When Species Meet
Whom do we touch when we touch a dog? How does this touch shape our multispecies world?
440 Pages, 6 x 9 in
- eBook
- 9781452913537
- Published: November 30, 2013
- Series: Posthumanities
- Paperback
- 9780816650460
- Published: November 26, 2007
- Series: Posthumanities
Details
When Species Meet
Series: Posthumanities
ISBN: 9781452913537
Publication date: November 30th, 2013
440 Pages
25
9 x 5
When Species Meet is a breathtaking meditation on the intersection between humankind and dog, philosophy and science, and macro and micro cultures.—Cameron Woo, publisher of Bark magazine
You are embarked on the Ark. The ship has wi-fi and emails. Lots of dogs but also baboons, sheep, and humans of uncertain status. No one knows exactly how to cohabit with everyone else. They are trying to find a way to co-train one another. It's our future and Noah is a woman. If we are to survive the Flood, we need her and her beasts.—Bruno Latour, author of We Have Never Been Modern
When Species Meet is more than a contribution, it is an event.—Isabelle Stengers
In 2006, about 69 million U.S. households had pets, giving homes to around 73.9 million dogs, 90.5 million cats, and 16.6 million birds, and spending more than 38 billion dollars on companion animals. As never before in history, our pets are truly members of the family. But the notion of “companion species”—knotted from human beings, animals and other organisms, landscapes, and technologies—includes much more than “companion animals.”
In When Species Meet, Donna J. Haraway digs into this larger phenomenon to contemplate the interactions of humans with many kinds of critters, especially with those called domestic. At the heart of the book are her experiences in agility training with her dogs Cayenne and Roland, but Haraway’s vision here also encompasses wolves, chickens, cats, baboons, sheep, microorganisms, and whales wearing video cameras. From designer pets to lab animals to trained therapy dogs, she deftly explores philosophical, cultural, and biological aspects of animal–human encounters.
In this deeply personal yet intellectually groundbreaking work, Haraway develops the idea of companion species, those who meet and break bread together but not without some indigestion. “A great deal is at stake in such meetings,” she writes, “and outcomes are not guaranteed. There is no assured happy or unhappy ending-socially, ecologically, or scientifically. There is only the chance for getting on together with some grace.”
Ultimately, she finds that respect, curiosity, and knowledge spring from animal–human associations and work powerfully against ideas about human exceptionalism.
One of the founders of the posthumanities, Donna J. Haraway is professor in the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Author of many books and widely read essays, including The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness and the now-classic essay “The Cyborg Manifesto,” she received the J. D. Bernal Prize in 2000, a lifetime achievement award from the Society for Social Studies in Science.
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