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Full-Text Articles in Other Anthropology

Animal Welfare And Individual Characteristics: A Conversation Against Speciesism, Marc Bekoff, Lori Gruen Sep 2016

Animal Welfare And Individual Characteristics: A Conversation Against Speciesism, Marc Bekoff, Lori Gruen

Marc Bekoff, PhD

It seems impossible for a human being not to have some point of view concerning nonhuman animal (hereafter animal) welfare. Many people make decisions about how humans are permitted to treat animals using speciesist criteria, basing their decisions on an individual's species membership rather than on that animal's individual characteristics. Although speciesism provides a convenient way for making difficult decisions about who should be used in different types of research, we argue that such decisions should rely on an analysis of individual characteristics and should not be based merely on species membership. We do not argue that the concept of …


Minding Animals, Minding Earth: Science, Nature, Kinship, And Heart, Marc Bekoff Sep 2016

Minding Animals, Minding Earth: Science, Nature, Kinship, And Heart, Marc Bekoff

Marc Bekoff, PhD

This paper emphasizes the importance of broadening behavioral, ecological, and conservation science into a more integrative, interdisciplinary, socially responsible, compassionate, spiritual, and holistic endeavor.2,3 I will stress the significance of studies of animal behavior, especially ethological research concerned with animal emotions, in which individuals are named and recognized for their own personalities and temperaments, for helping us not only to learn about the nonhuman animal beings (hereafter animals) with whom we share Earth, but also for learning about who we are, our place in Nature, our humanness. We can be best understood in relationship to others. I will also develop …


Naturalizing Anthropomorphism: Behavioral Prompts To Our Humanizing Of Animals, Alexandra C. Horowitz, Marc Bekoff Sep 2016

Naturalizing Anthropomorphism: Behavioral Prompts To Our Humanizing Of Animals, Alexandra C. Horowitz, Marc Bekoff

Marc Bekoff, PhD

Anthropomorphism is the use of human characteristics to describe or explain nonhuman animals. In the present paper, we propose a model for a unified study of such anthropomorphizing. We bring together previously disparate accounts of why and how we anthropomorphize and suggest a means to analyze anthropomorphizing behavior itself. We introduce an analysis of bouts of dyadic play between humans and a heavily anthropomorphized animal, the domestic dog. Four distinct patterns of social interaction recur in successful dog–human play: directed responses by one player to the other, indications of intent, mutual behaviors, and contingent activity. These findings serve as a …


Enforcing Wildlife Protection In China, Peter J. Li Jul 2016

Enforcing Wildlife Protection In China, Peter J. Li

Peter J. Li, PhD

Since China enacted the Wildlife Protection Law in 1988, its wildlife has been threatened with the most serious survival crisis. In the prereform era, wildlife was a neglected policy area. Serving the objective of reform, the Wildlife Protection Law upholds the “protection, domestication, and utilization” norm inherited from past policies. It establishes rules for wildlife management and protection. This law provides for penalties against violations. Yet, its ambiguous objectives, limited protection scope, and decentralized responsibilities have made its enforcement difficult. Political factors such as institutional constraints, national obsession with economic growth, shortage of funding, and local protectionism have made the …


China’S Bear Farming And Long-Term Solutions, Peter J. Li Jul 2016

China’S Bear Farming And Long-Term Solutions, Peter J. Li

Peter J. Li, PhD

No abstract provided.