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Handbook of Historical Animal Studies
This chapter is in the book Handbook of Historical Animal Studies
JuliaHauserGlobalHistory1Introduction and OverviewThe field ofglobalhistory emergedduringthe 1990s asasuccessor to otherap-proachesto writingthe history of the world such as universal and world history,and asapartial critiqueofthem. Pre-enlightenment attemptsatwriting the historyof the world stronglytied in with theologyand wereaimed at making sense of thehistory of creation.¹Animals and plants weredeemed subordinateto humans inthe great chain of being,with humans considered the crowningglory of creation.Then again, not all humans werecreated equal from the perspective of universalhis-tory.Members of oral cultures outside Europe, supposedlyrepresenting the“child-hood”of humankind wereconsidered part of natural historyrather than of itshuman counterpart.²From the late eighteenth century onwards,anincreasing num-ber of European scientists, therefore, considered members of these cultures as occu-pyingaliminal zone between humans and animals.³In the course of the Enlightenment,natural history began to split off from“human”history,with the latter taking an increasingly secular turn. New approachesto worldhistory focused on mankind alone while excludingnature and those parts ofhumanityallegedlycloserto it.Inthis kind of historiographythat evolvedalong withnineteenth-century imperialism, the idea of progress came to be considered centralto history,and animalsand members of allegedly“primitive”cultures as being out-side of it.⁴It was onlywith the development of“big history”since the 1970sthatna-turere-entered narrations of the history of the world.⁵Ferreyrolles, Gérard. On the History of Universal History.InUniversal Historyand theMaking of theGlobal,Hall Bjørmstad, HelgeJordheim, Anne Régent-Susini (eds.). NewYork, NY andLondon: Rout-ledge,2019,12–23.Fabian,Johannes.Time and the Other.How AnthropologyMakesits Object.NewYork, NY:ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1983.Bourke,Joanna.What itMeans to be Human. Reflections from 1791tothe Present.London:Virago,2011.Conrad, Sebastian.What isGlobal History.Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press,2016,27–28.McNeill,William andJohn Robert McNeill.TheHumanWeb: ABird’s-Eye View ofWorldHistory.NewYork, NY:Norton,2003;Spier ,Fred.TheStructureofBig History. From theBigBang UntilToday.Amsterdam:Amsterdam University Press, 1996;Christian, David,Cynthia StokesBrown andCraig Benjamin.Big History: Between Nothing and Everything.NewYork, NY:McGrawHill Education,2014.The animal natureofhumans israrelystressed in theseworks.Foranexception, seeYuvalNoahHarari,who, nonetheless, emphasizes the alleged superiority of humans.Harari,YuvalNoah.Sapiens.ABrief HistoryofHumankind.London: Harvill Secker,2014.https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110536553-018
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

JuliaHauserGlobalHistory1Introduction and OverviewThe field ofglobalhistory emergedduringthe 1990s asasuccessor to otherap-proachesto writingthe history of the world such as universal and world history,and asapartial critiqueofthem. Pre-enlightenment attemptsatwriting the historyof the world stronglytied in with theologyand wereaimed at making sense of thehistory of creation.¹Animals and plants weredeemed subordinateto humans inthe great chain of being,with humans considered the crowningglory of creation.Then again, not all humans werecreated equal from the perspective of universalhis-tory.Members of oral cultures outside Europe, supposedlyrepresenting the“child-hood”of humankind wereconsidered part of natural historyrather than of itshuman counterpart.²From the late eighteenth century onwards,anincreasing num-ber of European scientists, therefore, considered members of these cultures as occu-pyingaliminal zone between humans and animals.³In the course of the Enlightenment,natural history began to split off from“human”history,with the latter taking an increasingly secular turn. New approachesto worldhistory focused on mankind alone while excludingnature and those parts ofhumanityallegedlycloserto it.Inthis kind of historiographythat evolvedalong withnineteenth-century imperialism, the idea of progress came to be considered centralto history,and animalsand members of allegedly“primitive”cultures as being out-side of it.⁴It was onlywith the development of“big history”since the 1970sthatna-turere-entered narrations of the history of the world.⁵Ferreyrolles, Gérard. On the History of Universal History.InUniversal Historyand theMaking of theGlobal,Hall Bjørmstad, HelgeJordheim, Anne Régent-Susini (eds.). NewYork, NY andLondon: Rout-ledge,2019,12–23.Fabian,Johannes.Time and the Other.How AnthropologyMakesits Object.NewYork, NY:ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1983.Bourke,Joanna.What itMeans to be Human. Reflections from 1791tothe Present.London:Virago,2011.Conrad, Sebastian.What isGlobal History.Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press,2016,27–28.McNeill,William andJohn Robert McNeill.TheHumanWeb: ABird’s-Eye View ofWorldHistory.NewYork, NY:Norton,2003;Spier ,Fred.TheStructureofBig History. From theBigBang UntilToday.Amsterdam:Amsterdam University Press, 1996;Christian, David,Cynthia StokesBrown andCraig Benjamin.Big History: Between Nothing and Everything.NewYork, NY:McGrawHill Education,2014.The animal natureofhumans israrelystressed in theseworks.Foranexception, seeYuvalNoahHarari,who, nonetheless, emphasizes the alleged superiority of humans.Harari,YuvalNoah.Sapiens.ABrief HistoryofHumankind.London: Harvill Secker,2014.https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110536553-018
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface and Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Writing History after the Animal Turn? An Introduction to Historical Animal Studies 1
  5. Part I: Timelines
  6. Pre-Domestication: Zooarchaeology 21
  7. Domestication: Coevolution 37
  8. Post-Domestication: The Posthuman 53
  9. Part II: Regional Approaches
  10. American Studies 69
  11. African Studies 85
  12. Australasian and Pacific Studies 101
  13. (East) Asian Studies 117
  14. Part III: Historical Fields
  15. Social History 133
  16. Cultural History 147
  17. Political History 165
  18. Economic History 181
  19. Diplomatic History 197
  20. Global History 213
  21. Public History 227
  22. Urban (and Rural) History 243
  23. History of Science 259
  24. History of Ideas 275
  25. Part IV: Historical Approaches
  26. Environmental History 293
  27. Historical Animal Geographies 309
  28. (Post)Colonial History 325
  29. Feminist Intersectionality Studies 341
  30. Material Culture Studies 357
  31. Visual Culture Studies and Art History 375
  32. Multispecies Ethnography 393
  33. History of Emotions 409
  34. Part V: History of Human-Animal Interactions
  35. History of Pets 425
  36. History of the Zoo 439
  37. History of Circus Animals 457
  38. History of Animal Iconography 471
  39. History of Veterinary Medicine 493
  40. History of Experimental Animals and the History of Animal Experiments 509
  41. History of Agriculture 525
  42. History of Animal Slaughter 539
  43. History of Huntin 555
  44. History of War 571
  45. History of Animal Fights and Blood Sports 587
  46. History of Animal Collections/Animal Taxonomy 603
  47. List of Contributors 619
  48. Index 625
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110536553-018

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface and Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Writing History after the Animal Turn? An Introduction to Historical Animal Studies 1
  5. Part I: Timelines
  6. Pre-Domestication: Zooarchaeology 21
  7. Domestication: Coevolution 37
  8. Post-Domestication: The Posthuman 53
  9. Part II: Regional Approaches
  10. American Studies 69
  11. African Studies 85
  12. Australasian and Pacific Studies 101
  13. (East) Asian Studies 117
  14. Part III: Historical Fields
  15. Social History 133
  16. Cultural History 147
  17. Political History 165
  18. Economic History 181
  19. Diplomatic History 197
  20. Global History 213
  21. Public History 227
  22. Urban (and Rural) History 243
  23. History of Science 259
  24. History of Ideas 275
  25. Part IV: Historical Approaches
  26. Environmental History 293
  27. Historical Animal Geographies 309
  28. (Post)Colonial History 325
  29. Feminist Intersectionality Studies 341
  30. Material Culture Studies 357
  31. Visual Culture Studies and Art History 375
  32. Multispecies Ethnography 393
  33. History of Emotions 409
  34. Part V: History of Human-Animal Interactions
  35. History of Pets 425
  36. History of the Zoo 439
  37. History of Circus Animals 457
  38. History of Animal Iconography 471
  39. History of Veterinary Medicine 493
  40. History of Experimental Animals and the History of Animal Experiments 509
  41. History of Agriculture 525
  42. History of Animal Slaughter 539
  43. History of Huntin 555
  44. History of War 571
  45. History of Animal Fights and Blood Sports 587
  46. History of Animal Collections/Animal Taxonomy 603
  47. List of Contributors 619
  48. Index 625
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