Search results for ""Author Barbara J. King""
The University of Chicago Press Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat
In recent years, scientific advances in our understanding of animal minds have led to major changes in how we think about, and treat, animals in zoos and aquariums. The general public, it seems, is slowly coming to understand that animals like apes, elephants, and dolphins have not just brains, but complicated inner and social lives, and that we need to act accordingly. Yet that realization hasn't yet made its presence felt to any great degree in our most intimate relationship with animals: at the dinner table. Sure, there are vegetarians and vegans all over, but at the same time, meat consumption is up, and meat remains a central part of the culinary and dining experience for the majority of people in the developed world. With Personalities on the Plate, Barbara King asks us to think hard about our meat eating though this isn't a polemic intended to convert readers to veganism. What she is interested in is why we've not drawn food animals into our concern, and, as part of that, just what we do know about the minds and lives of chickens, cows, octopuses, fish, and more. Rooted in the latest science, and built on a mix of firsthand experience (including entomophagy, which, yes, is what you think it is) and close engagement with the work of scientists, farmers, vets, and chefs, Personalities on the Plate is an unforgettable journey through the world of animals we eat. Knowing what we know and what we may yet learn what is the proper ethical stance toward eating meat? What are the consequences for the planet? How can we life an ethically and ecologically sound life through our food choices? We could have no better guide to these fascinatingly thorny questions than King, whose deep empathy embraces human and animal alike. Readers will be moved, provoked, and changed by this powerful book.
£20.68
The University of Chicago Press How Animals Grieve
Scientists have long cautioned against attributing familiar emotions to animals, arguing that it limits our ability to truly comprehend the lives of other creatures. Recently, however, things have begun to shift in the other direction, and anthropologist Barbara J. King is at the forefront of that movement, arguing strenuously that we can-and should-attend to animal emotions. With How Animals Grieve, she draws our attention to the specific case of grief, and relates story after story - from field sites, farms, homes, and more - of animals mourning lost companions, mates, or friends. The resulting book is both daring and down to earth, strikingly ambitious yet careful to acknowledge the limits of our understanding. Through the moving stories she chronicles and analyzes so beautifully, King brings us closer to the animals with whom we share a planet, and helps us see our own experiences, attachments, and emotions as part of a larger web of life, death, love, and loss.
£15.18