Animals, Society and Culture Lecture 13: Visual representation of animals 2013-14.

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.