Shaving the Beasts
Wild Horses and Ritual in Spain
AUTHOR TALK, UCDAVIS CULTURAL STUDIES COLLOQUIUM
A vivid first-person study of a notorious equine ritual—from the perspective of the wild horses who are its targets
Wild horses still roam the mountains of Galicia, Spain. But each year, in a ritual dating to the 1500s called rapa das bestas, villagers herd these “beasts” together and shave their manes and tails. Shaving the Beasts is a firsthand account of how the horses experience this traumatic rite, producing a profound revelation about the durability of sociality in the face of violent domination.
"Deftly pushing against three-quarters of a century of ethnographic tradition, John Hartigan Jr. creates an earnest multispecies anthropology rich with methodological and theoretical promise. He decenters the human, entangles ethological and ethnographic method and first-person narrative, and invites us to imagine a truly multispecies social theory. The horses remain the focus amid the enticing and challenging assertions about how we could (should) be ‘doing’ anthropology with other-than-humans in the Anthropocene."—Agustín Fuentes, Princeton University
Wild horses still roam the mountains of Galicia, Spain. But each year, in a ritual dating to the 1500s called rapa das bestas, villagers herd these “beasts” together and shave their manes and tails. Shaving the Beasts is a firsthand account of how the horses experience this traumatic rite, producing a profound revelation about the durability of sociality in the face of violent domination.
John Hartigan Jr. constructs an engrossing, day-by-day narrative chronicling the complex, nuanced social lives of wild horses and the impact of their traumatic ritual shearing every summer. His story generates intimate, individual portraits of these creatures while analyzing the social practices—like grazing and grooming—that are the building blocks of equine society. Shaving the Beasts culminates in a searing portrayal of the inspiring resilience these creatures display as they endure and recover from rapa das bestas.
Turning away from “thick” description to “thin,” Hartigan moves toward a more observational form of study, focusing on behaviors over interpretations. This vivid approach provides new and important contributions to the study of animal behavior. Ultimately, he comes away with profound, penetrating insights into multispecies interactions and a strong alternative to humancentric ethnographic practices.
Deftly pushing against three-quarters of a century of ethnographic tradition, John Hartigan Jr. creates an earnest multispecies anthropology rich with methodological and theoretical promise. He decenters the human, entangles ethological and ethnographic method and first-person narrative, and invites us to imagine a truly multispecies social theory. The horses remain the focus amid the enticing and challenging assertions about how we could (should) be ‘doing’ anthropology with other-than-humans in the Anthropocene.
Agustín Fuentes, Princeton University
In this sympathetic account of Galician wild horses and cultural rituals, John Hartigan Jr. offers an important multispecies intervention into how we conceptualize sociality and subjectivity. His clear and lively prose captures the nuance of horse interactions and relationships, making this book a pleasure to read and teach.
Laura A. Ogden, author of Swamplife: People, Gators, and Mangroves Entangled in the Everglades
Shavings the Beasts makes its fascinating and creative subject matter highly approachable and teachable. Hartigan renders rich philosophical and theoretical considerations in a clear and compelling voice that can support diverse readers to engaging these ideas.
General Anthropology
Shaving the Beasts is an important study of one such threatened population of indigenous or wild/semi-wild/feral horses.
Anthrozoös
Contents
Introduction: Horse Sociality
1. Into the Field: Techniques of Observation
2. Bands: Social Life on the Range
3. Ritual Shearing: Dissolution and Chaos
Conclusion: Species-Local Analysis
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
