Post on 17-Dec-2015
Animals, Society and Culture
Lecture 13: Visual representation of
animals 2013-14
Lecture outline
How the genre has changed and developed
Anthropomorphism and zoomorphism in wildlife films
The relation between scientific study of animals and their media representation – using Meerkat Manor as an example
Two types
Quests or expedition travelogue Coming of age narratives Shift from animals as objects,
through anthropomorphism to zoomorphism
Spectacle and melodrama as well as science and education
Chris, C (2006) Watching Wildlife, University of Minnesota Press
Early years
Difference between human and animal emphasised
Animals were objects Humans in control Men hunters, women their helpers Animals and non-white people
seen as resources to be exploited
Post-second world war Disney’s True Life Adventures Anthropomorphising, individualism,
family values Nature pristine, humans have no place
in nature Focus on predatory and reproductive
behaviour Coming of age stories http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3k-fkOtTDo
The Living Desert1953
Expedition type of film
Jaques Cousteau (1950s) Adventure engaged in by men David Attenborough also – collecting
specimens or searching for the exotic
Quest for a particular animal Animals objects of camera’s gaze Masculinist genre with few women
Animals as symbol ‘the stories the genre tends to tell are
ones reflecting particular, frequently conservative social values, with implications for our understanding not only of the environment, and of animal life, but also human racial, sexual and cultural difference. What is projected onto nature reveals the most urgent struggles of human culture’ (Chris, 2006:209).
Zoomorphism
Explaining human behaviour through apparently homologous animal behaviours
Sociobiology – emerged in 1970s Focus on mating, reproduction and
rearing of young
Sociobiology Men naturally promiscuous and
protective of their mates Women naturally nurturing and
monogamous Behaviour genetically programmed
not culturally constructed Wilson, E O (1975) Sociobiology Dworkin, R (1976) The Selfish Gene
1990s Theories of behavioural and evolutionary
genetics Genetically determined inequality between the
sexes The sociobiological discourse privileges ‘the
male sex drive and celebrates male aggression; naturalises the female who is choosy in her mate selection, fiercely devoted to offspring and otherwise subordinate; and assumes that heterosexual sexual behaviour is the only kind that counts. The wildlife genre embraced these assumptions.’ (Chris, 2006:166).
"Arriving“"Growing Up“"Finding Food““Living Together""Friends and Rivals""Talking to Strangers""Courting“"Continuing the Line"
Rape
Explained as strategy to maximise chances of genes being reproduced
A male reproductive strategy developed to overcome female choosiness
This idea taken up in wildlife programmes
‘Gay’ animals
Wildlife programmes rarely feature non-heterosexual behaviour
Same sex pair bonds and homosexual activity amongst animals fairly widespread
Prevailing generic formulas don’t permit non-procreative sexual behaviour
Use of animals Vehicle for understanding human
behaviour Model for how humans ought to behave Politics removed from films Animals and nature exist apart from
humans Representation of animals under
human control, animals used as symbols
Meerkat Manor M. Candea (2010) ‘I fell in love with
Carlos the meerkat’: engagement and detachment in human-animal relations’ in American Ethnologist, 37 (2): 241-258
Explores forms of sociality between humans and meerkats
Combination of detachment and involvement – inter-patience
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53wkmwpIGCA
Assemblage scientists observing and charting the
meerkat behaviour programmers interpreting and creating
a ‘true fiction’ on the basis of what the scientists tell them and what they see
meerkats themselves, going about their daily business but also interacting with scientists and programme makers
How did it come about? Collaboration between Cambridge
University scientists, Discovery channel personnel, meerkats
Studied cooperation amongst meerkats
Meerkat Manor uses ‘docu-soap’ genre Adventures of Whiskers, one of the
groups, and Flower, the group’s dominant female
Entertainment and education
Fostered popular interest in natural history
Imparted factual information about the animals
Drew on soap opera genre – heroes and villains, developed characters
Active participants
Meerkats are subjects who can be included in social relations rather than as objects, either actual or symbolic.
Puts animals, people and objects on the same level – Bruno Latour.
The idea of the social as an association of different entities in networks.
Detachment and engagement Detachment characteristic of science Engagement associated with
anthropomorphism, also with hunter-gatherer ontologies (Ingold)
Two forms of human-animal relations: Scientific study of animals striving for
objectivity Lighthearted soap opera like animal
documentary Combine detachment and engagement
Habituation
Meerkats habituated to presence of humans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnfK7nlY9AM
Meerkats and scientists maintain a proper distance
Similar forms of sociality amongst meerkats and researchers
Inter-patience
Creation of Meerkat Manor Scientists
Named meerkats Programme mixed up facts and stories,
knowledge and emotions, animals and people, was anthropomorphic
Producer of programme Enabled audience to empathise with
meerkats Not anthropomorphism, presenting real
behaviour
The animals’ contribution
Representation of what the meerkats were doing ‘It was the meerkats themselves who were, in a
literal sense, ‘anthropomorphic’ (human shaped) and …their anthropomorphism elicited the egomorphism of the viewers. The filmmakers’ role was not to manufacture this effect but to step back and allow this to ‘come across’’ (Candea, 2010:252)
Egomorphism – understanding an animal on the basis that it’s like ‘me’ rather than ‘human-like’
True fiction Meerkats delivered stories Somewhere in between the
meerkats and the producers the behaviour turned into story and animals into characters (253)
They were factual, scientifically accurate, but also made, they were true fiction
Meerkat agency Not just symbols ‘The hard-won, inter-patient work of
habituation allows the researchers to produce accounts of meerkat behaviour that inform the programme, but it also lays the basis for the camera operators to get up close and personal with the furry stars, who, in turn, get a chance to captivate audiences through their own scenarios.’ (254)
Summary Wildlife film two forms – expedition/quest and
coming of age tale Devoid of politics – seen as culturally universal –
but actually quite specific as promote certain forms of sexual relations, gender relations, race relations and particular views of nature – timeless and/or to be controlled.
Indicate changes in how we understand human-animal relations and in how animals are treated.
Now an increasing recognition that animals are active participants in creating these programmes – not simply symbolic and acted upon by humans.