Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis - Volume 125, Issue 4, 2012

History is by definition a history of mankind, or at least it seems so. Animals are assumed to play a subordinate part in human life: they are present, but merely as objects in the margin and without a story of their own. In recent years there has been a loud plea for change: animals move from a remote corner to become visible in historical writing. Or, as the American historian of science Harriet Ritvo stated a few years ago, the h Read More

It is clear that Human-Animal Studies have to take into account changes over time. Our attitude towards e.g. domestic animals cannot be studied without understanding how this aspect of human behaviour evolved through time, or how domestication started in prehistoric times. As a consequence, historical sources alone are insufficient to accomplish this task. Archaeology, and more precisely the study of animal rem Read More

The relationship between man and cat in the Low Countries between 600 and 1800 could be described as kaleidoscopic, but also contradictory, problematic, and ambiguous. Even in the early Middle Ages people came to appreciate the usefulness of cats, but from the twelfth century they began demonizing the animal. At the same time, in both literature and the visual arts, the cat came to be associated with negative quali Read More

François Valentyn (1666-1727) was a Dutch Calvinist clergyman and author of Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën (Old and New East Indies, 1724-1726), which was one of the most comprehensive books about Asia published in the eighteenth century. In the section on Amboina, Valentyn devotes a large part of his text to natural history. From the selection of his material it is clear that his text is aimed at a public of amateurs, while h Read More

In the late nineteenth century European scientists increasingly campaigned for the protection of nature. Many of them did so by associating the natural world with explicitly national and local values. The focus of these protectors was on plants, which were literally rooted in local ground. Protection of nature, so these scientists argued, was protection of the Heimat. Alongside national initiatives, the years 1890-1940 also wi Read More

In the mid twentieth century Dutch dairy cattle were a dual purpose breed that produced not only milk but also good quality meat. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, the breed was changed into a specialized milk producer. Meanwhile, whereas cattle breeding had until then been considered an art, to be practiced only by practical breeders, scientists took on an increasingly important role. This paper analyses the dynamic interac Read More

Eric Hobsbawm’s description of the twentieth century as an age of extremes is perhaps even more appropriate to animal societies than to human. Demographic changes were dramatic: rapidly declining populations in the wild and a corresponding increase in industrial livestock production. Excessive exploitation of farm animals fuelled social resistance and gave rise to profound questions about the moral status of animals. T Read More