10/30 lecture

people and animals! domestication?

• different to plants because animals have humans

• there are also animals that you don’t want in the house - bats, roaches, termites, etc

animals are ecosystems engineers

• ex. beavers who build dams and this affects the water (ponds capture water)

  • this in turn attracts other animals

• ex. worms mixes up the topsoil, affects grass

food waste and place-making Ireland shell mound

• the shells were a form of food waste

• cow hides and animal skins

multispecies ethnography

• ethnography = the study of culture

human-animal mutualisms

• labor

  • ex. India plowing

  • animals BENEFIT from being fed/access to food (ex. threshing)

• wang et al flashback

  • pigs/wild boar

  • we now mainly eat domesticated animals, not animals like the pigs/wild boar

• diseases that originate in animals and can go to others

  • ex.H5N1 bird flu virus in livestock, COVID-19

  • 21:00 quote about intertwinement of animals and humans, prob don’t memorize

• urban nature

  • wild, tame, feral (domestic but has reverted to being on its own)

  • ex. pigeons, stray cats

  • some wild animals are scary/unusual in urban settings (ex. wild boar)

  • Canada; beavers are mak9ing dams that back up all the water, flooding a down. so people didn’t like this

  • food scraps

  • alothing on animals (ex. goat)

  • cats released in Chicago to combat rats

  • UCLA

    • squirrels

    • stone canyon creek

    • sage hill

    • santa monica mountains

connecting back to rome

• urban and wild areas with humans and animals

• roman trading world connected to arabians, and indian subcontinent too.

  • evidence: roman mosaics that depict foreign animals

• aesop’s fables

  • ant/grasshopper

  • aesop’s fables inspired children’s stories

    • ex. city mouse/town mouse/country mouse

reading

• MACKINNON et al: multispecies dynamics and the ecology of urban spaces in roman antiquity

  • 500 BC-500 AD (rome changes much during this 1k years)

  • Rome trade: extensive by land and sea

• animals during this time

  • commodity

    • animal counts

      • 60,000 pigs

      • 2,000 sheep and goats

      • 7,500 cattle

        • where do these remains go? there must be a crazy economy for desirable and undesirable parts

      • eating animals

        • recipes

          • pepper means that indian trade took place

        • mosaics reveal different food items

          • ex. unswept floor

      • vase painting

        • ex. fish purchasing

  • pets

    • mosaic

      • “Cave Canem” beware of dog

  • commensal

    • unwantingly hang out with you

• “Urban environments are both physical and cultural worlds that usher in a host of settings and circumstances for exploration of multispecies perspectives, wherein one might best view humans and animals interacting variously as both agents and participants. As regards physical alterations, investigation for urban settings in Roman antiquity shows that new niches can be created, or otherwise arise, for animals to inhabit.” (MacKinnon p. 180)