Final Animals Exam

Social Construction of Science and Technology

• Scientific knowledge and technology are shaped by social, political, and cultural forces, not objective.
• Influenced by institutional agendas, political influences, cultural norms, and economic interests.
• Created through social processes and interactions.

Cognitive and Physical Constructions

• Cognitive: Constructions reflecting meanings in attitudes, values, and beliefs, found in texts and discourse.
  • Example: Species categorized as endangered or valuable.
• Physical: Embodied and enacted sources of meaning, found in technologies.
  • Example: Dams, hatcheries, and fishing gear.

Wilderness Concept Transition

• Pre-industrialization: Wilderness seen negatively as a wasted, savage space.
  • Represented lawlessness and chaos.
  • Biblical references reinforced negative views (e.g., Moses, Jesus).
• Late 1800s Shift:
  • Wilderness became a spiritual space due to its rarity.
  • Romanticized by authors in the 1850s.
  • Yellowstone created in 1872.
  • Seen as a refuge from human impact.

Native, Non-Native, and Invasive Species

• Non-Native and Non-Invasive:
  • Rainbow Trout
  • Brown Trout
  • Kokanee
• Non-Native and Invasive:
  • Brook Trout
  • Lake Trout
  • Carp

Willion Cronon

• There is no wilderness: saying wilderness = humans are not animals.
• Social construction of wilderness as a make-believe idea

The Absent Referent

• Separation of meat from the idea of a living animal.
• "The function is to keep our meat separated from any idea that she was once an animal."

Ecofeminism

• Connects exploitation of nature with the subordination of women.
• Feminizing the natural world leads to its exploitation.
• Analyzing this intersection reduces violence.
• Women are often seen as more connected to animals (e.g., veganism).
• Carol Adams: Women and nonhuman animals are separated from their subjectivity.

Boundary Work

• Drawing and blurring lines between humans and animals.
• Makes contradictory ideas seem normal.
• Nazi Germany used animal welfare laws and propaganda.
  • Framed animals as innocent and in need of protection.

Eugenics and Social Biology

• Artificially selecting traits for reproduction.
• Used to create distinctions among people.
• Inspired Nazi Germany's eugenics programs.
• US was first with the sterilization against Natives from 1924 -30s.

Chicago Slaughterhouses and Henry Ford

• Mass production of meat and animal exploitation.
• Inspired Ford's assembly line, leading to industrialization of animal consumption.
• Dehumanization of both humans and animals.

Cult Worship of Animals

• Nazi hunting parties focused on culling the weak, not killing the strongest.
• Animal-based identifications and marketing based white supremacy.

1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany

• Jesse Owens' wins disrupted racist ideology.
• Extra Credit: Mark Robinson (Jackie Robinson's brother) also won silver.
• Authors believe Social Darwinism, animal slaughter, and industrialization led to Hitler's mass murder.

Ethnological Expositions and Zoos

• 18th and 19th-century displays of people (e.g., Saartje Baartman, Ota Benga).
• Zoos represent control and dominance over animals and humans.

Thomas Malthus, Darwin, and Herbert Spencer

• Thomas Malthus: population grows faster than food supplies .
  • Those deemed useless don't deserve food.
• Darwin: Natural selection based on individual differences.
• Herbert Spencer: Social evolution and survival of the fittest.

Rick Scarce (Socially Constructing Salmon)

• Methods: Comparative analysis of historical documents, interviews, and participant observation.
• Cognitive Constructions: Social pressures influence biologists' views, framing salmon as utilitarian entities.
• Physical Constructions: Hatcheries create new salmon through physical constructions.