On the Human » Animals

One Man’s Meat: Further Thoughts on the Evolution of Animal Food Taboos

Jason King — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 01:42:12 +0000

Although meat is said to be the most highly prized category of food in the majority of human cultures, it is also, according to a recent ethnographic survey, “vastly more likely to be the target of food taboos,” than any other type of edible substance.[1] People throughout the world display strong aversions to killing and

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Going Forth and Multiplying: Animal Acclimatization and Invasion

Jason King — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 02:22:30 +0000

Professor Harriet Ritvo

People were on the move in the nineteenth century. Millions of men and women participated in massive transfers of human population, spurred by war, famine, persecution, the search for a better life, or (most rarely) the spirit of adventure. The largest of these transfers—although by no means the only one—was from

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Loaves, Fishes, and the Human Side of Ecosystems

Jason King — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:20:57 +0000

Professor Les Kaufman

Slow news days send hungry journalists back to the old springheads of mystery and metamorphosis: dark matter, how the brain really works, human cyborgs, life on other worlds. The nature of humanity’s relationship with Nature — the oldest campfire subject on the books, and kissing cousin to the meaning of life —

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Animal In Mind: People, Cattle and Shared Nature on the African Savannah

Jason King — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:25:05 +0000

Professor Vigdis Broch-Due

It is a commonplace that East African pastoralists like Turkana of Northern Kenya identify themselves with their animals. However it really goes far beyond that. To grasp not just the emotional intensity of Turkana bonds with their cattle but the ways in which their life projects are intertwined, is to feel the

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The Ethics of Captivity

Jason King — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 21:22:50 +0000

Though conditions of captivity vary considerably for humans and for other animals, two of the central philosophical issues that emerge in discussions of human imprisonment prove instructive in thinking through the ethical issues raised by captivity for non-humans — autonomy and dignity. When captives have their physical and immediate psychological needs met and are free from suffering, so they are not being harmed in those ways, we can we still ask if there something wrong with holding them captive.

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The Case for Animal Rights

Jason King — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:36:55 +0000

Some nonhuman animals resemble normal humans in morally relevant ways. In particular, they bring the mystery of a unified psychological presence to the world. Like us, they possess a variety of sensory, cognitive, conative, and volitional capacities. They see and hear, believe and desire, remember and anticipate, plan and intend. Moreover, what happens to them matters to them. Physical pleasure and pain—these they share with us. But also fear and contentment, anger and loneliness, frustration and satisfaction, cunning and imprudence.

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The Nature and Culture of Birds

Jason King — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:10:03 +0000

When it comes to birds, difference looms in classifications of “things that fly”—in particular at the most inclusive levels termed in scientific biological classification the class, order, and family. But might the nature of particular birds bring them into the spotlight for attention regardless of culture, setting them up for similar conception (discrimination, naming, specificity in taxonomy), even if perception inevitably is fundamentally cultural?

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Taking Life: Animals

Jason King — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:48:49 +0000

Is meat eating justified by the fact that millions of animals would never exist should no one care to eat them?

In Social Rights and Duties, a collection of essays and lectures published in

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Human Language—Human Consciousness

Jason King — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 03:58:34 +0000

The apparent differences between humans and apes are not biologically fixed, but they are biologically and culturally instantiated. Differences in maternal care patterns, which human and bonobo infants experience from the moment of birth forward, are responsible for the many of the behavioral distinctions that later emerge between the species. They are culturally instantiated and are open to change at any time. From these caregiver patterns emerge the different styles of human/ape consciousness.

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A Trans-Species Perspective on Nature

Jason King — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 19:47:24 +0000

A trans-species perspective is an all-encompassing stance towards nature that embraces the continuity and comparability of all species’ lives. It shapes the way we view ourselves in relation to other animals and involves changing our current model of those relationships from one of separation and condescension to one of communalism and respect. Given the mass extinctions, global destruction of habitat, environmental degradation, and continued mass exploitation of other animals, nothing short of a shift in human psychological perspective is needed to turn things around.

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