on. Central questions include: How do ideas about, and relationships to, animals
vary across time and space? How and why did pets become honorary members of the American family?
Why are some animals, but not others, granted moral status and legal protection in society? How do
humans and animals coordinate interaction without language?
The theories and substantive topics that this course covers are varied and complex; and the
readings are demanding. In both our class discussions and the written assignments, students must be able
to critically analyze and compare the materials. Attendance of, and participation in, lectures is thus
essential; and attendance will be taken. Requirements include six short writing assignments and a final
essay exam (see “grading” below). All readings are on NYU Classes except:

Required Texts [available online and on reserve at Bobst]:

1. Jonathan Safran Foer. 2009. Eating Animals.
2. Michael Schaffer. 2010. One Nation, Under Dog.
*Purchasing used books online saves you money. Bring assigned readings with you to class every time.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: “The College is a “community of the mind.” Its students, faculty, and staff all
share the goal of pursuing truth through free and open inquiry, and we support one another’s endeavors in
this regard. As in any community, membership comes with certain rights and responsibilities. Foremost
among these is academic integrity. Cheating on an exam, falsifying data, or having someone else write a
paper undermines others who are “doing it on their own”; it makes it difficult or impossible to assess
fairly a student’s interest, aptitude, and achievement; and it diminishes the cheater, depriving him or her
of an education. Most important, academic dishonesty is a violation of the very principles upon which the
academy is founded. Thus, when students enter the College, one of the first things that they are asked to
do is to sign a community compact, recognizing these principles of academic integrity. For this reason
also, violations of these principles are treated with the utmost seriousness.” For more information on this
policy, and sanctions, visit: http://cas.nyu.edu/page/ug.academicintegrity.

*Disability disclosure statement: Academic accommodations are available to any student with a chronic,
psychological, visual, mobility, learning disability, or who is deaf or hard of hearing. Students should
please register with the Moses Center for Students with Disabilities at 212-998-4980. NYU's Henry and
Lucy Moses Center for Students with Disabilities 726 Broadway, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10003-6675
Telephone: 212-998- 4980 Voice/TTY Fax: 212-995- 4114 Web site: http://www.nyu.edu/csd
*Disclaimer: The instructor reserves the right to change any aspect of this syllabus, including readings,
assignments, and due dates.
 COURSE OUTLINE
I: LOOKING AT ANIMALS
Week 1: Jan. 24 & 26 Bryant: “Zoological Connection;” Noske: “The Animal Question”
Week 2 (1st class): Jan. 31 Berger: “Why look at Animals?;” Gibson: A Reenchanted World

II: THINKING WITH ANIMALS

Week 2 (2nd class): Feb. 2 Levi-Strauss: Totemism (p. 1-14, 72-91); Angelo & Jerolmack: “The
Looking-glass of Nature”
Week 3: Feb. 7 & 9 Geertz: “Deep Play;” Jerolmack: “Animals Practices, Ethnicity, and
Community”Bell: Childerley; Emel: “Wolf Eradication”
Week 4: Feb. 14 & 16 Fine & Christoforides: “Dirty Birds and Filthy Immigrants;” Arluke &
Sanders: “Boundary-work in Nazi Germany”Harris: “Cows and Pigs”
st
Week 5 (1 class): Feb. 21 Descartes: “Animals are Machines;” Irvine: If You Tame Me (33-56)

III: LIVING WITH ANIMALS

Week 5 (2nd class): Feb. 23 Ritvo: “Pet-keeping;” Irvine: If You Tame Me (12-32, 57-77)
Week 6: Feb. 28 & Mar. 2 Schaffer: One Nation, Under Dog

IV: COMMUNICATING WITH ANIMALS

Week 7: Mar. 7 & 9 Sanders: “Action Speaks Louder Than Words;” Irvine: If You Tame Me
(147-171) Mechling: “Banana Cannon;” Jerolmack: “Humans,
Animals, and Play”
*******************************SPRING BREAK*********************************
V: WORKING WITH ANIMALS
Week 8: Mar. 21 & 23 Solot & Arluke: “Animal Dissection;” Ellis & Irvine: “4-H and
Dominionism” Lynch: “Laboratory Culture;” Arluke & Sanders:
“Primate Labs”

VI: PLACING ANIMALS

Week 9: Mar. 28 & 30 Philo & Wilbert: “Animal Spaces;” Scarce: “Wolves at the Door”
Jerolmack: “How Pigeons Became Rats;” Wolch: “Zoopolis”

VII: EATING ANIMALS

Week 10: Apr. 4 & 6 Foer: Eating Animals
Week 11: Apr. 11 & 13 Foer: Eating AnimalsPachirat: Every Twelve Seconds

VIII: ABUSING ANIMALS

Week 12: Apr. 18 & 20 Ascione: “Children Who Are Cruel to Animals;” Arluke et al.: “Animal
Abuse and Antisocial Behavior”readings on Michael Vick.

IX: VALUING ANIMALS

Week 13: Apr. 25 & 27 Arluke & Sanders: “The Sociozoologic Scale;” Jasper: “Sentiments,
Ideas, and Animals”Jamieson: “Against Zoos;” Regan: “The Case
for Animal Rights”

Week 14: May 2 & 4 Review Sessionin-class final exam

 GRADING

There will be no midterm. Grades will be based on performance in four areas:

10% Participation: Class participation includes, of course, what the student does when he/she is
in class. Students are expected to have read the material, reviewed notes from the previous class,
and be ready and willing to discuss the readings and contribute to class debates. Students are
expected to attend to the comments of other students and the instructor. Those students who are
disruptive will be removed from class (if you are too tired to stay awake in class, don’t come;
turn off your cell phones!). On randomly selected days attendance sheets will be passed out,
and attendance will be a substantial part of your final grade for the course.

20% Essays: Four half-page (single-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, one inch margins)
essays will be assigned (5 points each). These essays must be turned in one week after the date
assigned. Papers may be turned in early but will receive one grade deduction for each class
period they are late. Each half-page essay will be in response to a question that determines
whether the student has critically read the assigned material. To receive a top grade, essays
should relate the reading to class discussion. Essays longer than one page, or not in accordance
with font and margin guidelines, will not be read by the instructor or graded.

40% Papers: Two argumentative papers, each two pages (single-spaced, 12 point Times New
Roman font, one inch margins) in length—the form and topics to be discussed and assigned in
class. The first paper will count for 15% of the overall grade and will be due somewhere around
the middle of the semester. The second paper will count for 25% of the overall grade and is due
in the penultimate week of class. It can be difficult to write an argumentative paper—it is not
merely a reflection of having read the material but of being able to critically analyze the most
pertinent themes, construct an opinion supported by evidence from the readings and class, and
present your argument in a coherent and logical fashion. Keep in mind that presenting a
powerful argument is much harder to do in a short format. Papers longer than two pages, or not
in accordance with font and margin guidelines, will not be read by the instructor or graded.

30% Final exam: On the last day of class (May 4) students will take an in-class final exam in
which they will choose two essay questions from among three topics addressing and comparing
the main themes of the course. Students will have the length of the class period to respond to the
questions, which may cover any and all reading and discussion topics from the entire semester.
 COURSE BIBLIOGRAPHY
Angelo, Hillary and Colin Jerolmack. 2012. “Nature’s Looking-glass.” Contexts 11(1): 24-29.

Arluke, Arnold, J. Levin, C. Luke, and F. Ascione. 1999. “The Relationship Between Animal
Cruelty to Violence and Other Forms of Antisocial Behavior.” Journal of Interpersonal
Violence 14: 245-253.

Arluke, Arnold and Clinton Sanders. 1996. Regarding Animals. Philadelphia, PA: Temple
University Press.

Ascione, Frank R. 1994. “Children Who are Cruel to Animals.” Anthrozoos 6(4): 226-247.

Bell, Michael Mayerfeld. 1994. Childerley. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Berger, John. 1980. “Why Look at Animals?” Pp. 3-28 in About Looking, edited by J.
Berger. New York: Vintage Books.

Bryant, Clifton D. 1979. “The Zoological Connection: Animal-related Human Behavior.” Social
Forces 58: 399-421.

Descartes, Rene. 1649. “Passions of the Soul.”

Ellis, Colter and Leslie Irvine. 2010. “Reproducing Dominion: Emotional Apprenticeship in the
4H Youth Livestock Program.” Society & Animals 18:21- 39.

Fine, Gary Alan and Lazaros Christoforides. 1991. “Dirty Birds, Filthy Immigrants, and the
English Sparrow War: Metaphorical Linkage in Constructing Social Problems.” Symbolic
Interaction 14: 375–391.

Foer, Jonathan Safran. 2009. Eating Animals. New York: Little, Brown & Co.

Geertz, Clifford. 1973. “Deep Play.” In The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.

Gibson, James William. 2009. A Reenchanted World. New York: Holt.

Harris, Marvin. 1974. Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches. New York: Vintage Books.

Irvine, Leslie. 2004. If You Tame Me. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Jamieson, Dale. 1985. “Against Zoos.” Pp. 108-117 in In Defense of Animals, edited by Peter
Singer. New York: Basil Blackwell.

Jasper, James. 1999. “Sentiments, Ideas, and Animals: Rights Talk and Animal Protection.” Pp.
147-157 in Ideas, Ideologies, and Social Movements, edited by Peter Coclanis and Stuart
Bruchey. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Jerolmack, Colin. 2009. “Humans, Animals, and Play: Theorizing Interaction When
Intersubjectivity is Problematic.” Sociological Theory 27(4): 371-389.

Jerolmack, Colin. 2008. "How Pigeons Became Rats: The Cultural-Spatial Logic of Problem
Animals." Social Problems 55(1): 72-94.

Jerolmack, Colin. 2007. "Animal Practices, Ethnicity and Community: The Turkish Pigeon
Handlers of Berlin." American Sociological Review 72(6): 874-894.

Levi-Strauss, Claude. 1962. Totemism. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Lynch, Michael E. 1988. “Sacrifice and the Transformation of the Animal Body into a Scientific
Object: Laboratory Culture and the Ritual Practice in the Neurosciences.” Social Studies
of Science 18(2): 265–289.

Mechling, Jay. 1989. “’Banana Cannon’ and Other Folk Traditions between Human and
Nonhuman Animals.” Western Folklore 48(4): 312-323.

Noske, Barbara. 1993. “The Animal Question in Anthropology.” Society and Animals 1(2): 185-
190.

Pachirat, Timothy. 2011. Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of
Sight. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Philo, Chris and Chris Wilbert, eds. 2000. Animal Spaces, Beastly Places. New York: Routledge.

Regan, Tom. 1985. The Case for Animal Rights. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Ritvo, Harriet. 1987. “The Emergence of Modern Pet-keeping.” Anthrozoos 1(3): 158-165.

Sanders, Clinton. 2003. “Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Close Relationships between
Humans and Nonhuman Animals.” Symbolic Interaction 26(3): 405–426.

Scarce, Rik. 2005. “More Than Mere Wolves at the Door: Reconstructing Community Amidst a
Wildlife Controversy.” Pp. 123–46 in Mad About Wildlife, edited by A. Herda- Rapp and
T. L. Goedeke. Boston, MA: Brill.

Schaffer, Michael. 2010. One Nation, Under Dog. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

Solot, Dorian and Arnold Arluke. 1997. “Learning the Scientist’s Role: Animal Dissection in
Middle School.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 26(1): 28-54.

Wolch, Jennifer and Jody Emel, eds. 1998. Animal Geographies. New York: Verso.